Introduction to EU Policies and Institutional Architecture

1
Introduction to EU Policies and Institutional
Architecture

• European Commission
• Lecture IV

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Main characteristic

• Representing Community interests supranational
  institution, reduction of govermental infuence
• Guardian of the Treaties

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Composition

• Since 2004 - one member per MS 27 commissioners
• Before 2004 20 members of the Commission (the
  big countries have two members)
• Article 213 of the EC Treaty
• The number of Members of the Commission may be
  altered by the Council, acting unanimously
• Only nationals of Member States may be Members
  of the Commission.
• The Commission must include at least one
  national of each of the Member States, but may
  not include more than two Members having the
  nationality of the same State.

RF Number of Commissioniers will be reduced to
15
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Barroso Commission (2004-2009)

• Margot Walltsröm (SV) Institutional relations
  and communication strategy
• Gunter Verhagüen (DE) Enterprise and Industry
• Jacques Barrot (FR) Transport
• Siim Kallas (ET) Administrative Affairs, Audit
  and Anti-fraud
• Franco Fraittini (IT) Justice, Fredom and
  Security
• Viviane Reding (LUX) Information Society and
  Media
• Stavros Dimas (EL) Environment
• Danuta Hübner (PL) Regional Policy
• Joaquím Almunia (ES) Economic and Monetary
  Affairs
• Joe Borg (Malta) Fischeries and Maritime Affairs
• Daria Gybauskalité(LT) Financial Programing and
  Budget
• Janez Potocnik (SL) Research

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• Markos Kyprianou (Cyprus) Health
• Jan Figel (SK) Education, Training and Youth
• Olli Rehn (FI) Enlargement
• Louis Michel (BE) Development and Humanitarian
  Aid
• László Kovács (HU) Taxation and custom Union
• Neelie Kroers (NL) Competition
• Marian Fischer Borel (Denmark) Agriculture
• Benita Ferrero-Waldner (A) External relations
• Charlie McCreevy (Irleand) Internal Market
• Vladimir Spidla (CZ) Employment, Social policy
• Peter Mendelson (GB) Trade
• Andris Piebals (LV) Energy
• Meglena Kuneva (BG) Consumer Protection
• Leonard Orban (RO) Multilingualism

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Nomination procedure

• Commission is chosen for 5 years
• Council nominates the president of the Commission
  
• EP accepts
• Council accepts in the common agreement with the
  president of the Commission, the list of the
  proposed Commissioners (their list made with
  accordance with the MS)
• The list of proposed Commission members is sent
  to the EP
• EP accepts (or not) the whole Commission after
  the hearings of the candidates (but can block the
  whole commission when does not accept only one of
  the candidates (Buttiglione case))
• Council approves

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President

• the political guidance
• decides on internal organisation in order to
  ensure that it acts consistently, efficiently and
  on the basis of collegiality.
•  shall allocate the responsibilities incumbent
  upon the Commission among Members, may reshuffle
  the allocation of those responsibilities during
  the Commission's term of office.
• The Members of the Commission shall carry out the
  duties devolved upon them by the President under
  his authority.
• shall appoint Vice-Presidents from among its
  Members, after obtaining the approval of the
  College,
•  A Member of the Commission shall resign if the
  President so requests, after obtaining the
  approval of the College.
• Jose Manuel Barroso
• (born 1956, graduated in law (Lisbon, Geneva),
  academic career, in 1980 started his political
  career in Social Democratic Party, in 2002 Prime
  minister of Portugal)

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Commissioners

• Status
• Privileges and immunities
• Renewable term of office (e.g. Gunter Verhagüen)
• Independency
• Commissioners can not seek nor take instructions
  from any government or from any other body
• shall refrain from any action incompatible with
  their duties
• may not engage in any other occupation, gainful
  or not
• entering upon their duties they shall give a
  solemn undertaking that, both during and after
  their term of office, they will respect the
  obligations arising therefrom and in particular
  their duty to behave with discretion.
• In the event of any breach of these obligations,
  the Court of Justice may, on application by the
  Council or the Commission, rule that the Member
  concerned be, according to the circumstances,
  either compulsorily retired in accordance with
  Article 216 or deprived of his right to a pension
  or other benefits in its stead (Madame Cresson
  case, C-432/04, Commission vs. Edith Cresson)

