Law of the European Union

2020-2021

Topic / Seminar 2: Union Institutions and Decision-Making Procedures

This topic / seminar will explore the main Union institutions as well as the key procedures by
which those institutions reach decisions.

In terms of substantive law, you should aim to acquire a solid understanding of several core
issues:

 an outline of the 5 main Union institutions (the European Council, the Council, the
European Parliament, the Commission and the Court of Justice of the European
Union) including their composition and key functions – these are all covered in the
CANVAS presentations for Topic / Seminar 2;

 an overview of the main processes involved in the adoption and implementation of

Union legislation, the legal principles (such as institutional balance and sincere
cooperation) that help supplement and operationalise those basic Treaty procedures,
as well as constitutional debates about “democracy” and “legitimacy” at the European
level – these are again covered in the CANVAS presentations for Topic / Seminar 2.

Please note: you will come across certain issues (e.g. the role of national parliaments in
monitoring the principle of subsidiarity) that we need to touch upon now, but which you will only
come back to explore in more detail later in the module.

As before: just as important as your engagement with the substantive legal issues, is the task
of developing your skills at handling primary legal materials – including provisions from the
Treaties and judgments from the Court of Justice.

Basic Preparation

You should study the 8 CANVAS presentations provided in respect of Topic / Seminar 2:

 introduction to EU institutions / procedures;

 European Council;
 Council;
 European Parliament;
 Commission;
 Court of Justice of the European Union;
 Union decision-making processes;
 debates about democracy and legitimacy.

Having studied those presentations, you should then complete the accompanying MCQ test.

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Essential Reading: Primary Materials

Consolidated version of the Treaty on European Union: Articles 9-19

Case C-409/13, Council v Commission, ECLI:EU:C:2015:217

Essential Reading: Secondary Materials

From your chosen core textbook, you should read the chapter / sections that explore the
Union’s institutional framework and main decision-making procedures. For example:

 Chalmers et al, European Union Law (CUP, 4th ed, 2019) Chapters 2 and 3

 P Craig and G de Búrca, EU Law: Text, Cases & Materials (OUP, 7th ed, 2020)
Chapters 3 and 6

 Dashwood et al, European Union Law (Hart, 6th ed, 2011) Chapters 3 and 4

Please note: your CANVAS presentations are intended to complement and supplement your
chosen textbooks; they will not necessarily cover exactly the same material or explore it in
precisely the same way!

Further Reading: Secondary Materials

By now, you should begin to supplement your essential reading by engaging with a wider range
of more detailed academic analyses. There is a vast literature on the EU’s institutional
framework – in law as well as from political science – but the latter should be approached on
the understanding that it is a separate discipline from which lawyers can learn useful insights.
The following are recommendations to get you started, but your textbooks will suggest
additional works, and you might care to browse the main scholarly journals for others.

A Moravcsik, “In Defence of the ‘Democratic Deficit’: Reassessing Legitimacy in the European
Union” (2002) 40 Journal of Common Market Studies 603
F Hayes-Renshaw, W van Aken, and H Wallace, “When and Why the EU Council of Ministers
Votes Explicitly” (2006) 44 Journal of Common Market Studies 161
K Lenaerts, “The principle of democracy in the caselaw of the Court of Justice” (2013) 62
International and Comparative Law Quarterly 271
D Curtin, “Challenging Executive Dominance in European Democracy” (2014) 77 Modern Law
Review 1
J Habermas, “Democracy in Europe: Why the Development of the EU into a Transnational
Democracy is Necessary and How it is Possible” (2015) 21 European Law Journal 546
D Ritleng, “Does the European Court of Justice take democracy seriously? Some thoughts
about the Macro-Financial Assistance case” (2016) 53 Common Market Law Review 11
A Karatzia, “The European Citizens' Initiative and the EU institutional balance: on realism and
the possibilities of affecting EU lawmaking” (2017) 54 Common Market Law Review 177

Basic Questions to Prepare in Advance of the Seminar

Your seminar will begin with your tutor and the class exploring these core questions together.
Please prepare notes in response to each question and make an effort – however hard it may

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seem! – to contribute to the group discussion. Remember also to raise any particular queries
or difficulties you may have encountered in the course of your preparation – your seminar tutor
will be very happy to help clarify and address them.

1. Which / whose interests are each of the following EU institutions intended to represent?

- European Council
- Council
- European Parliament
- Commission
- Court of Justice

2. What do you understand by the term “institutional balance” within the context of the EU
legal order?

3. How do the Treaties manage the tension between (on the one hand) the principle that all
Member States are sovereign equals and (on the other hand) the reality that there are vast
differences in population size between the Member States?

4. How far are the activities of the Commission amenable to influence and / or scrutiny by the
other Union institutions?

5. What is the distinction between the ordinary legislative procedure and the special
legislative procedures? Why do the Treaties maintain a distinction between those two
types of legislative process?

6. How might one define “democracy”, for the purposes of analysing the European Union? Is
the concept of democracy interchangeable with that of “legitimacy”?