It has often been said that the European Union suffers from a democratic deficit. This notion derives from the fact that prior to 1979, none of the EU institutions had directly elected members and therefore there was no democratic accountability to the citizens of the EU. It is also regularly asserted that the legislative powers at EU level are confined and dominated by executive actors, namely the Council of Ministers and the ‘unelected bureaucrats’ in the European Commission. However, this view misunderstands how the EU decision making and legislative process now operates.
The competences of the EU institutions have altered because of a series of Treaty revisions, and subsequently the political balance of power in the EU has changed. Legislative …show more content…
Hayes-Renshaw and Wallace believe that the Council remains the fulcrum of the decision-making, and legislative process of the EU. It is also the case that Article 241 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union provides the Council with a greater influence over the initiation of legislation than the Parliament, which has led to the Council becoming more proactive in the legislative process. Further there has been criticism of the European Parliaments’ representation. This is because the number of MEPs for each state is not strictly proportionate to population size and it has therefore been suggested that smaller Member States are over-represented. However, to say that European Parliament is weak compared to the Council of Ministers fails to fully consider Parliament’s competences under the Treaties. Firstly, while the Council does have greater influence over the initiation of legislation, Article 14 of the Treaty on European Union provides that it is the European Parliament who shall elect the President of the Commission and all Commissioners must be approved by the Parliament. Furthermore, the successive reforms of the EU Treaties since the mid-1980s, culminating in the Lisbon Treaty have increased the powers of the European Parliament to a degree that it can no longer be classified as weak compared to the Council of Ministers. Lisbon adopted the Ordinary Legislative Procedure under Article 294 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which built on the Single European Act 1986 and the Maastricht Treaty 1992 to place the Parliament and Council on an equal footing when it comes to legislative procedure by process of a joint
The competences of the EU institutions have altered because of a series of Treaty revisions, and subsequently the political balance of power in the EU has changed. Legislative …show more content…
Hayes-Renshaw and Wallace believe that the Council remains the fulcrum of the decision-making, and legislative process of the EU. It is also the case that Article 241 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union provides the Council with a greater influence over the initiation of legislation than the Parliament, which has led to the Council becoming more proactive in the legislative process. Further there has been criticism of the European Parliaments’ representation. This is because the number of MEPs for each state is not strictly proportionate to population size and it has therefore been suggested that smaller Member States are over-represented. However, to say that European Parliament is weak compared to the Council of Ministers fails to fully consider Parliament’s competences under the Treaties. Firstly, while the Council does have greater influence over the initiation of legislation, Article 14 of the Treaty on European Union provides that it is the European Parliament who shall elect the President of the Commission and all Commissioners must be approved by the Parliament. Furthermore, the successive reforms of the EU Treaties since the mid-1980s, culminating in the Lisbon Treaty have increased the powers of the European Parliament to a degree that it can no longer be classified as weak compared to the Council of Ministers. Lisbon adopted the Ordinary Legislative Procedure under Article 294 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which built on the Single European Act 1986 and the Maastricht Treaty 1992 to place the Parliament and Council on an equal footing when it comes to legislative procedure by process of a joint