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The Legal Dimension of EuropePart 1: EU Decision-Making Principles: Loyalty, Conferral, Subsidiarity and
Proportionality
Outline
- EU-Decision making principles (IV): Proportionality Principle
- The Commission’s Right of Initiative
- The Citizens Initiative
- The EU’s Decision Making Procedures: an Introduction
- Special Legislative Procedures: Consent and Consultation
- The Ordinary Legislative Procedure in detail (art 294 TFEU)
- BREXIT
EU-Decision making principles (IV): Proportionality Principle
- When the Commission is proposing a regulation it has a particular aim in mind – that should
be what the directive is about. Commission cannot include other situations or subjects: it
should have a separate directive and shouldn’t go beyond what is necessary to legislate
- “Under the principle of proportionality, the content and form of Union action shall not
exceed what is necessary to achieve the objectives of the Treaty”
- “Laid down in Art. 5(4) TEU. More detailed rules in Protocol 2”
Commission’s Right of Initiative
- Commission has the exclusive right of initiative
(Green paper= policy document by the Commission where it sets out ideas and invites
stakeholders to participate in the discussion to make legislation more effective
White paper = Commission will launch legislative action and already put ideas in the white
paper what a proposal should look like. Then invites stakeholders to see if they can agree
with the ideas / also uses white papers if the Commission wants the Union to take a step
forward – Europe 27 - )
- Solidarity clause: if another state is under terrorist attack and needs help from other member
states, the Commission can propose legislative action to assist other member states
(exceptional situation, not a common situation) -> judicial cooperation in criminal matters
and police cooperation
- The Council takes the final decision (mostly together with the EP). Commission is in
possession of the ball: it’s the Commission who decides when it will come up with a
legislative proposal and what this proposal looks like
The Citizen’s Initiative
- The Citizen’s Initiative is a call to the European Commission to initiate legislation (must be
supported by at least 1 million signatures of EU citizens in 7 member states)
- Does not oblige the Commission to come up with legislative proposals on the basis of
citizens’ proposals
- Citizen’s initiative must be registered with the Commission after which they have one year to
collect the required signatures.
- If signatures are collected:
o European Commission organizes a meeting with the initiators
, o EP will organize a public hearing
- Problems with refused initiatives, EX: Singing the European Anthem in Esperanto: lacks a
legal basis
- EX: Stop vivisection: to stop animal testing for developing medication – Commission has not
adopted any legislation because at the moment they don’t feel that there are technological
alternatives to animal testing. Instead the Commission organized a conference where all
scientists working in this area were invited to try to come up with a solution but that was the
best they could offer
- Then why the Citizen’s Initiative? It gives people a voice and enables them to communicate
with the Parliament and the Commission
The EU’s Decision Making Procedures: an Introduction
- More power to the parliament
- EC Treaty (1957): Consultation procedure
o Virtually no role for the parliament regarding legislative tasks
- Single European Act (1986): Co-operation procedure
o Parliament got the right of amendment. But still it’s the Council that in the end
adopted the proposal: still no legislative powers for the Parliament
- EU Treaty (1992): Co-decision procedure
o Limited to 12 policy areas, but cooperation with Commission in legislative procedure
- Nowadays, some things have changed:
o Co- operation procedure is dropped (Parliament has the right of amendment when it
comes to co-decision but not as a separate procedure)
o Co- decision was laid in the Ordinary Legislative Procedure: common way of adopting
legislation
o Consent Procedure & Consultation procedure is now called ‘Special Legislative
Procedure’
Special Legislative Procedures: Consent and Consultation
- Consent procedure: used for special and specific situations: The Council has to obtain the EP’s
consent before certain decisions are taken. Parliament may accept or reject a proposal but
cannot amend it (EX: Enlargement art 49 TEU, art 50 TEU)
- Consultation procedure: Council must consult the EP before voting on the Commission
proposal and take its views into account. It is not bound by the Parliament’s views. (EX: art
252 TFEU, art 3332 TFEU, non-mandatory instruments, especially recommendations and
opinions)
Ordinary Legislative Procedure in detail (art. 294 TFEU)
- Commission proposal: the Council and the EP (European Parliament) are equals
- The procedure has four stages: first reading, second reading, conciliation, third reading
- Each stage can be concluded with the adoption of the final text of the legislation (75% is
already adopted in the first reading, therefore the other readings are only necessary when
the proposal is not accepted)
- The proposal can only be rejected at the end of the second reading or after the conclusion of
the conciliation stage
- The Commission can withdraw the proposal at any given time
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