scholarly journals DECISION-MAKING IN THE EU COUNCIL OF MINISTERS AFTER BREXIT

2021 ◽  
pp. 87-98
Author(s):  
JELENA TODOROVIĆ LAZIĆ
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Member States ◽  
Hybrid Nature ◽  
Qualified Majority ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Council Of Ministers ◽  
The Eu

The EU Council of Ministers is different from other EU institutions because it is both an intergovernmental and supranational authority. This hybrid nature has motivated many authors to focus their research on it. The Council is an intergovernmental institution if we look at who is part of it (representatives of the Member States) while the elements of supranationality are most visible in the deci-sion-making area. The central decision-making institutions, the Council of Ministers can take decisions by qualified majority to be applied even to those countries that have not voted for decision. This decision-making procedure is what makes the Council recognizable, and at the same time this is an area that will be significantly affected by the UK's departure from the Union. Therefore, the subject of this paper is the analysis of decision-making in the Council after Brexit. The aim is to present future changes in this area, bearing in mind the current Lisbon model of qualified decision-making by a double majority. In addition, the paper provides projections on what coalitions in the Council might look like after the departure of one of the larg-est and most influential states.

Admission of European Free Trade Association states to the European Community: effects on voting power in the European Community Council of Ministers

1993 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 629-643 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madeleine O. Hosli
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
European Community ◽  
Trade Association ◽  
Member States ◽  
Voting Power ◽  
European Free Trade Association ◽  
Qualified Majority ◽  
Single European Act ◽  
Council Of Ministers

Several member states of the European Free Trade Association have applied for admission into the European Community (EC). Paradoxically, enlarging the EC in this way will expand the voting power of Luxembourg, the smallest EC member state, in the EC Council of Ministers but diminish the power of the other states. In an EC with more members, voting by unanimity increasingly becomes an impractical decision-making procedure. As the Single European Act and possibly also the Treaty on European Union are being implemented, the distribution of EC council voting power takes on growing importance, since the range of issues to be decided by qualified majority votes increases considerably. Moreover, there are tendencies within the EC to render decision making more transparent and to publish member states' positions taken in majority votes. Thus, the distribution of voting power will increasingly be a crucial aspect for the EC.

Politics in the European Union

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Bache ◽  
Simon Bulmer ◽  
Stephen George ◽  
Owen Parker
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Individual Member ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Eurozone Crisis ◽  
Member States ◽  
Treaty Of Lisbon ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Eu

Politics in the European Union examines the theory, history, institutions, and policies of the European Union. The EU is a unique, complex, and ever-changing political entity which continues to shape both international politics and the politics of its individual member states. The text provides a clear analysis of the organization and presents a well-rounded introduction to the subject. Complete and detailed in its coverage, with a consolidated and updated history section, this text weaves together material on key contemporary concerns including the eurozone crisis and the implementation of the Treaty of Lisbon with a thorough consideration of the workings and remit of the EU.

scholarly journals The democratisation of European nature governance 1992–2015: introducing the comparative nature governance index

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne Kingston ◽  
Zizhen Wang ◽  
Edwin Alblas ◽  
Micheál Callaghan ◽  
Julie Foulon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Eu Law ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
Member States ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Aarhus Convention ◽  
Over Time ◽  
The Eu

