Researches On The EU's Decision-making System

The European Union which was founded by European integration afterthe Second World War is a special system. It is not a federation like the UnitedStates. Nor is it simply an organisation for cooperation between governments,like the United Nations. It is, in fact, unique. The countries that make up theEU pool their sovereignty in order to gain a strength and world influence noneof them could have on its own. While with the rapid development andincreasingly important position on the international stage of the EU, the studyon the EU have an important theoretical and practical significance. You mustknow the decision-making system of the EU to understand the EU thoroughly.The EU's decision-making process in general, involve three maininstitutions: the European Commission, the Council of the European Unionand the European Parliament. In addition, the European Council, theEconomic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions are theparts which can't be neglected. This "institutional triangle", which iscomposed of the European Commission, the Council of the European Unionand the European Parliament, produces the policies and laws (directives,regulations and decisions) that apply throughout the EU. In principle, it is theCommission that proposes new EU laws but it is the Council that adopt them.The Parliament is in an advisory position, which has decision-making poweronly on some occasions.The Commission is the politically independent super-national institutionthat represents and upholds the interests of the EU as a whole. It is the drivingforce within the EU's institutional system: it proposes legislation, policies andprogrammes of action and it is responsible for implementing the decisions ofParliament and the Council. At present, the Commission is composed of onecitizen per member state. It has a president as well. The Council is the EU'smain decision-making body, which is formed by one minister from each of theEU's national governments. The Council represents the interests of themember states. The Parliament is a super-national institution which representsthe interests of the citizens of the EU. Since 1979, Members of the EuropeanParliament have been directly elected by the citizens they represent.The rules and procedures for EU decision-making are laid down in thetreaties. Generally speaking, the EU's institutions restrain and interact eachother in three procedures: consultation, co-decision and assent. The maindifference between them is the way Parliament interacts with the Council.Under the consultation procedure, the Parliament merely gives its opinion. TheCouncil makes decision finally after the Commission proposes a newlegislation. The Parliament's suggestion is just a consulting part. In theco-decision procedure, the Parliament and the Council share legislative power.The Commission sends its proposal to both institutions. They each read anddiscuss it twice in succession. If they cannot agree on it, it is put before a"conciliation committee", composed of equal numbers of Council andParliament representatives. The Commission representatives also attend thecommittee meetings and contribute to the discussion. Once the Committee hasreached an agreement, the agreed text is then sent to Parliament and theCouncil for a third reading, So that they can finally adopt it as law.The assent procedure means that the Council has to obtain the EuropeanParliament's assent before certain very important decisions are taken. Theprocedure is the same as in the case of consultation, except that Parliamentcannot amend a proposal: it must either accept or reject it. Acceptance("assent") requires an absolute majority of the vote cast.The Council of European Union adopts three voting methods accordingdifferent policy areas whichever decision-making procedure is adopted: simplemajority, qualified majority and unanimity. The most complicated votingprocedure in Council is qualified majority because of the weighting of votes.The new specific distribution of number of votes has been provided in Treaty...