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Free 2.1 Law Essay

European Institutions 1 "The European Union (EU) is a family of democratic countries, committed to working together,......(which) ...has delivered half a century of stability, peace and prosperity." Examine the veracity of this statement and analyse what role, if any, the Commission has played in the EU that may have contributed to the securing of this "stability, peace and prosperity".

The EU can be described as a reaction to the hard lessons learned from the Second World War that has grown continuously over a period exceeding fifty years. From BENELUX to the continental phenomenon that now stretches into the old Eastern block, the EU is now fast becoming one economic monster that is set to rival the Super Power of America.

This transition from a war torn collection of independent States to the current unity that now prevails is portrayed on the European Union website homepage with the above statement. The image sets a scene of perfection that will be challenged throughout this paper. It's 'veracity' will be mainly analysed through the work of the Commission via the extent of its contribution to the 'stability, peace and prosperity,' of the European Union. Part One will identify the Commission in terms of, what it is, what its roles are, how it is organised and how this fits in with the other institutions. Part Two will then analyse the historical contribution of the Commission made to, 'stability, peace and prosperity.'

A. What is the Commission?

This European Institution is an independent body that is responsible for promoting EU policies. Article 211 (EC) provides that:

"…In order to ensure the proper functioning and development of the common market, the Commission shall:

As an impartial body, it therefore acts between the other various institutions by participating with both, the European Council, the Parliament and the European Court of Justice via petitioning of financial sanctions of Member States on occasions of their breach of Treaty obligations.

This identification of the Commission's overall political placement in the scheme of EU administrative procedure shows that this institution is the organ that is designed to epitomise the concept of 'Community' that is integral to the EU concept. The very fact of its existence is conclusive proof of the commitment to a family ethos of togetherness that has been demonstrated by EU Member States for over half a century It's makeup consists of 25 members from all of the Member States and they are chosen on the basis of political independence . The concept of the European Commission is therefore that of a representative, executive body that ensures the interests of all member states.

B. Discussion of the roles of the Commission, pros and cons.

There are four main roles of the Commission. Three of these are discussed in detail below but the fourth role, relating to the Commission's representation of the EU on the International Forum, is less relevant to analysis of the above statement. This is for the reason that the statement praises the EU as a collection of States working together and therefore expressly requires analysis of the Commission with regard to internal EU workings. However, it does have to be said that the Commission's ambassadorial role is essential to the promotion of the EU's relationship with the international community and related aspects of the promotion of international peace, stability and prosperity.

1. The proposal of legislation to both Parliament and the European Council

This 'right of initiative' means that it is the sole job of the Commission to draft proposals for the implementation of new legislation. These are then presented to the European Parliament and the Council, which collectively form the legislative wing of the European Union.

This power is also granted under Article 211 of the EU Treaty:

"…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"

The obvious statement of "matters dealt with in this Treaty" relate to such provisions as, to name but a few, free movement of persons , goods and competition law . These policies that act to promote peace, stability and prosperity are all specific to the interests of the EU at large and there is no focus on any one Member State. With this in mind, the Commission makes proposals that would be best served at Community level and leaves certain areas, such as income tax, education, and health, in the hands of each of the Member States. This principle of subsidiarity a key feature of the EUs successful stability since membership in no way signifies the complete relinquishment of sovereignty. Joining the EU is therefore a far less daunting prospect!

Practical application of this role is however not without imperfections. The Commission actively carries out this duty to formulate proposals for future legislation by maintaining close links with pressure groups and two key advisory Committees, namely, the European Economic and Social Committee, which is composed of trade union representatives and employers, and the Committee of the Regions which consists of local and regional authority spokespeople. However, with all this interaction, the Commission can still be considered as slow to propose many key areas that afford a great deal of support across the EU. These include, anti-age discrimination, that began with Article 13 of the Treaty of Amsterdam, which awarded the EU, in particular the Commission, the opportunity to take measures to fight discrimination on the basis of Age. The European Community Action Program was set up at this time to promote the measurements under directives relating to race and equal employment opportunities, the latter of which contains anti-ageism provisions however the benchmark deadline set for ratification of these measures is set at October 2006, a whole six years after the implementation of the Directive and nine years since the insertion of anti-age discrimination provisions in Article 13 of the Amsterdam Treaty!

A counter argument to this would be that it is most likely the administrative process that is to blame for any slow implementation of proposals to the Parliament and the Council. It is widely known that speed of administration is a problem within the EU and it does not only affect the work of the Commission since, for example, the case load of the ECJ continues to rise . Further to this, it is clear that the recent vast expansion of EU Membership into Eastern Europe continues pose a great threat of administrative nightmares for all institutions of the EU. One excellent response is that the Commission was well prepared for the increase in membership and removed the two-commissioner representation tradition for some states . There are now twenty-five Commissioners from each of the twenty-five Member States

Another issue is that decisions made regarding the subject matter of proposals are made by non-elected Commissioners. While this alarming fact is soothed by the realisation that all proposals must reach the approval of Parliament, whose MEPs are elected, there is still uncertainty in this matter since the Commission does submit draft legislation when making proposals. The result is that any moves to create stability, peace and prosperity on the part of the Commission, have to an extent been at the price of democracy.

