Essay writing

Topic: Which EU institution is in your opinion the most powerful and why?

Mayur Panchal (AIO)

Roll no: 284833.

The European Union (EU) is currently made up of 28 countries, known as Member States, which together form the largest voluntary and peaceful block of countries in the world. Many people mistakenly view the European Union as a single body whilst in fact; the EU consists of a number of different institutions that together carry out activities on behalf of the Member States. There are many institutions but the main five being the Commission, the Council of Ministers (also called the Council of the European Union), the European Council and the European Parliament and the European Court of Justice. It is really tough to decide who is leading the European Union?

The European Union is having a strong institutional framework, consisting of many and different institutions. And the singed treaties gives the institution different rights and attributions. The European Union is having four main important institution which are, the Parliament, the Council, the Commission and the Court of Justice. According to the founding treaties, the monopoly over the power of initiative was considered as a guarantee of impartiality and expertise over the policy suggestions that were submitted as the “institutional triangle” of the European Union, constituted of the Commission, the Council of Ministers, and, with a gradually growing role over the years, the European Parliament. All this three institutions represent different interests in the European Union: the European Parliament represents the interests of European Citizens, the European Commission serve the interests of the European Union, the Council of the European Union serve the member state governments. The European Commission is the EU's executive body. It represents the interests of the European Union as a whole not the interests of individual countries. Similar to a state, the EU has a legislative branch (Parliament + Council), executive branch (Commission) and independent judiciary (Court of Justice).

The powers of the EU institutions have been laid down by founding treaties negotiated and ratified by member countries. In policy areas not covered by the treaties, national governments are free to exercise their own sovereignty. The 2 most important treaties are, “Treaty of Rome (1958), which created what became known as the European Economic Community (EEC)” and “Maastricht Treaty (1993), also known as the Treaty on European Union”. Others are the Single European Act (1987), which launched the European single market, and the Treaties of Amsterdam (1999) and Nice (2003). The most recent is the Treaty of Lisbon (2009), which amended some of the previous treaties.

So, all the individual institution is serving the interest of different parties to European Union. In the composition of European Union, it is essential to give a glance to the original attributions of the European commission as given and stated in treaties. This will help us to know and to explain why the European commission was describe as the core of the European institutions triangle. Among the important attributes there is two most important attributes which are assigned in treaties are: European Commission has the right of legislative initiative (agenda setting) and the role of “guardian of the treaties”

For all new legislations its proposal is needed and the European Commission has got the legislative initiative. Not only the proposal of all new legislation but it’s monitors compliance with legislation and with the Treaties, and administers common policies is also needed for all new legislations. Accordingly, the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament can only legislate on the basis of a Commission proposal. The Commission applies its power of initiative by building on three main tasks:

1. Exclusive right of initiative - the Commission was supposed to be able to adopt legislative proposals that would be based on the most advanced national legislation or on innovative regulation that pursued the interest of the entire Union.

2. The power to amend proposals - after having adopted a legislative proposal, the Commission has the right to amend it during the decision-making process, it can facilitate the adoption of a legislative act by the Council if a majority of Member States are ready to agree with the content of a proposed measure.

3. Not only this The Commission is independent of national governments, and represents the interests of the EU as a whole. It has four essential functions: proposing EU policies & legislation, ensuring the terms of EU treaties & laws are respected (‘guardian of the treaties’), managing & implementing EU policies and the budget for them, representing the EU around the world in matters falling under the Commission's responsibility.

The power to eliminate proposals - this is possible when, first the proposal is no longer relevant because of external evolutions; second, there is a serious risk that the legislator adopts an act that goes beyond the objective of the proposal; third, there is a serious risk that the legislator depreciate the content of the proposal.

The role of “guardian of the Treaties”, intending to guarantee that both the Treaties and secondary legislation are correctly applied. With this role the European commission can start judicial procedures and take member states and other institutions before the court of justice. It investigates treaty abuses. It can, for instance, institute legal proceedings against Member States or businesses that fail to comply with European law and bring them before the European Court of Justice.

