Résumé : This comparative note looks at the legal provisions ruling the amendment of the founding documents of federal states and international organisations and compares them to Art. 48 of the Treaty on European Union. The European Union is the only political organisation requiring a double unanimous decision, firstly when signing a revising treaty and, secondly, when ratifying it in the Member States. The new rules proposed for the entry into force of the European Stability Mechanism treaty indicate that EU leaders, at least in selected policy fields, are in the process of changing their views on the usefulness of the "mutual agreement" rule.

Auteurs : Wilhelm Lehmann (Policy Department C - Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs, European Parliament, Brussels)

Commissions : Affaires constitutionnelles

Résumé : This paper provides an update and extension of a 2007 overview of national provisions for parliamentary committees of inquiry. It concentrates on the legal framework in which these committees operate and the limits and responsibilities under which they carry out their investigations.

Auteurs : Mr Wilhelm Lehmann - Policy Department C - Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs, European Parliament

Commissions : Affaires constitutionnelles

Résumé : The German Federal Constitutional Court’s ruling is based on a nation state-bound understanding of political representation which does not take the EU’s compounded system into account. Furthermore, it confounds questions of voting structure with questions about the pouvoir constituent. Its emphasis on the equality of peoples over the equality of citizens potentially leads to significant losses of legitimacy. The empirical study shows the wide variety of how political systems deal with the necessary deviation of the principle of one man, one vote.

Auteurs : Johannes Pollak, Michelle Everson, Christopher Lord, Samuel R. Schubert and Pieter de Wilde

Commissions : Affaires constitutionnelles

Résumé : La présente note contient la recommandation en vue d’une base mathématique pour la répartition des sièges au Parlement européen entre les États membres de l’Union européenne. Il s’agit de la recommandation unanime des participants à la «rencontre de Cambridge sur la répartition» organisée à l’instigation de la commission des affaires institutionnelles au Centre for Mathematical Sciences de l’université de Cambridge les 28 et 29 janvier 2011.

Auteurs : Geoffrey Grimmett (Centre for Mathematical Sciences, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom) in collaboration with Jean-François Laslier, Friedrich Pukelsheim, Victoriano Ramírez González, Richard Rose, Wojciech Słomczyński, Martin Zachariasen and Karol Życzkowski

Commissions : Affaires constitutionnelles

Résumé : Notwithstanding the impact of European policy-making on Member states legislation, many constitutions guarantee essential characteristics of their political system. This study extracts the conditions of the European dimension of national constitutional law with regard to the prospects of future Europeanization of eight EU Member states (Czech Republic, Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Poland, Finland and Sweden). This sample of countries comprises founding members, new Member states with a rather long or brief constitutional tradition, large and medium as well as centralist and federal Member states.

Auteurs : Stefan GRILLER (Executive Summary, SE, FI), Stefan KEILER (CZ), Thomas KRÖLL (IT, AT [jointly with Lienbacher], PL [jointly with Lienbacher]), Georg LIENBACHER (AT [jointly with Kröll], PL (jointly with Kröll]) and Erich VRANES (DE, FR)

Commissions : Affaires constitutionnelles

Résumé : Le présent rapport examine les systèmes mis en place par les Nations unies, le Conseil de l’Europe et l’Union européenne pour protéger les droits de l’homme. Il étudie les droits théoriques, les mécanismes de protection, les formes d’engagement et les interactions entre les différents systèmes. D’autre part, il met en exergue la protection des droits des minorités et les rouages politiques à travers lesquels les droits de l’homme et les institutions évoluent et interagissent. Enfin, il émet une série de recommandations pour l’amélioration de l’architecture des droits de l’homme dans l’Union européenne.

Auteurs : Project Co-ordinator : Liora Lazarus (University of Oxford) Lead researchers : Cathryn Costello (University of Oxford), Nazila Ghanea (University of Oxford) and Katja Ziegler (University of Oxford) Researchers : Rajendra Desai (Matrix Chambers), Lawrence Hill-Cawthorne (University of Oxford) and Benjamin Jones (University of Oxford)

Commissions : Affaires constitutionnelles

Résumé : La déclaration est devenue un instrument classique qui accompagne l'adoption des actes législatifs européens. Si son existence pouvait être justifiée dans les cas des décisions prises à l'unanimité, ceci n'est plus le cas dans la procédure de codécision, puisque seul l'accord entre le Parlement et le Conseil sur un texte juridique est nécessaire et suffisant pour que l'acte soit adopté. Mais ceci n'a pas mis fin pour autant à la pratique existante. C'est à l'analyse de ces déclarations que s'attache cette étude. L'étude examinera successivement les raisons pour lesquelles la pratique s’est perpétuée (I) et le régime de l’inscription au procès-verbal des déclarations (II); il définira également une typologie de déclarations et analysera leurs effets juridiques et politiques.

Auteurs : Jean-Paul Jacqué

Commissions : Affaires constitutionnelles

Résumé : The inclusion of the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) in the Lisbon Treaty is a recognition of earlier developments in many parts of the democratic world. The implementation of its practical parameters will be a crucial element for the acceptance of the ECI by EU citizens and will send an important message to other regions and countries. The purpose of this study is to provide background information on the present situation in the Member States of the EU, and on the European level, as far as the use of modern technical equipment such as online registration of popular initiatives, referendums or petitions is concerned. Since there is no direct equivalent to the new ECI at Member State level any comparisons are necessarily limited but nevertheless instructive.

Auteurs : Mr Wilhelm Lehmann - Policy Department Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs, European Parliament

Commissions : Affaires constitutionnelles

Résumé : This study has been prepared by the Observatory on Political Parties and Representation (OPPR), part of the European Democracy Observatory (EUDO) at the European University Institute (EUI). It covers four aspects: 1) An analysis of the political doctrine and programme of major political parties in several Member States. 2) An examination of current procedures applied to political parties to choose leaders for European Office. 3) The development of proposals on how to help a European political party system evolve from national structures strongly influenced by historical traditions and cultural factors. 4) Suggestions regarding the extent to which the European electoral system and different systems of party financing would have to be revised in order to facilitate the above objectives.

Auteurs : Luciano Bardi, Edoardo Bressanelli, Enrico Calossi, Wojciech Gagatek, Peter Mair, Eugenio Pizzimenti

Commissions : Affaires constitutionnelles