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End of mandate

• Principle
• Apart from normal replacement, or death, the
  duties of a Member of the Commission shall end
  when he resigns or is compulsorily retired.
• Demission
• Commissioner can be dismissed by the ECJ
• (article 216 of the EC Treaty)
• If the Commissioner does not fulfils the
  conditions required for the performance of his
  duties or if he has been guilty of serious
  misconduct, the Court of Justice may, on
  application by the Council or the Commission,
  compulsorily retire him.
• (article 217 (4) of the EC Treaty)
• A Member of the Commission shall resign if the
  President so requests, after obtaining the
  approval of the College.
• Political responsibility - Resignation of the
  whole Commission
• (Santer Commission resignation in 1999)

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Structure and organisation of work

• Administrative and technical tasks
• 27 DG
• Administrative staff
• (eurocrats)

• Political responsibility
• The College of
• Commissioners

Commissioners cabinets
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Directorates General a(at the head of DG General
Directors)

• SANCO
• INFSO
• TREN
• TRADE
• DEV
• ENLARG
• RELEX
• PRESS
• BUDG
• DIGIT
• SCIC
• ADMIN
• IAS
• DGT

• ECFIN
• AGRI
• COMP
• EAC
• ENTR
• ENV
• TAXUD
• JLS
• MARKT
• FISH
• REGIO
• RTD
• JS

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e.g.

• Commissioner Siim Kallas ? DG IAS (Internat
  audit), ADMIN (Administration), DIGIT (Digital
  media)
• Commissioner Olli Rehn ? DG ENLARG
• DG TREN ? commissioner Jacques Barrot
  (transport)
• ? commissioner Andris Pigbalis
• (energy)

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Eurocrats European civil servants

• 25 000 of peoples working in European Commission
• European civil servants
• Temporary agents
• Principle of national diversity
• Working languages (DE, FR, EN)
• Status
• Reforming services
• How to become a European civil servant ?
• European Personnel Selection Office
• Competition

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Functions of the European Commission

• Controle (I)
• Takes part in decision making proces (II)
• Executive (III)
• External relations (IV)
• Article 211 of the EC Treaty
• In order to ensure the proper functioning and
  development of the common market, the Commission
  shall
• ensure that the provisions of this Treaty and the
  measures taken by the institutions pursuant
  thereto are applied,
• formulate recommendations or deliver opinions on
  matters dealt with in this Treaty, if it
  expressly so provides or if the Commission
  considers it necessary,
•  have its own power of decision and participate
  in the shaping of measures taken by the Council
  and by the European Parliament in the manner
  provided for in this Treaty,
• exercise the powers conferred on it by the
  Council for the implementation of the rules laid
  down by the latter.

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Controlling function

• MS (art. 226 of the EC Treaty)
• Council and European Parliament
• (e.g. Com. Vs. Council concerning penal
  sanctions for the breaches of the environmental
  law)
• How?
• Article 284
• The Commission may, within the limits and under
  conditions laid down by the Council in accordance
  with the provisions of this Treaty, collect any
  information and carry out any checks required for
  the performance of the tasks entrusted to it.

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European Commission the guardian of the
Treatiesarticle 211something in between ....
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Types of violations when Member States fail to
fulfil the obligation under the Treaty ?

• Failure to implement the directive (Francovich
  and Bonifraci 1991)
• Forbidden measures protecting markets of Member
  States (Commission v. UK 1982. Commission v.
  Germany 1987)
• State fails to respond to the Commission request
  for information (Commission v. Netherlands
  1982)
• Member State acts in the field of the exclusive
  competences of the EC (Commission v. Ireland
  2006)
• Failure of the legislative of Member State to
  enact the act prepared by the government
  (Commission v. Belgium 1970)
• Local authorities breach the EC law (Fratelli
  Constanzo 1989)
• National courts deliberately do not apply the EC
  law
• State inaction in the face of illegal activity of
  the private parties (Commission v. Ireland
  1982,Commission v. France 1997)