AbstractEuropean environmental governance has radically transformed over the past two decades. While traditionally enforcement of environmental law has been the responsibility of public authorities (public authorities of the EU Member States, themselves policed by the European Commission), this paradigm has now taken a democratic turn. Led by changes in international environmental law and in particular the UNECE Aarhus Convention (UNECE, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Convention (1998). Convention on access to information, public participation in decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (the Aarhus Convention), signed on June 25, 1998.), EU law now gives important legal rights to members of the public and environmental non-governmental organisations (“ENGOs”) to become involved in environmental governance, by means of accessing environmental information, participating in environmental decision-making and bringing legal proceedings. While doctrinal legal and regulatory scholarship on this embrace of “bottom-up” private environmental governance is now substantial, there has been relatively little quantitative research in the field. This article represents a first step in mapping this evolution of environmental governance laws in the EU. We employ a leximetrics methodology, coding over 6000 environmental governance laws from three levels of legal sources (international, EU and national), to provide the first systematic data showing the transformation of European environmental governance regimes. We develop the Nature Governance Index (“NGI”) to measure how the enforcement tools deployed in international, EU and national law have changed over time, from the birth of the EU’s flagship nature conservation law, the 1992 Habitats Directive (Directive 92/43/EEC). At the national level, we focus on three EU Member States (France, Ireland and the Netherlands) to enable a fine-grained measurement of the changes in national nature governance laws over time. This article introduces our unique datasets and the NGI, describes the process used to collect the datasets and its limitations, and compares the evolution in laws at the international, EU and national levels over the 23-year period from 1992–2015. Our findings provide strong empirical confirmation of the democratic turn in European environmental governance, while revealing the significant divergences between legal systems that remain absent express harmonisation of the Aarhus Convention’s principles in EU law. Our data also set the foundations for future quantitative legal research, enabling deeper analysis of the relationships between the different levels of multilevel environmental governance.

Explaining Choices of Delegation and Control Regimes

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gijs Jan Brandsma ◽  
Jens Blom-Hansen
Keyword(s):  
Transaction Costs ◽  
European Parliament ◽  
Member States ◽  
Control Structures ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
More Care ◽  
Council Of Ministers ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Eu

This chapter turns from preferences on delegation regimes to decisions and examines how differing preferences are turned into decisions. It focuses on two factors in addition to preferences. First, legislation in the EU is decided under different procedures which provide the actors with different powers to act on their preferences. Second, legislation comes with transaction costs. Controlling delegated powers takes time and requires staff with technical insight. These costs are bearable to the member states in the Council of Ministers because they can rely on their national ministerial systems to exercise control. However, for the European Parliament, exercising control in practice is demanding. The Parliament is therefore likely to choose its battles with more care than the Council. The aim of this chapter is to understand the overall post-Lisbon pattern of delegation and control structures resulting from the numerous negotiations in daily legislative practice.

Wartości czy interesy? Przyczynek do rozważań o istocie procesów integracji w ramach Unii Europejskiej

2018 ◽  
pp. 96-115
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Szczerba-Zawada
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
European Union ◽  
Legal Order ◽  
International Organization ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Common Values ◽  
The Eu

The purpose of this article is to try to outline the essence of membership of the European Union. This international organization, by virtue of the decision of its creators, i.e. the Member States, has been equipped with attributes, which have determined its unique – supranational – character. As a new legal order, the European Union has been granted some scope of autonomy, but ontologically it is dependent on the Member States. It is the Member States that have taken decision on setting up a new integration structure with a center of decision-making located not only outside but also above them, the scope of its competences and instruments of their exercising, and as “masters of the Treaties”, may decide to dissolve it. The decision to join the European Union seems to be determined pragmatically and praxiologically – upon benefits of cooperation within the framework of the EU. In this perspective solidarity, understood as the unity and equality of the Member States, based on common values, becomes a factor legitimizing the EU, and at the same time – a guarantor of its existence, especially in times of crisis.

scholarly journals Status obywatela UE a Europejski Program w zakresie Migracji

2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (22 (180)) ◽  
pp. 163-182
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Strąk
Keyword(s):  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Freedom Of Movement ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Research Material ◽  
Legal Situation ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Eu