Furthermore, the task to implement legislation through the adoption of executive measures, except for specific cases where the Council of Ministers maintains this power for itself. The executive responsibilities are wide, it manages the European Union’s budget and negotiates trade and competition with other states. Today the era of European integration is going on, under which European Commission

is playing role of neo-functionalist. Under which, Regional integration is a process in which neighboring states enter into an agreement in order to upgrade cooperation through common institutions and rules. The objectives of the agreement could range from economic to political to environmental, although it has typically taken the form of apolitical economy initiative where commercial interests are the focus for achieving broader socio-political and security objectives, as defined by national governments.

The Commission shall generally sustain, manage and develop policies and shall represent the common interest. It often contributes with impulses towards the further development of the EU. It shall ensure that the EU can attain its goal of an ever-closer union of its members. Due to its right of initiative, the Commission has acted as the driving force in European integration. The Commission is often called the “motor’’ or the “beating heart of the community”. It has always been the most important political force for integration and federalism. An example can be seen in the completion of the European single market at the beginning of 1993. The Commission also played a central role for creation of the economic and monetary union and the initiatives to reinforce the economic and social cohesion between the regions of Europe. The Commission embodies, to a large degree, the personality of the Union. The Commission is “a curious hybrid of legislature, an executive and law enforcer”

Even though, according to all above, the European Commission is the most powerful institution of the institutional triangle, the limits of the Commission's authority are clearly defined, the European Parliament can make use of a few instruments to control the Commission, like a motion of censure, Comitology and implementation of a new legislation. Comitology refers to a set of procedures through which EU countries control how the European Commission implements EU law. Broadly speaking, before it can implement an EU legal act, the Commission must consult, for the detailed implementing measures it proposes, a committee where every EU country is represented. The committee provides an opinion on the Commission's proposed measures. These opinions can be more or less binding on the Commission, depending on the particular procedure specified in the legal act being implemented.

While taking into consideration that European commission have certain essential rights and attributes but still European commission control by EU council and Parliament. In addition to control by national governments through the committees, the Commission's implementing powers are also subject to supplementary checks by the European Parliament and EU Council. Which have a: Right of information – all proposed Commission action discussed in the committees is simultaneously disclosed to Parliament and Council. Right of scrutiny – where the Commission action relates to a legal act passed by co-decision , Parliament and/or Council are entitled to indicate that the action would exceed the Commission's implementing powers. The Commission is then obliged to review its proposed action in the light of this input and decide whether to maintain, amend or withdraw it

In the conclusion the three important institutes European parliament council of Europe and European commission these three institutions produce through the "Ordinary Legislative Procedure" (ex "co-decision") the policies and laws that apply throughout the EU. In principle, the Commission proposes new laws, and the Parliament and Council adopt them. The Commission and the member countries then implement them, and the Commission ensures that the laws are properly applied and implemented. European commission is responsible to initiate the legislative laws also not only initiate but also take care of that the laws are properly implemented and applied the affairs. In a way that I want to put into consideration while putting focus on European Commission as a powerful institution among others, that the function of European Commission has a large part to defending my views that the it is a powerful institutions. Still I cannot argue just on this basis that European commission is powerful institution

among others as all institutions are interdependent on each other. As I stated above that in establishing legislative law there is a part of role which was played by parliament and European council. At the same time European commission is control by council and parliament as well as committees established by national governments also. So, taking into consideration all the facts that how EU works, than one can defend by saying European Commission is not powerful institution. But to take into account the function of European Commission and how the whole European community works I can see the role of European commission in EU as executive branch which is also a core part of triangle of institutions i.e. the framework of main three institutions (Parliament, Council and Commission). So in my opinion it’s a tough to defend that European Commission is the most powerful institutions among other institutes but the European Commission is an important and powerful supranational actor from a neo-functionalist perspective. Also On the other hand, liberal inter-governmentalizes downplay its role, and define it as an agent of the member states with little or no influence over the intergovernmental bargaining process. In addition, an analysis of the Commission’s power in relation to the structure and procedures of comitology, showed that the Commission retains its power in certain policy areas which are under the advisory and management committees even while it sees its power constrained by the regulatory committee. So, the European Commission is powerful Institute in certain perspective as I discussed but firmly it is tough to challenge that European Commission in the only institute which is powerful amongst the other institutions of European Union.