Key Features of EU Policy Processes

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Key Features of EU Policy Processes
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A straightforward standard policy-making system
was set out in the EEC Treaty

• The Commission proposes
• The Parliament advises.(on a restricted range of
  matters)
• The Council decides.(almost invariably by
  unanimity)
• The Court adjudicates

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• A highly complex and varied system now exists, as
  witnessed by
• Its great number of policy- and
  decision-making processes
• Its mixture of intergovernmentalism and
  supranationalism with the balance constantly
  disputed.
• Its multi-actor character EU institutions,
  national actors, interests in which the formal
  roles and powers of actors vary between policy
  areas.
• Its multi-level nature EU, national,
  sub-national.
• Its multi-speed and increasingly differentiated
  character.

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Making sense of the complexity

• Paul Magnette suggests the use of three criteria
  helps us to distinguish between, but also to
  identify the persistence of, distinct
  policy-making patterns
• - the degree of involvement of institutions
  that are independent of
  government
• - the decision-making rules in the Council
• - the legal character of decisional outcomes.
• These three criteria are usually related, and
  result in three broad policy processes

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The three main policy processes

• 1 The Community Method
• Based on an institutional triangle in which
  usually
• - the Commission formally takes the
  policy lead
• - QMV is available in the Council
• - the EP has the power of
  co-decision.
• Where law is being made, decisions are subject to
  ECJ jurisdiction.

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The EUs Law Making Procedures
European Council
Court of Justice
Commission
Political and significant legislation
Administrative legislation
Committees
European Parliament
Council of Ministers
Direct action
Management
Regulatory
Advisory
Legislation is adopted in one of three forms
directives, regulations, decisions.
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The three main policy processes

• 2 Intergovernmental Cooperation
• - Commissions role is less significant eg does
  not have exclusive initiation powers
• - decisions are not subject to ECJ
  jurisdiction
• - applies mainly in those highly sensitive
  policy areas in which sovereignty questions
  arise foreign, defence, justice.

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The three main policy processes

• 3 Open Method of Coordination (OMC)
• - It has become important in recent years as the
  EU has sought to find a middle way in policy
  areas where intergovernmental cooperation is seen
  to be too weak but where preservation of
  independence is still desired.
• - EU decision-makers identify policy goals, but
  pursue them not via compulsive regulation but via
  a variety of gentler methods.
• - Essentially, it involves attempts to
  coordinate national policies with soft law
  instruments and mechanisms, such as peer review,
  benchmarking, league tables.
• - Applies to much of the Lisbon programme.

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A fourth policy process?

• To the three standard policy processes, a
  fourth can be added central regulation.
• This exists where supranational institutions
  have not only independent implementation
  functions but also strong decision-making
  functions usually because of a perceived need to
  de-politicise decision-making. The clearest
  examples are the Commissions competition powers
  and the ECBs monetary powers.
• Note, the new independent agencies, such as the
  EFSA and the EEA, do not have strong executive
  powers. They are mostly concerned with tasks such
  as information-gathering and promoting
  coordination.

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Differentiation1 the bases of differentiation

• Differentiation policy development with not all
  member states fully involved has been much
  discussed in recent years, not least because of
  enlargement and the difficulties with the
  Constitutional Treaty.
• However, differentiation has long featured in the
  EU, most notably through Schengen, EMU, and
  defence cooperation.
• The Nice Treaty made differentiation easier to
  operationalise.
• Enlargement makes increased differentiation
  likely because there are now not only more member
  states but also much greater variations between
  states in terms of their objective requirements,
  their political preferences, and their economic,
  political and administrative capacities.

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Differentiation2 factors favourable to
differentiation

• Variations in national preferences
• Variations in national capacities
• Characteristics of policies
• not part of SEM core
• significant sovereignty implications
• of particular rather than general interest

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Differentiation3 forms of differentiation

• Differentiation can take different forms
  multi-speed à la carte overlapping circles
  concentric circles. Up to the present, only mild
  versions of the first two have occurred.
• The cross-cutting nature of differences between
  EU-25 states suggests that the concentric circles
  route with semi-permanent inner and outer cores
  is most unlikely.
• However, some further modest development of the
  first three versions of differentiation is likely
  but the extent that this is sought or is likely
  should not be exaggerated note, for example,
  the tight restrictions on derogations in the
  accession negotiations.

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Differentiation4 directoires

• In the context of differentiation, much is now
  heard of the possible emergence of an EU
  directoire or directoires.
• A single directoire is not possible, partly
  because outsiders would resist it and partly
  because of the nature of internal divisions.
• Directoires of a loose sort may, however, be
  possible in a few policy areas EMU ? JHA? CFSP
  and ESDP?

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New Modes of Governance

• 1 What is the new governance?
• The so-called new governance has impacted
  widely on national public policy and
  administration since the mid-1980s. It has
  increasingly impacted on the EU since the early
  1990s. It involves
• Less emphasis on traditional, top down,
  hierarchical, legislation-based forms of
  operation.
• Use of more flexible, often network-based, and
  essentially voluntary forms of policy development
  and practice.

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New Modes of Governance

• 2 Forms of new governance
• European agencies extensively involved in
  information gathering and in making policy
  recommendations, but have few executive powers.
• The open method of coordination (discussed above)

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New Modes of Governance

• 3 Advantages and disadvantages of new governance
  approaches
• The main advantage is that it permits policy to
  be developed in areas where states would be very
  reluctant if compulsion and EU law were involved.
• The main disadvantage is that voluntarism and
  non binding mechanisms are not always effective.

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Are EU policy processes efficient?

• Arguably, there are too many checks in the
  system
• - the Commission must propose
• - differences around the Council table, and use
  of unanimity for many of the most contentious
  issues
• - the heterogeneity of EU membership, and the
  need for support by a majority of the EUs
  members on many important matters
• - majorities in the Council and EP are
  constructed on different bases one national,
  the other more ideological.

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But, policy processes cannot be too inefficient

• Witness the enormous policy advances since the
  mid-1980s the (ongoing) single market programme,
  EMU, enlargement, and JHA.
• Many of the so-called policy failures such as
  with CAP reform, the Lisbon Process, and CFSP
  are a consequence not so much of weaknesses in
  policy and decision-making systems as deep
  differences over what should be done.

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The key characteristic of EU policy processes
compromise

• Institutional interdependency coupled with the
  multiplicity of actors means EU policy-making
  processes are characterised, perhaps above all,
  by compromise.
• Within institutions witness, for example a) the
  reluctance to vote in the College and in the
  Council, and the constant searches to get beyond
  the bare majority b) the need for political
  groups in the EP to forge deals if majorities are
  to be obtained.
• Between institutions witness, for example a)
  the Commission anticipating reactions when it
  launches initiatives b) the willingness of the
  Council and the EP to be accommodating during
  legislative processes very few proposals
  completely fail.
• But, compromise can produce weaker policies than
  are ideally desirable.