2. The management and implementation of EU policies and the EU budget

The Executive role of the Commission is supervisory to the extent that it oversees the work of Member State authorities in the implementation of EU policies and programs that are legislated by the EU Council and the EU Parliament.

(a) Policies

Competition is an example of the type of policies that are managed by the EU. In this instance the Commission has the role of supervising mergers and ensure against financial assistance practices by Member State Governments . It may therefore seem that the Commission interferes in the activities of Member States but in reality, the maintenance of policies creates a safeguard against more harmful grievances in the future and is therefore a key practice for the delivery of stability, peace and prosperity.

(b) Programs

The nature of EU programs varies greatly as they can range from international student exchange initiatives such as the ERASMUS program, to urban re-generation strategies under the umbrella of URBAN . The key feature of programs such as these is that they are clear examples of the EUs social agenda. With education as an integral of the latter, this represents strong moves in the direction of stability and peace through heightened awareness of the cultures of the other Member States, facilitated by the opportunity to live abroad. The latter is a prime example of prosperity, which is predicted to be of particular importance for the urban development of former Warsaw Pact States. In the past, initiatives such as this were at the forefront of development for those Member States with less prosperous pasts, including the original war torn States and of course Spain in the aftermath of rule under General Franco .

(c) The EU budget

Together with the Court of Auditors, the Commission is committed to healthy financial management although the power to manipulate the budget does not lie exclusively in the hands of the Commission alone since it is the role of the EU Parliament to analyse and approve the annual report of the Auditors before granting the Commission the right to implement the budget. Despite this it is still largely the job of the Commission to ensure that the budget is administered smoothly, which is essential to facilitate goals of prosperity, stability and peace. However, historically, the reputation of the Commission on the administration of the budget has been shaky at best with climactic allegations of fraud in 1999 concerning the French Prime Minister and former Commissioner Edith Cresson. Since then a "zero tolerance policy," has helped to restore the Commission's reputation .

3. The enforcement of European Law in association with the European Court of Justice (ECJ)

(a) Powers of investigation and the procedure under Article 226

The Commission is seen as the "guardian of the treaties" whereby the Commission has the power to investigate possible infringements of Treaty provisions such as competition and transport infringement . As an aid to this power, the Commission has additional rights to collect information and all entities such as companies, private individuals and Member States are obliged to cooperate with the exercising of these powers. Negotiations are made between the Commission and the offending party whereby warnings will be issued to prevent infringement. Where this fails the Commission has the power to exercise a repressive function under Article 226, and bring the matter before the ECJ.

(b) The 'arbitrator-resembling' role of Article 227 in out-of-court settlements

Member States can raise matters under Art 227 of the EC Treaty but, before a State can make a complaint to another state before the ECJ, there requires to be an attempt to resolve the matter before the Commission. However, despite the ability for the Commission to release a reasoned opinion in such circumstances, the aggrieved Member State can insist on proceeding to litigation however usually the Commission will set out a reasoned opinion as part of the infringement procedure, which if unsatisfactory to the loosing State, can then be challenged before the ECJ. There are therefore two questions that can be raised in connection with the statement of stability, peace and prosperity.

The first is whether the Commission is an effective investigator of possible treaty breaches and the second is whether the Commission is an effective "arbitrator" of disputes between Member States. As to the former, the number of Article 226 petitions far exceeds those under Article 227 and this bodes well for the reputation of the Commission as a pro-active enforcer. With regard to the latter, it is felt that the increase in ECJ case over the years and an equally overstretched Commission gives rise to the suggestion that there ought to be a new extended "arbitration" wing of the Commission that will be capable of processing and settling cases quickly.

Conclusion

Realistically, it is unfair to analyse the above statement with exclusive reference to the Commission since, as the executive wing, this institution forms, at best, a mere third of the columns that constitute the institutions of the EU and therefore only paints a third of the picture for the struggle towards peace, prosperity and stability. This paper demonstrates that the overall ethos and function of the EU is conceptually sound, and, as with all administrative bodies, it is not completely immune to possible problems of fraud and, more commonly, procedural delay. For its part the Commission has, historically, clearly contributed to the peace, prosperity and stability of the EU but with increasing workloads, initiatives for reform such as an exclusively arbitral wing for the processing of disputes, would not be unwelcome.

Bibliography

Legislation

EU Treaty (Treaty of Nice, 2001)
The Racial Equality Directive 2000/43/EC
The Employment Equality Directive 2000/78EC

Case Law

Case 141/78 France v United Kingdom [1979] ECR 2923

Articles

See H. Brandlmaier and C. Delpero, "EU must tackle illegal logging in own borders, says WWF" 30th March 2005, at http://www.panda.org
P Jeney, "Victim of Its Own Success - the EU Court in Need of Reform" available at http://www.eumap.org/journal/features/2002/aug02/eucourtreform/
European Commission Publication, "URBAN in Seville" (June 2002)
R Kovar "La Commission, gardienne des traits" (1974) pp3-33

Text Book Publications

J Peterson and M Shackelton, "The Institutions of the European Union" (Oxford University Press, 2002)
K P E Lasok "Law and Institutions of the European Union," (Butterworths, 7th edition, 2001)

Internet Resources

www.eu.daad.de
http://europa.eu.int
www.politics.co.uk

 

 

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