INSTITUTIONS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

Institutionally, the European Union is a hybrid of international and supranational organizations. In an international organization, each nation keeps its independ­ence, whereas in a supranational organization, nations yield their sovereignty to the common organization. The hybrid character of the EU is best seen in its institutional structure. Its most powerful institutions, the Council of Ministers and the European Council, tend to act as though the European Union were an inter­national organization. On the other hand, the behavior of the European Com­mission, which is also a powerful body, corresponds to a large extent to a supranational organization.

3S2 WESTERN, CENTRAL, AND EASTERN EUROPE

^Council of Ministers

JThe Council of Ministers is considered the legislature of the European Union. The governments of the 12 member countries send 1 minister to the council meetings. The particular minister sent depends on the issue under debate. The Council of Foreign Ministers—also called the General Council—is considered to be at the highest level. It deals not only with foreign policy issues but also with general matters such as changes in the various treaties on which the European Union is based. For other matters, the corresponding ministers come together;

for agricultural matters, for example, the ministers of agriculture would meet. Meetings of the Council of Ministers usually take one or two days. The chair rotates every six months among all member countries. The Council of Ministers meets relatively often. In 1991, for example, it met 83 times, 15 times at the level of foreign ministers, 13 times at the level of agriculture ministers, and 12 times at the level of economic and finance ministers. The remaining meet­ings were held by the ministers for environment, research, labor, industry, fish­ing, transport, education, telecommunication, energy, developing aid, consumer protection, culture, justice, and health.² This long list illustrates the broad range of topics discussed by the Council of Ministers. In addition to the 83 ordinary council meetings, there were 19 informal gatherings of the council, altogether an intensive activity. We should remember that the main job of the ministers is in the governments of their home countries. But our figures indicate that they spend much of their time with their European Union colleagues. We have to consider also the preparation time for these meetings and the many other con­tacts at the European Union level (visits, telephone calls, etc.).

How are decisions made in the Council of Ministers? As decided in the Single European Act of 1986, the votes of the individual countries are weighted accord­ing to the following formula: France, Germany, Great Britain, and Italy as the larg­est countries have ten votes each; Spain, eight; Belgium, Greece, the Netherlands, and Portugal, five; Denmark and Ireland, three; and Luxembourg, two. This makes a total of 76 votes. To reach a decision, a qualified majority of 54 votes is required.

Unanimous decisions must be attained, however, when very important interests of a country are at stake. This rule was established in the so-called Luxembourg Agreement of January 29, 1966. France was afraid at the time that its vital interests in agricultural matters were threatened, and it had blocked decision making in the council for more than six months by a policy of the "empty chair." The Luxembourg Agreement set an end to this dramatic crisis. No criteria, however, were provided for determining whether very important inter­ests were in fact at stake. It was left to the country concerned to decide this. Thus, each member country had in practice a right of veto, which had the con­sequence that majority decisions were rarely taken.

With the Single European Act, an attempt was made to give more importance to the majority principle, but the Luxembourg Agreement remained in force. Although it was not possible to abolish the unanimity rule altogether, it was agreed to give greater emphasis to majority voting on matters such as the internal

17 / EUROPEAN UNION 3S3

market, the environment, and research and technological development. For politically more sensitive issues, however, such as taxation and rights of workers, each country still can claim its veto power, although it is now more rarely used.

Поиск по сайту: