Legislative Politics

Council of Ministers Structure

Central decision-making body (legislator) and supported by Committee of Permanent Representatives + Council role which represents national interests

Roles of Council of Ministers — Presidency

Rotates every 6 months between member states, plans, schedules, and chairs meetings of the ministers, acts as a power equalizer between bigger and smaller states

Roles of Council of Ministers — Ministerial level

Ministers are from respective national governments, they divide policy areas, they have the formal legislative authority (can commit their states to any EU law that is passed), some meet monthly, some only twice a year

Roles of Council of Ministers — Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER)

Senior diplomats (each member state sends ambassadors to Brussles) where they prepare general foreign committees, and deputies (which are responsible for technical councils

Roles of Council of Ministers — Working Groups

Over 150 distinct committees (e.g., food safety) + considered the expert centre, all negotiations and new proposals begin here, and they pre-solve technical difficulties as possible, and leave political disagreements to councils

Roles of Council of Ministers — General Secretariat

Offer bureaucratic support, have their own legal service, advisory council on legal bases, and has more than 60K officials that work with the different structures of the council

Inside the council — Voting

3 voting rules

• QMV (default voting that relies on ‘dual majority’)

• Unanimity (each member state has a veto for enlargement, finance, taxation, home affairs)

• Simple majority (requires at least 1/3 or 14 member states)

Inside the council — Evolution of QMV

New Lisbon double majority (since 2014) removed ‘artificial’ vote weights and added the requirement for at least 4 states needed to block a vote (with at least 35% of the EU population), significantly increasing the bargaining powers of states

Inside the council — Does voting power matter?

Explicit recorded votes show negative voting is rare + norm of consensus

Structure of the EP

EU citizens elect plenary every 5 years, composed of all directed MEPs, MEPs elect presidency for 5 years, 8 political groups, 48 delegations

EP — Location

Committees in Brussels; Plenary in Strasbourg; Offices in Luxembourg; Once a month, MEPs and their staff meet in Strasbourg

EP — The President

2.5-year term, chair plenary and represent the EP, allocation decided by party elites that happens behind closed doors

EP — Vice-Presidents

Support the president, 14 in total, ones responsible for chairing the plenary sessions, from the bureau and handle everything

EP — The Committee chairs

Set the calendar and agenda of meetings, participate in OLD inter-institutional negotiations, where most the the parliamentary work takes place, MEPs desire this position because they (1) get to implement their national party leaders and (2) get to delegate leadership of the political groups that get to control positions within the parliament

Plenary of the EP — Seats

720 seats total, EPP (Center-right group) is biggest group (188 seats), largest groups are populist and euro-skeptical groups, 8 political groups in total

Plenary of the EP — Activities

MEPs vote on reports, motions & adopt amendments, inter-group cooperation required to secure a majority, voted tend to be ideology-based (not nationality-based)

Political groups of the EP — General Structure

8 groups (32 non-affiliated), formed through at least a quarter of MEPs joining together to form a group (must have secretariat staff, research staff, etc)

Political groups of the EP — Why would a national party want to join?

Power (biggest group has more influence) + policy (how in line their political positions are with each other before they decide to form a political group)

Largest groups in EP

EPP (European People’s Party) and S&D (social and Democratic Alliance) - Neither is dominant enough in the parliament

Why is Renew Europe (political group) important in the EP?

It is vital for passing decisions (when it is a close tie)

The Committees — General Structure

22 standing committees + 2 special, divide functionality by policy areas, membership mirrors ideological balance of EP, repository for policy expertise, appoints teams for intra-/inter-institutional negotiations

The Committees — The rapporteurs and shadow rapporteurs

Draft committee reports, shape positions adopted by their political groups, central to negotiation team for talks under OLP (e.g., regulation on alternative fuels infrastructure)

Rapporteur vs. Shadow Rapporteur

Rapporteur: A member of the European Parliament (MEP) responsible for drafting legislative opinions.

Shadow Rapporteur: A Member of the European Parliament who monitors a dossier for a political group other than that of the lead Rapporteur.

The Legislative Process — General Structure

Most active body, covers many policy areas (but weak in salient areas), 2 major legislative procedures (consultation and OLP), extends EP power in OLP, extension of QMV in council

Formal vs. Informal rules

Formal: the ones that are written in treaties (who proposes/amends/votes)

Informal: Decision-making rules that are not written in the treaties (non-codified) that are enforced externally

EU competences

Exclusive competences where only the EU may legislate and adopt

Consultation

COM submits proposal - EP issues advice (non-binding) - Council of Ministers approves (proposal adopted) or rejects (proposal not adopted)

When can the council amend the proposal of the COM?

Only when it has unanimity

Ordinary Legislative Procedure

Council acts by qualified majority, and the EP and Council have to agree

OLP — First reading

COM drafts proposal, reading is done in Parliament where it examined proposal that may adopt or amend it, council then may decide to accept Parliament’s position (legislative procedure is adopted) or it may amend the Parliament’s position and return the proposal for a second reading

OLP — Second Reading

Parliament examined the Council’s proposition and approves, rejects it (act will not enter into force), or amends it (returns the proposal to council for second reading), council then examines amendment and either approves or does not approve, leading to the convening of the Concillation Committee

OLP — Conciliation

Composed of equal number of MEPs and Council representatives that try to reach agreement on a joint text. If unsuccessful, legislative act will not enter into force, it agreed, it is forwarded to EP and council for 3rd reading

OLP — Third Reading

EP examines joint text and votes in plenary (cannot change the wording of the joint text), if it rejects, the act it not adopted, if approved by EP and Council, the act is adopted

Do formal rules matter?

DEUII dataset (Thomson et al, 2000;2012) found that the distribution of power/policy positions of institutions and relative saliency have to issue are better at issuing outcomes then just coming up with rules

The Compromise model — Computational outlook

Average of positions is weighted by issue salience (how much does the issue matter to them?) + quasi-utalitarian which minimizes the sum of utility loss of all actors

The Compromise model — What does it argue?

If formal rules DO NOT matter, explanations focus on informal bargaining rather than procedures

The Procedural Model — What does it argue?

If formal rules DO matter then what matters isn’t what everyone wants, but who has the power to control it.

Winsets

Set of outcome policies that can replace the state quo

The Procedural Model — General structure

COM must decide what to propose as the agenda-setter and is placed in a very powerful position, COM knows the consultation rules → The Winset changes based on who can votes, Council approves proposal by QMV, Council amends proposal by Unanimity, EP only has an opinion, which can be ignored, COM puts forward proposal that is, Acceptable to the minimum winning coalition in Council, Closest to its own preferences (to maximize its own utility)