EU Treaties and Institutions

In Italy's parliamentary elections on 25 September, the extreme right under Giorgia Meloni looks set to win. The right-wing populist is considered particularly Eurosceptic. Nevertheless, the Centro Politiche Europee ROMA (cep) does not expect an anti-EU political course. According to the author, the room for manoeuvre of a government of right-wing extremists and centre-right parties were too small for that.

The Secretary General of the Italian Federation of Banks, Insurance and Financial Markets and Professor of Political Economy, Paolo Garonna, explains in the new cep Network format, GuestAdhoc, his position on EU-Africa relations disrupted by the war in Ukraine. According to him, the war in Ukraine has led to a major crisis in EU-Africa relations, despite the fact that the European Union-African Union summit held on 17 and 18 February was perceived as a success by observers.

The European Union is lurching from one crisis to the next. Economic prosperity and democratic consensus are at risk as it never happened before. Because of this, the Centres for European Policy Network (cep) calls for rapid reforms and, more than ever, for a multi-speed Europe. Otherwise, irreversible political, economic and technological regression looms.

Whether it is the unanimity principle, the rule of law or geostrategic importance: the European Union is at a crossroads. Germany, France and Italy - supported by new bilateral treaties - want to make the EU more capable of acting and return it to the international stage as an important player.

Poland and Hungary are increasingly abusing the EU's unanimity principle to block decisions and enforce their own benefits. With attacks on the rule of law, they undermine European values and ultimately the sovereignty of the EU. There are hardly any remedies in sight. Ejection from the EU is just as difficult to implement as an "EU 2.0", as a study by the Centre for European Policy (cep) shows.

In a year from now, Europe will go to the polls. But how legitimate and democratic is an election in which turnout is low, no uniform binding rules apply and Spitzenkandidaten (the party nominees for President) play only a minor role? The Centres for European Policy Network (cep) calls for uniform procedures, issues and campaigns to strengthen the Parliament, and for a lowering of the voting age to 16 across the EU.

Albania, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Northern Macedonia: for years, the countries of the Western Balkans (WB6) have been striving to join the European Union. For just as long, the EU has been stalling them, citing rule-of-law and economic deficits. The Centre for European Policy (cep) considers this hesitation dangerous in view of the geopolitically tense situation for Europe and therefore pleads for a quick admission - under changed institutional conditions.

The Ukraine war is pushing the presidential elections in France into the background. At the same time, the question of more European sovereignty is coming into focus - a concern of Emmanuel Macron's since the first day of his presidency. The Centre de Politique Européenne in Paris has examined the situation in France in the light of Russia's war of aggression on a neighbouring state of the EU.

"Dare to take progress further" is the motto of the traffic light coalition. 100 days after taking office, the SPD, the Greens and the FDP still have a lot of work to do. This is the result of the TESS progress index compiled by cep. The index measures progress in the 27 EU states under the headings of technology, environment, social affairs and state.

A further cepAdhoc assesses the main tasks which future EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will be entrusting to the future Commission Vice-President Jourová and Justice Commissioner Reynards, in the areas of rule of law, fundamental rights, consumer protection and European Parliament elections.

A cepAdhoc assesses the core health policy tasks which von der Leyen will be entrusting to the assigned Commissioners. Vice-President Schinas, in Public Health, and Executive Vice-President Timmermans, in Food Safety and Animal and Plant Protection, will work together with Commissioner Kyriakides.

A cepAdhoc assesses the main tasks, regarding digitalisation, competition law and the internal market, which von der Leyen will be entrusting to her proposed Executive Vice-President Vestager and the Commissioners assigned to her in the area of Internal Market and (partly) Economy.

The cep evaluates in five cepAdhocs Ursula von der Leyen's central work assignments to the new EU commissioners. The second one deals with the topic "A European Green Deal", for which Frans Timmermans will be responsible as Executive Vice-President.

The cep evaluates in five cepAdhocs the central work orders from Ursula von der Leyen to the new EU commissioners. The first cepAdhoc deals with the topic "An economy that works for people", for which Valdis Dombrovskis will be responsible as Executive Vice-President.

With the creation of an EU Finance Minister, the European Commission wants to improve coordination of economic policy in the EU. With this aim, he will combine three offices into one - EU Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Union, Chair of the Eurogroup and Chair of the Board of Governors of the European Monetary Fund.

The EU Commission wants to make decision-making in the comitology procedure easier and more transparent. cep believes that the proposed aim, of making Member States take greater responsibility, is appropriate. The Commission does not have the necessary democratic legitimacy and public acceptance to make politically sensitive decisions.

On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome, cep makes an appeal to national and EU politicians as well as to EU citizens.

Based on the realisation that Europe can only succeed together, cep provides a reminder of what has been achieved in the last 60 years, refers to the crises that are currently sending shock waves through the continent and then looks to the future.

A White Paper presented by the UK Government on 2 February 2017 outlines the strategy of the United Kingdom for the exit negotiations with the EU. It entails several new notable accents.

