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EU Law

The European Parliament &


National Parliaments
Diana Wallis
EULaw@Hull
@dianapwallis

Materials
Fairhurst p114-123, p128-149
Chalmers p95 - 155
The European Parliament Corbett, Jacobs &
Shackleton
How the EU Institutions Work Alan Hardacre
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/portal/en
http://www.votewatch.eu

Treaties!
EU Treaties & Legislation Forster
http://ec.europa.eu/index_en.htm
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/index.htm
http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/jcms/j_6/

The First mentioned


Institution
Article 13 The Treaty On European
Union

the European Parliament


the European Council
the Council
the Commission
the Court of Justice of the European
Union

The Parliament how does it look?

Powers
Article 14 - TEU
1. The European Parliament shall,
jointly with the Council, exercise
legislative and budgetary functions.
It shall exercise functions of political
control and consultation as laid down
in the Treaties. It shall elect the
President of the Commission.

Composition
2. The European Parliament shall be
composed of representatives of the
Union's citizens. They shall not
exceed seven hundred and fifty in
number, plus the President.
Representation of citizens shall be
degressively proportional, with a
minimum threshold of six members
per Member State. No Member State
shall be allocated more than ninety-

Direct Elections
Art 14 TEU
3.The members of the European
Parliament shall be elected for a term
of five years by direct universal
suffrage in a free and secret ballot.

The Itinerant Parliament

singleseat.eu
France v. Parliament C-237/11 & C238/11

Constitutional Engineering?
2014 EP Elections
The use of Spitzencandidaten
Article 17 / 7 TEU
Taking into account the elections to the
European Parliament and after having held
the appropriate consultations, the European
Council, acting by qualified majority, shall
propose to the European Parliament a
candidate for President of the Commission.
This candidate shall be elected by the
European Parliament by a majority..

The choice!

Political Groups in the Current


European Parliament

Political Leadership

Families are Important!

Those that dont have families!


In Government

Committees
Standing committees

Foreign Affairs

Human Rights

Security and Defence

Development

International Trade

Budgets

Budgetary Control

Economic and Monetary Affairs

Employment and Social Affairs

Environment, Public Health and Food Safety

Industry, Research and Energy

Internal Market and Consumer Protection

Transport and Tourism

Regional Development

Agriculture and Rural Development

Fisheries

Culture and Education

Legal Affairs

Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

Constitutional Affairs

Women's Rights and Gender Equality

Petitions

Legislative process
1st reading ( Ist reading Agreements ? )
2nd reading
Conciliation
Fairhurst p 141 (diagram of Art 294; codecision procedure)

EU Law Making
A Multi- Directional Tug of War

For or against Europe


Slim majorities and fragile coalitions
First reading agreements
Reliance on group and parliamentary
officials
National parliaments

Democratic Deficit?

A full co-legislator post Lisbon Treaty


Legislative initiative?
Budgetary authority
Supervision of the Commission
Cant dismiss individual Commissioners??

National Parliaments
Article 12 TEU active contribution to
functioning of the Union
Information rights and yellow card procedure
Monti 11 & European Public Prosecutors Office
Red Card ?

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