1.4.2. Intergovernmental decision-making procedures
LEGAL BASIS
- Articles 7, 11, 23, 24, 34, 43, 44, 48(N), 49(O) of the EU Treaty.
- Article 11 of the EC Treaty.
DESCRIPTION
The Treaty on European Union lays down a number of rules and procedures of a constitutional nature. For the common foreign and security policy and cooperation in the fields of justice and home affairs it sets up a special form of intergovernmental cooperation in the guise of action by supranational institutions. These procedures are distinct from those covered by the EC Treaty.
1. Procedure for amendment of the Treaties (Article 48 EUT)
- Proposal: any Member State or the Commission.
- Commission's role: consultation and participation in the intergovernmental conference.
- Parliament's role: consultation before the intergovernmental conference is convened (the conferences involved Parliament on an ad hoc basis; at the last three it was represented either by its President or two of its Members, depending on the case).
Decision: common accord of the governments on amendments to the Treaties, which are then put to the Member States for ratification in accordance with their constitutional requirements.
2. Accession procedure (Article 49)
- Applications: from any European State which complies with the Union's principles.
- Commission's role: consultation; it takes an active part in preparing and conducting negotiations.
- Parliament's role: assent, by an absolute majority of its component Members.
- Decision: by the Council, unanimously; the agreement between Union Member States and the applicant State, setting out the terms of accession and the adjustments required, is put to all the Member States for ratification in accordance with their constitutional requirements.
3. Sanctions procedure for a serious and persistent breach of Union principles by a Member State (Article 7 EUT)
- Proposal: one third of the Member States or the Commission.
- Parliament's assent: adopted by a two-thirds majority of the votes cast, representing a majority of its Members.
- Decision determining the existence of a breach: by the Council at Heads of State and Government level, unanimously (without the participation of the Member State concerned).
- Decision to suspend certain rights of the State concerned: adopted by the Council by a qualified majority (without the participation of the Member State concerned).
4. Closer cooperation procedure
a. Cooperation in the Community sphere (Article 11 ECT):
- Proposal: exclusive right of the Commission; Member States proposing to establish closer cooperation can apply to the Commission.
- Parliament's role: consultation.
- Decision: by the Council, by a qualified majority unless a Member State opposes it for important reasons of national policy. If so the Council can by a qualified majority refer the matter to the Council meeting at Heads of State and Government level for a unanimous decision.
b. Cooperation in the fields of justice and home affairs (Article 40 EUT):
- Application by the Member States concerned.
- Commission's role: opinion.
- Parliament's role: informed.
- Procedures for Council decision and, if necessary, referral to the European Council are similar to the case above.
5. Procedure for decisions in foreign affairs (Article 23 and 24 EUT)
- Proposal: any Member State or the Commission.
- Recommendation for common strategy: adopted unanimously by the Council.
- Decision on common strategy: European Council, unanimously.
- Adoption of joint actions, common positions or other decisions on the basis of a common strategy, adoption of decisions implementing a common strategy or common position: by the Council, acting by a qualified majority, unless a Member State opposes it for important reasons of national policy. If so the Council can by a qualified majority refer the matter to the Council meeting at Heads of State and Government level for a unanimous decision.
- Adoption of common positions or joint actions not covered by a common strategy: by the Council, unanimously.
- Parliament's role: regularly informed by the Presidency and consulted on the main aspects and basic options. Under the interinstitutional agreement on financing the CFSP this consultation process is an annual event, on the basis of a Council document.
6. Procedure for decisions on cooperation in the fields of justice and home affairs (Article 34 EUT)
- Proposal: any Member State or the Commission.
- Parliament's role: consulted before framework decisions, decisions (excluding common positions) or conventions are adopted; the Presidency and Commission must regularly inform Parliament of their work in this area.
- Decision: by the Council, unanimously. It can act by a qualified majority when adopting measures to implement "decisions". Measures implementing conventions can be adopted by a majority of two-thirds of the contracting parties.
PROSPECTS
In the run-up to the 1996 Intergovernmental Conference, Parliament called for "communitisation" of the second and third pillars, so that the decision-making procedures applicable under the Treaty establishing the European Community also applied to them. The Treaty of Amsterdam has only made minor changes in these areas. But they will need reforming if we want them to be the framework for serious policy action, particularly after enlargement. A report by Parliament's Committee on Institutional Affairs is due to discuss the issue before the end of the fourth legislative term. The 2000 IGC discussed Points 3 and 4 but did not embark on a fundamental review of the other decision-making procedures. Nonetheless, a change in the conditions for launching closer cooperation will no doubt have a knock-on effect on the decision-making procedures under the second and third pillars.
06/11/2000 |