Brexit negotiations could produce a "Ukraine Plus Model". This is the conclusion reached by the authors of the latest cepAdhoc. They compare the British Prime Minister's proposals with agreements which the EU has concluded with other countries.

For the first time, in light of the latest developments in Poland, the EU Commission applies what is known as the EU rule of law mechanism. The instrument was introduced in order to supplement the EU's toolbox for protecting common values in the Member States.

In order to shorten the legislative process in the EU, the European Parliament, Council and EU Commission have agreed to reach agreements in negotiations behind closed doors - the informal trialogues - prior to the respective first reading of the legislative proposal. In cep's view, this procedure is in urgent need of an overhaul.

EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has given a widely watched speech on the State of the Union. The refugee crisis was at the centre of the speech. Given the predominance of this burning issue it was somewhat overlooked by many observers that Juncker at the same time also presented the Commission Working Programme for 2016.

The EU Commission is convinced that EU legislation can be improved. With the "Better Regulation Package" it has therefore taken measures to increase the quality of legislation. cep considers whether it has been successful in this regard.

In the three years since its introduction, over 50 European Citizens’ Initiatives (ECI) have been started. Nevertheless, the hurdles are tough: at least one million citizens from at least seven Member States must support the Citizen’s Initiative before the EU Commission will look into it.

The cep traces the development of the principle of subsidiarity and demonstrates that to date – five years after entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty – the principle of subsidiarity has failed to limit the exercise of power. It then offers five suggestions on how to strengthen the principle of subsidiarity in the EU.

The negotiations between the EU and the US on the free trade agreement TTIP are a hot topic at the moment. Investment protection in particular is the subject of heated debate. The cep takes a closer look at what kind of investment protection is really needed.

The four Presidents of the European Council, the Commission, the Eurogroup and the European Central Bank (ECB) have proposed measures to improve the stability of the Euro Zone.

The Commission wishes to combat offences that have a detrimental effect on the EU budget by harmonising provisions on penalties. To this end, it proposes a harmonisation of the relevant offences and prescription periods for prosecutions as well as minimum sanctions depending on the severity of the offence.

The Fiscal Compact of 2 March 2012 obliges the Contracting Parties to introduce a debt brake into national law. Amongst other things, it provides for a correction mechanism obliging the Contracting Parties directly in case of default. Thus the budgetary discipline of Contracting Parties is to be strengthened. The Commission proposes seven principles which the Contracting Parties should take into in shaping national laws.

The EU Heads of State and Government (apart from Great Britain and the Czech Republic) entered into an agreement to improve the budgetary discipline of the Contracting Parties. The Contracting Parties undertake to transpose a debt brake into their national legal systems and to facilitate the imposition of sanctions in the deficit procedure.

 “Implementing acts” serve to implement a legally binding EU legal act. Implementing binding legal EU acts according to national law is in principle the duty of Member States. If an EU-wide implementation is required, the basic legal act serves to delegate implementing powers to the Commission. The Member States control the exercise of the implementing powers by the Commission through committees. The Regulation rules such committee procedures.

As a reaction to serious tension on the financial market, on 21. July 2011, the heads of states and governments of the euro zone decided to amend the existing EFSF. The objective of the amendments is to increase the operative volume of the EFSF and to provide it with new legal instruments.

The MFF sets the legally binding ceilings for the annual budgets in advance and thus serves to maintain the budgetary discipline and the transparency of the budgetary procedure. The Commission proposes an EU financial volume to the amount of 1.11% of GNI (1,083 bn Euro). It is to consist of the actual MFF to the amount of 1.05% of GNI (1,025 bn Euro) and ), and further “possible“ expenditures outside the MFF to the amount of 0.06% of GNI (58 bn Euro) which are increased compared to the volume of 2007-2013.

The EU has been granting tariff preferences to developing countries since 1971 to help them improve their performance on the global market and to aid their economic development. The basis for that is the “Scheme of Generalised Tariff Preferences” (GSP). The Commission wishes to revise the existing tariff preference scheme and to suspend a number of countries which until now have been GSP beneficiaries as it deems them competitive at international level. 

“Implementing acts” serve the purpose of implementing legislative EU acts. The implementation of legally binding EU acts subject to national law is principally a task of the Member States. If an implementation is required throughout the EU, the basic act provides for a conferment of powers upon the Commission. The Regulation Proposal is laying down the rules for control by Member States of the Commission’s exercise of implementing powers.

With the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon the legal basis for the comitology system- the procedure according to which the EU Commission may adopt acts - was revoked. In future, the delegation of legislative powers to the Commission will be subjected to Art. 290 and 291 TFEU. However, detailed rules regarding the delegation and scrutiny of how these are exercised are not provided for in the new Treaty. These will have to be the objective of an agreement to be concluded between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission. However, the interests of these parties differ considerably in parts. In its Communication (COM(2009) 673 the Commission has presented its vision of how the new procedure should be shaped.