Political Dynamics in the European Union

1
Political Dynamics in the European Union
2
Factors driving political dynamics
The political dynamics of the EU are in constant
evolution. Factors driving the evolution
include Treaty changes Enlargements Unfolding
policy responsibilities Pressures from the
institutions Evolving attitudes towards the
institutions
3
Examining the changing nature of EU political
dynamics

• The dynamics will be examined here under four
  headings
• The roles and influence of the EUs institutions
• Inter-state relations
• The role of ideology
• Provision of leadership

4
The roles and influence of the EU
institutionsKey Questions

• As we proceed, students are encouraged to be
  thinking about the roles and influence of the
  EUs main institutions. Key questions include
• Has there been a decline in the pioneering role
  of the Commission and an increase in its
  managerial roles?
• Have the agenda-setting and decision-making roles
  of the European Council increased, and if so why?
• Has the perceived increase in the decision-making
  role of the European Parliament been exaggerated?

5
The roles and influence of the EU institutions1
The Commission

• Functions
• Initiator and proposer (especially in pillar
  one).
• Executive functions a few are direct (notably
  competition), but most involve overseeing
  national agencies.
• Guardian of the legal framework.
• Mediating and brokerage functions.

6
1 The Commission the academic debate

• There is an extensive academic debate regarding
  the extent to which the Commission undertakes
  its leadership and other roles in an independent
  manner. Broadly speaking, there are two polar
  views, with variations stretched out in between
• The intergovernmentalist view (Moravcsik,
  Magnette) the Commission is essentially an
  agent.
• The supranationalist view (Beach, Schmidt,
  Sandholtz and Stone Sweet, Pollack) the agent
  is not controlled completely by its principal
  the focus should be on decision-making and not
  just on decision taking.

7
1 The Commission the supranationalist case

• Those who argue the Commission exercises
  considerable independent influence point to
• - its many power resources
• - its many functions.
• They suggest practice shows it be a central
  player not only in routine decision-making but
  also in respect of such major EU initiatives as
• Enlargement
• The SEM programme
• The Lisbon Process

8
1 The Commission the supranationalist case

• Case studies by those who take a supranational
  perspective show that the Commissions potential
  for influential and independent action is
  normally greatest when
• - it has strong and clear powers
• - QMV applies in the Council
• - control mechanisms are weak
• - there is uncertainty of information amongst
  the member states
• - there is the possibility of exploiting
  differences between member states

9
1 The Commission Evidence of and reasons for
its alleged decline

• - The pioneering days are arguably over.
• - The increasing influence of other
  institutions, notably the European Council and
  the European Parliament.
• - Loss of status the 1999 crisis, internal
  divisions, the 2004 EP hearings.
• - Concerns that as the College has become
  larger then so has it become less cohesive and
  less efficient.
• - It has suffered some defeats and failures
  in recent years.
• - The growing importance of non Community
  policy areas and of new modes of governance.

10
2 The Council of Ministers Functions

• Used to be the legislature of the EU now
  shares this function with the EP.
• Takes most of the EUs governmental policy
  decisions
• - Commission proposals for legislation
• - CFSP common positions or actions
• - Noting progress reports
• - Requests to the Commission for
  information
• Prepares ground for European Councils.

11

• 2 The Council of Ministers Operational
  Problems
• The central difficulty arises, of course, from
  the diversity of the needs and preferences of
  Council participants.
• The diversity means there are particular
  difficulties when unanimity still applies a
  state expresses a strong national interest.
• But QMV is now used in about 40 of the cases
  where it is available.
• Meetings are now so large as to sometimes make
  real negotiations almost impossible.
• The rotating presidency

12
2 The Council of Ministers Questions for
Consideration

• Has the Council declined in importance?
• Can it be viewed as still being primarily
  intergovernmental?
• Have recent (Seville) reforms arrested its
  alleged inefficiency?
• Is there a lack of transparency and legitimacy?

13
3 The European Council Functions

• Most major (history making) decisions are
  made at summits.
• Some contentious matters are referred up.
• Helps to provide strategic direction.
• A forum for exchanging ideas at the highest
  political level.

14

• 3 The European Council
• Operational Problems
• There are many weaknesses in the European
  Councils decision-making capacity
• As with the Council, the diversity of interests
  and preferences, but these are often elevated
  at summits
• Agendas often are too weighty
• Infrequency and short duration of meetings
• Unanimity remains the prevailing decision-making
  rule.

15
3 The European Council Questions for
Consideration

• Is it a decision-maker, or an approver of
  decisions made elsewhere?
• Has it strengthened the intergovernmental
  nature of the EU?
• Is the media circus aspect of summits helpful
  to the formation of a European identity and
  polity?

16
4 The European Parliament Functions

• Legislator
• It co-legislates with the Council on most
  legislative proposals.
• Scrutiniser of the executive
• It operates in various ways, ranging from the
  power to approve and dismiss the College to
  establishing investigatory committees.
• Budgetary authority
• It is the co-budgetary authority, but its powers
  are circumscribed by
• - it is largely excluded from deliberations
  on the multi-annual financial perspectives
• - it can do little about obligatory
  expenditure.

17

• 4 The European Parliament
• Operational Difficulties
• It is by far the largest legislature in the
  democratic world, with 732 members.
• The lack of a government is fundamental to
  the ways in which the EU is organised and
  conducts its business.
• Language is a real problem there are now 20
  official EU languages (380 possible
  combinations).
• The multi-site problem.

