The European Commission is the central institution of the European Union. It has the privilege of initiating new EU legislation, and oversees the implementation of legislation that has been approved by the Council of Ministers (and in some cases, the European Parliament). The Commission is composed of twenty Commissioners, one of whom functions as President (currently Jacques Santer, a Christian Democrat from Luxembourg). Each member state is entitled to at least one Commissioner; larger states can have a maximum of two Commissioners. The Commission and its President are appointed for five-year periods with the unanimous decision of the fifteen member state governments. The European Parliament may withdraw the mandate of the Commission as a whole, but it cannot dismiss individual Commissioners. The Commission oversees the work of the EU's 15,000 civil servants in the 23 directorates in Brussels. It defines itself as the “institution whose vocation is the completely impartial representation of the general interest.”1
Not all of the Commissioners and their respective directorates have equal political power. For example, DGIII (Industry) or DGXV (Internal Market) are much more influential in shaping EU policies than are DGV (Social Affairs) or DGXI (Environment). These inequalities within the Commission are very beneficial to industry, which has good access to the directorates for industry and internal market, whereas the environmental movement and trade unions work primarily with the less powerful directorates for social affairs and environment.
The Council of Ministers is the legislative body of the European Union. All directives and regulations proposed by the European Commission must have final approval by the Council – that is, by Ministerial representatives from all member states. To accomplish this task, the Council convenes in different forms; depending on the issue, it may convene as the Agricultural Council, the Environmental Council, the Economic and Financial Council (ECOFIN), and so forth. Meetings are prepared by working groups of the Council and the Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER, composed of national diplomats). In some fields (like taxation) Council decisions must be unanimous; in others, there is qualified majority voting where the votes of ministers from different member states carry varying weights. In what is a grave part of the »democratic deficit« of the European Union, the proceedings of the Council of Ministers are not open to the public.
COREPER, the Committee of Permanent Representatives, adds yet another non-transparent dimension to the EU decision-making apparatus. COREPER ambassadors from each member country are vested with considerable amounts of decision-making power by national ministers, who are generally too busy to spend time in Brussels. These relatively anonymous ambassadors, which have never included a woman among their ranks, have set up a true “old boy's network” in which they “negotiate big deals, often informally over lunch.”2 Every day, the COREPER ambassadors and their deputies split into some 20 working group meetings on various subjects. Thus, according to The Economist, “about 90% of Council decisions are taken before ministers ever get entwined.”3
The European Council convenes at least twice a year to decide on the medium and long term political goals of the European Union. It does not decide on directives and regulations, which are the domain of the Council of Ministers. The European Council is composed of the fifteen heads of state or government plus the President of the European Commission. The Presidency of the Council rotates between each of the fifteen member states in six month periods. The Netherlands currently holds the Presidency, to be followed by Luxembourg in the second half of 1997.
Several significant European Council meetings are referred to in this publication:
The European Parliament has 626 members. Each member state has a fixed number of representatives in the Parliament based on the size of its population. Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are chosen in national direct elections, held every five years. Unlike national parliaments, the European Parliament has no real legislative power and cannot take legislative initiatives. Only in limited policy areas (the ‘first pillar’, where the so-called co-decision procedure4 applies), can the European Parliament veto Council decisions. In most cases, the final decision lies with the Council of Ministers and takes place in secret.
There are many other institutions in the EU structure, such as the Court of Justice, the Committee of the Regions, the Social and Economic Committee or the Social Dialogue.5
1. European Commission, Intergovernmental Conference 1996, Commission Opinion, Brussels - Luxembourg, 1996, p.20. |back to text|
2. “Doing the Splits”, The Economist, 8 March 1997. |back to text|
3. Ibid. |back to text|
4. Co-decision is one of the decision-making procedures set up in the Maastricht Treaty. It allows the European Parliament to suggest amendments to Council proposals. If the Council does not agree, the Parliament is entitled to a second reading. In the case that they stick to their amendments, a conciliation procedure begins and lasts a maximum of three months. |back to text|
5. The Social Dialogue was set up following with the Single European Act in 1986 and reinforced with the 1991 Maastricht Treaty. The aim is bring together the social partners on the European Union level (the employers’ confederation UNICE, the trade union umbrella ETUC and the CEEP, the public sector confederation). The common positions reached become the starting point of the Commission proposals on social policy. Until now, the main success of the Social Dialogue has been the directive on parental leave. |back to text|