1. Comparative Politics 1 POL1010
Lecture 5
4th November 2004, 3-4pm
The European Union I: The Supranational System and Its Institutions

2. POL1010 Admin Formative Essay – Tuesday 16th November 2004
Next lecture – 18th November, next
week is reading week

3. Lecture Plan Introduction to the EU
European Integration: A Brief History
What does the EU Look Like? EU Institutions
European Commission
Council of Ministers
European Parliament
European Court of Justice

4. Introduction to the EU Historical primacy of the state
Post-1945 push for peace and the rise of international organisations
EU – unique post-war international org (formerly, EEC and EC)
EU – not a conventional international org

5. European Integration: A Brief History
Forces for integration:
Post WW2 – physical destruction and
nationalism discredited
Churchill – ‘United States of Europe’
Need to bridge French / German Hostility
Cold War and American Support

6. Milestones in European Integration
1951 – European Coal and Steel Community
1957 – Treaty of Rome – EEC and Euratom
1973 – 1st enlargement (UK, Ireland, Denmark)
1979 – direct elections to the European Parliament
1981 – 2nd Enlargement (Greece)
1986 – Single European Act
1986 – 3rd enlargement (Spain, Portugal)
1992 – Treaty of EU (Maastricht)
1995 – 4th enlargement (Austria, Finland and Sweden)

7. What does the EU look like?
International Organisations –
within these multiple national groups, corporations and governments cooperate on matters of mutual interest
the EU is an international organisation in the sense that its members are nation-states
orthodoxy of these international organisations intergovernmental decision-making – i.e. countries make bargains and set compromises between one another
This can be contrasted with supranationalism

8. EU Institutions Four main institutions: European Commission
Council of Ministers (CofM)
European Parliament (EP)
European Court of Justice (ECJ)
to understand a governmental system – we
need to note that: they are engaged in activity
in which there are a substantial number of
elements which are interconnected (Easton,
1953: ).

9. European Commission Its main tasks involve: 1.power to initiate policy
2.policy implementation
3.supervision and management
4.guardian of the treaties and European law
5.negotiates for the EU on the world stage on economics
European Commission – DUAL FUNCTIONS:
provider of both stability and dynamism within the
Community

10. European Commission: Basic Facts
College of Commissioners:
1 President (President designate is Jose Manual Barroso)
24 Commissioners – 1 from each member state
Need approval from the European Parliament (2/3 vote to get rid of the Commission team)
Importance of the President – previous Presidents Hallstein and Jacques Delors
‘eurocrats’
Civil service made up of ‘Directorates-General’

11. European Commission: Analytical View
The Commission can be understood as being the both the bureaucracy (secretariat) and the political Executive of the EU
The Commission is ‘supranational’ in character – i.e. sits above and, to a certain extent, autonomous of the member states. This contrasts it with intergovernmental decision-making – like the C of Ministers.
Commission was a ‘purpose built’ institution

12. The Council of Ministers I
Power and central institution
Represents the interests of the member states
Primary decision-making body:
‘The Commission proposed and the Council disposed’ (Edwards, 1996: 127)
ultimate decision-making power rested with the Council over most policy areas

13. The Council of Ministers II
Council composition and features:
Council is usually composed of a single Minister from each Member State – e.g. Agriculture Ministers negotiate at the 'Agriculture Council'
Chairmanship of the Council rotates every 6 months – key for national agenda setting
Voting Patterns – Intergovernmental and Lowest Common Denominator

14. European Parliament Only directly elected EU institution (1979)
Expensive talking shop?
Weak in comparison to the member state Parliaments and the Council of Ministers
Treaties have increased its power – co-decision in the Treaty on European Union (1992)
732 members (MEPs)

15. European Parliament – Phoenix from the Ashes I
Since the co-decision procedure increase in the Parliament’s power:
‘…unlike national parliaments it [the European Parliament] is not in decline …. The European parliament is arguably one of the most vital EC institutions’ (Lodge, 1993: 21).

16. European Parliament – Phoenix from the Ashes II
‘… co-decision is fundamentally different from co-operation. Formally Parliament is now an equal partner in the legislative process, with acts adopted under the procedure jointly signed by the presidents of Council and Parliament’ (Earnshaw and Judge, 1996: 110).
Bicameral decision-making with the Council of Ministers – in some policy areas

17. The European Court of Justice (ECJ)
ECJ rulings have pushed the integration process forward since the 1960s
Two particular rulings have been significant – direct effect (1963) and supremacy (1965)
1 Judge per member state
Some assert that the cumulative decisions of the ECJ and the treaties have created a constitution for Europe
NB – ECJ is not the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)

18. European Court of Justice: More than a Neutral Body?
Some assert that the ECJ has
represented the ‘principal motor
for the integration of Europe’ (Mancini in
Volcansek, 1992: 109).

19. Bibliography
Edwards, G. (1996) ‘The Council of Ministers and Enlargement: A Search for Efficiency,
Effectiveness and Accountability’ in Redmond and Rosenthal European Union and
Enlargement: Past, Present and Future
Keohane, R. and Hoffman, S. (1991) The New European Community: Decision-Making
and Institutional Change Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Lijphart, A. (1979) ‘Consociation and Federation: Conceptual and Empirical Links’ in
Canadian Journal of Political Science 22: 3,
Mitrany, D. (1930) ‘Pan Europa – A Hope or a Danger?’ in Political Quarterly 1: 4.
Taylor, P. (1990) ‘Consociationalism and Federalism as Approaches to International
Integration’ in Groom, A.J.R. and Taylor, P. (eds) Frameworks for International
Cooperation New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.
The Commission's homepage is at:
The Council of Ministers’ homepage is at:
The Court of Justice homepage is at:
The European Parliament's homepage is at:
Urwin, D. (1995) The Community of Europe 2nd edn London: Longman.