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ProcedureProcedure initiated by the Commission
- article 226 of the EC Treaty

• Informal administrative stage
• Formal administrative stage (letter of formal
  notice, then reasoned opinion)
• Judicial stage (Commission may apply for interim
  measures)
• e.g. Polish Rospuda case

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Decision taking

• Important role in the co-decision procedure
  (inter institutional trilogue)
• Some legislative powers
• (article 86 (3) of the EC Treaty state aid to
  the undertakings providing services of general
  economic interest)
• The exclusive direct legislative iniciative
• important role in the pre-legislative
  procedure
• initiating public debate (how? Green books,
  even blogs of the commissioners)
• informing the national parliaments

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Legislative iniciative
Adoption of the proposal by the college
Resume
Inter-DG consultations
Consultations DG-level
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Executive

• Every day execution of EC measures (art. 211 )
• Commitology procedure (article 202 of the EC
  Treaty)
• Exercice by the Commission its task to implement
  the EC law on the EC level
• Three kinds of the committees (all composed with
  representative of the MS and Commission)
• Advisory committees (give opinions)
• Management committees (if measure adopted by the
  Com. Is not in acordance with the opinion of the
  mc it have to be refered to the Council )
• Regulatory committees ( if measures is not in
  accordance with the committees opinion, Com. Must
  refer it to the Council and EP)
• Regulatory committees with scrutiny (only for the
  acts adopted in co-decision, Council can oppose
  the adoption of a measure and EP keep informed
  and can use the power of veto )

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• Execution of the bugdet
• Articles 274 and 280 of the EC Treaty
• Commission prepares the project of the budget for
  the EU
• Commission is responsible for the execution of
  the bugdet, it the final rapport after the
  execution of the budget
• Commission is responsible to fight with the fraud
• OLAF antifraud office within Commission
  controlling how money are spent

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External functions

• Negotiation of the treaties in the name of the EC
  (art. 300)
• EC competences to conclude international
  agreements
• Multilateral treaties
• Bilateral treaties
• Mixed treaties (association agreements)
• Mandate from the Council

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• External services of the EC
• EC as an International organization has ius
  legationis
• Background
• originally set up essentially to represent the
  European Commission in trade negotiations (GATT)
  and in some industrialized countries
• and to undertake development co-operation
  activities under the Yaoundé and Lomé Conventions
  (trade preferences with former colonial
  countries),
• has evolved over time to reflect the growing
  ambition and capacity of the European Union in
  external relations.

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History

• first diplomatic mission in London in late 1955
• entry into force in 1967 of the treaty merging
  the executive institutions ? the new single
  Commission took over the existing delegations
• in the course of the following decades set up
  delegations in all the major capitals and seats
  of International Organisations in the world
• a network of delegates was created to implement
  co-operation and partnership agreements concluded
  with countries or groups of countries
• recently, most of them received the full status
  of diplomatic mission
• the growing importance of external representation
  the increasing number of tasks conferred upon
  delegations the Commission in 1994 decided to
  establish a Unified External Service, a single
  management system for all its Delegations

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Structure

• Delegations of the External Service, are
  hierarchically a part of the Commission
  structure, (DG RELEX) but in practice serve all
  European Union
• There are 118 Delegations in third countries and
  5 Delegations (in Geneva, New York, Paris, Rome
  and Vienna) at centres of international
  organisations (OECD,OSCE,UN and WTO)
• Interactions with the embassies of MS there
  shall be no competition, their respective roles
  and responsibilities are generally well defined
• The task of the Delegations, beyond the
  representation of Community interests, is one of
  co-ordination and co-operation in the interests
  of projecting the image of a Union, which is
  active, imaginative and truly united.

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Staff(about 4.900 officials, contractual staff
and local agents)

• Mainly eurocrats
• Training policy
• Career planning
• Mobility within European institutions

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Tasks

• presenting, explaining and implementing EU policy
  (trade, external aid)
• analyzing and reporting on the policies and
  developments of the countries to which they are
  accredited  and
• conducting negotiations in accordance with a
  given mandate.

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Seminar

• Commission experts or politicians?
• Commission discretionary power and real
  influence on the integration
• Case study