“...WHY DOES THE EUROPEAN COUNCIL NOT MAKE BINDING DECISIONS?” THE TASK OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION
17 of the EU Treaty, the Commission “shall exercise coordinating, executive and management functions.” Furthermore, “a legislative act may delegate to the Commission the power to adopt non-legislative acts of general application to supplement or amend certain non-essential elements of the legislative act” (TFEU, Article 290(1)). Much more important, since it gives the Commission a leading role in Union affairs, is the rule according to which: “Union legislative acts may only be adopted on the basis of a Commission proposal, except where the Treaties provide otherwise.” In other words, the Union legislator described above is powerless to act, unless the Commission submits a proposal for action!
the Commission has a good chance to convince enough national representatives to form the necessary majority to adopt the proposal. But there also is very often someone who wants to introduce changes or proposes new (modifiying) legislation. These whishes have to be accommodated and there, partly, lays the answer to the question raised at the onset: why all these changes and who is responsible? Why all these changes and novelties anyway? The answer is simple: EU law is mainly economic law, which, by definition, is extremely evolutive, as the financial events of the last weeks have shown. Therefore the existing rules must constantly be adapted, supplemented or replaced.
WORKING TOGETHER
FUTURE IN THE MAKING
One might retort that when you open the Official Journal of the European Union, in which all the Union acts are published, you encounter hundreds of Commission directives, regulations and decisions, without speaking about the numerous “recommendations”, “opinions”, etc. Are these not Union binding acts?
And here we come back to the thousands of officials from the Member States who come to Brussels for meetings: what kind of meetings? In fact, as was also mentioned already, they prepare the decisions to be taken by the Union legislator (Council and Parliament). They do this in close cooperation with the European Commission, which has prepared proposals for legislative acts. The purpose of these meetings is to find a common ground, so that the European Parliament and the Council [of ministers] can take the necessary decisions.
The institutional structure described above is far from perfect, but...it works, and that’s, after all, what counts. The EU has given sufficient proof of its dynamism and adaptability: when one thinks of it: twenty-seven independent States building their future together, harmonising their laws and regulations, giving up some of their most precious national prerogatives (think about the euro) and progressing towards a closer and closer Union.
We find the answer, once more, in the European Treaties. According to Article
And when there are twenty-seven representatives around the table,
But then what about these thousands of Union officials who work and live in Brussels, do they not issue legislative acts? The answer simply is “no”. That is not the task of the European Commission: the latter has more important things to do, among others, and in the first place, make sure that the Treaty rules are correctly applied by all: governments, institutions, undertakings and individuals. Furthermore, it executes the budget and ensures the Union’s external representation. It is, what is known in all the Member States, as the ‘Executive’, i.e. the second branch of any democratic State structure, the first one being the legislative, and the third one being the Judiciary, i.e. the European Courts (Court of Justice, the General Court and the Civil Service Tribunal). The latter make sure that the law is observed and understood by all.
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Isn’t this History in the making?
LEGAL LIGHTS • ISSUE 19