Przedmiotem tego artykułu jest próba oceny wpływu Europejskiego programu w zakresie migracji z 2015 r. na status obywatela UE. Ocena ta została zrealizowana w kontekście swobody przemieszczania się na podstawie art. 21 TFUE w dwóch obszarach. Pierwszym z nich jest tymczasowe wprowadzenie kontroli na granicach wewnętrznych państw członkowskich UE, drugim – środki przyjmowane przez państwa członkowskie, związane z utrzymaniem porządku publicznego i bezpieczeństwa publicznego, w tym ochroną przed zagrożeniem terrorystycznym. Materiał badawczy jest jednak stosunkowo nieliczny, ogranicza się do wybranych przepisów Kodeksu Granicznego Schengen i wybranych spraw przed Trybunałem Sprawiedliwości UE, w dalszym ciągu w większości przypadków jeszcze nierozstrzygniętych. Mimo to z analizy tej wynika konkretny wniosek. Przepisy unijne, nawet jeśli faktycznie ograniczają sytuację prawną obywateli unijnych, wpisują się w zakres ograniczeń dopuszczalnych. Rzeczywisty wpływ na ograniczenie praw wynikających z posiadania statusu obywatela UE mają przepisy państw członkowskich. Status of Citizen of the European Union and European Agenda on Migration The subject of this article is to attempt to assess the impact of the 2015 European Agenda on Migration on the status of an EU citizen. This assessment was carried out in the context of freedom of movement under Article 21 TFEU, within two areas. The first one is the temporary introduction of controls at the internal borders of EU Member States, the second one are measures adopted by Member States and related to the maintenance of public order and public security, including protection against the terrorist threat. The research material is however relatively sparse, limited to selected provisions of the Schengen Borders Code and selected cases before the Court of Justice of the EU, still mostly pending. Nonetheless, one conclusion that emerges from this analysis is that EU rules, even if they actually restrict the legal situation of EU citizens, fall within the scope of acceptable restrictions. The real impact on the limitation of the rights attached to the status of EU citizen is in the Member States’ legislation.

scholarly journals European semester–spring package: recommendations for Poland on the socio-economic response to the COVID-19 pandemic

2021 ◽  
pp. 340-350
Author(s):  
Maciej Serowaniec
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
European Union ◽  
Economic Activity ◽  
Economic Systems ◽  
Member States ◽  
Joint Actions ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Package Recommendations ◽  
European Union Member States ◽  
The Eu

Extraordinary circumstances, and the COVID-19 outbreak undoubtedly meets this criterion, therefore require extraordinary solutions, including in the EU and national decision-making process to prevent their escalation. Out of concern for the stability of the economic systems of European Union Member States, it has become necessary to introduce procedures to effectively counteract the effects of COVID-19, including in the area of economic activity. An important role in monitoring these initiatives is now played by the European Semester procedure, which allows Member States to discuss their policies, exchange best practices and agree on joint actions for the future to counteract the effects of COVID-19. This paper aims to present the recommendations for Poland, which were formulated in the framework of the 2020 Spring European Semester.

scholarly journals The EU cohesion policy and economic development of Poland

Equilibrium ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 31-48
Author(s):  
Tomasz Dorożyński
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Equal Opportunity ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Individual Member ◽  
Cohesion Policy ◽  
Member States ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Eu

In order to remove regional economic disparities, the EU realizes the cohesion policy. The evaluation of the cohesion policy from the point of view of experiences of individual member states and the EU is not explicit. What is especially controversial here, are unsuccessful attempts to reach the main goal, which is social, economic and territorial cohesion. It does not mean the negation of outcomes of numerous researches which confirm a positive influence of the cohesion policy on the economic growth. The subject for a discussion is the right balance between the equality and effectiveness. The key issue is an answer to the question who and how to support. The question is whether the aid should be directed at the areas which guarantee the highest added value? Should it be the priority to give equal opportunity to the poorest and to support them? At present the cohesion policy is trying to combine both those goals. However, with the limited measures and rising social, economic and territorial disparities, those actions are ineffective. The pace of economic growth in Poland in the recent years – bigger than the average in the EU – has contributed to the making up for part of a development distance towards the rest of the member states. The cohesion policy had some participation in this process. The evaluation of the influence of the cohesion policy is not easy, though. One has to, however, separate its influence from other factors affecting the social-economic situation of the regions. The main aim of the article is an evaluation of the role of the EU cohesion policy in the stimulation of social-economic development of Poland, in particular its impact on the economy of the regions. The research method is an analysis of the literature of the subject. The bases of the conducted research were: statistical data, program documents, reports, national and EU law, quantitative and qualitative research and secondary sources presented in various studies.

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