18
4 The European Parliament Influence where it
has increased

• EU influence has clearly grown over the
  years especially in regard to
• the Commission
• the content of legislation. (The former
  Commission-Council tandem has been replaced by an
  institutional triangle, which operates via both
  formal and informal channels.)

19
4 The European Parliament Influence over
legislation

• Most non administrative legislation is now
  subject to co-decision (it was scheduled to
  become the ordinary legislative procedure under
  the Constitutional Treaty).
• Co-decision can be cumbersome, which has
  encouraged the institutions to agree much
  legislation at first and second readings only
  about 15 goes to a conciliation committee and
  in these committees over 80 of second reading EP
  amendments are either accepted or are adopted in
  a form that is acceptable to the EP.
• Only two legislative proposals were rejected by
  the EP in the 1999-2004 session.
• Legislative wheels are being oiled by informal
  trialogues and even conciliation meetings at
  first and second readings.

20
4 The European Parliament Influence
limitations

• But, the EP exercises little influence over
• - history making decisions such as
  enlargements, EMU, financial perspectives, or
  treaty reform
• - external policies
• - policy implementation (comitology
  disputes).
• But then, what is the influence of national
  parliaments in these areas?

21
4 The European Parliament Questions for
Consideration

• Should the EP be given more powers?
• Should the EP share its powers with national
  parliaments?
• Is the EP necessarily the main channel for
  addressing the democratic deficit?

22
Inter-state relations 1 the nature of
alliances

• Cleavages in the EU have been mostly
  cross-cutting rather than cumulating. This has
  resulted in a changing and flexible internal
  alliance system, which has been important in
  promoting (relatively) harmonious inter-state
  relations.
• This pattern of cleavages and alliances with
  states coming together in different combinations
  on different issues is broadly continuing in
  the enlarged EU.
• The new member states are not acting as a bloc,
  except partly on budgetary and spending matters.

23
Inter-state relations

• 2 key issues that divide states in the EU
• There are several divisive issues, some of which
  are touch on different visions of the nature of
  the EU project. These issues include
• How should decisions in the EU be made?
• How liberal (non interventionist) should EU
  economic policies be?
• What should be the size of the EUs budget?
• Where should the spending priorities be?
• How independent should EU foreign and defence
  policies be of the Atlantic Alliance?

24
The importance of ideology 1

• The established view is that ideology is not as
  important at the EU level as it is at the
  national level in shaping EU policy-making,
  because of
• The supposedly technical nature of many EU
  policies.
• The requirement on the main proposer of policies
  the Commission to act in a non partisan
  manner.
• The emphasis on consensus that so characterises
  EU policy processes.
• The dispersal of power between institutions
  means there is not a majority/minority cleavage
  between left and right..

25
The importance of ideology 2

• But, there is a contrary view
• Many policies are clearly highly political,
  and in any event what is technical for one may
  be highly politicised for another.
• The Commission usually has alternatives
  available when initiating policies it must
  choose.
• Studies reveal a growing importance of ideology
  (as measured by political group membership) in
  determining voting in the EP.
• There have been periods when a near
  ideological majority has existed across the
  policy-making institutions.

26
The importance of ideology 3

• One of these periods of a near majority existing
  across the Council, the Commission, and the EP
  opened in late 2004. What are the policy
  implications of this?
• - greater emphasis on liberalisation of key
  sectors, such as financial services?
• - greater prospects of real action to achieve
  the Lisbon goals?
• - less focus in the post-2006 financial
  perspective on social re-distribution measures?

27
Leadership 1

• In states, there normally is a (reasonably)
  clear focus of political leadership provided by
  a combination of constitutional stipulations and
  electoral outcomes.
• In the EU, there is no such clear focus
  leadership is dispersed and is contested. There
  is no government and no party political system
  grouped into majority and minority camps.
• The main potential sources of leadership are the
  Commission, the European Council, the Council
  Presidency, and groups of member states. All of
  these potential leadership sources have potential
  power resources, including
• - treaty powers
• political status
• information and expertise
• political skills

28
Leadership 2

• These competing sources of leadership have
  resulted in leadership within the EU shifting
• - Between types of leadership
• To frame public discourse
• To set policy agendas
• To make policy proposals
• To drive decision-making
• - Over time
• - Between issue areas

29
Leadership 3

• But, though leadership is dispersed, the
  argument that the EU lacks leadership or
  driving-force would appear to be undermined by
  the clear leadership that has been offered on
  many important issues since the mid-1980s. For
  example the SEM (Commission and UK?) EMU
  (France and Germany?) enlargement (Commission?)
  ESDP (France and UK, plus the High Representative
  for CFSP?) Lisbon Process (European Council and
  Commission?).
• But, does the EU of 25 plus, with its greater
  diversity and with the declining force of the
  Franco-German axis, not need stronger
  institutional leadership than has existed in the
  past?

30
Leadership 4

• The Constitutional Treatys solution
• The Treatys provisions arguably made the
  existing situation even worse. There would be
  four main institutional sources of leadership
• - the European Council President
• - The Presidency of the Council of Ministers
• - The Commission President
• - The Union Foreign Minister
• This solution clearly demonstrated the
  reluctance of (a sufficient number) of member
  states to create strong overall supranational
  leadership in the EU.