The EU institutions and the decision-making process

As in any other policy area, European public health policies are developed in a sharing of responsibilities between the Council, The European Parliament and the Commission. This division of responsibilities and influence can be described as follows:

The Council of the European Union[1] is the EU's main decision-making body. It represents the Member States, and therefore, is composed of one representative of each EU national government. Each Minister is empowered to commit their Government during meetings and is politically accountable to their own national Parliament and to the citizens that Parliament represents. The acts of the Council can take the form of regulations, directives, decision, common actions or common positions, recommendations, conclusions or opinions. When acting as a legislator, it is in principle the European Commission that makes proposals that are examined by the Council, which can modify them before adopting. Council meetings are limited to specific subject areas, like health and attended by the relevant Ministers from each Member State.

The European Parliament[2] is the European body that directly represents the people of the Member States. It expresses the democratic will of the Unions citizens and represents their interests in discussions with other EU institutions. It consists of around 730 members, with each country having formally agreed number of deputies based on the size of its population. The European Parliament has three fundamental powers: legislative power, budgetary power and supervisory power in accordance with the Treaty.

The European Commission[3] is designed to be a politically independent institution that represents and uphold the interests of the EU as a whole. The Commissioners are appointed for a five-year period. The Commission is the driving force within the EU's institutional system and has the role of monitoring the respect of the EU Treaties. The Commission has the right to make proposals to the Council and Parliament.

It is the Council and Parliament that pass European laws. Before this stage it is the European Commission that proposes new legislation and defines the legal basis for the proposal in the EU treaties. The legal basis chosen determines the method of decision-making to be followed. The rules and procedures for EU decision-making are laid down in the treaties. Every proposal for a new European law is based on a specific treaty article, referred to as the ‘legal basis' of the proposal. This determines which legislative procedure must be followed. The three main procedures are 1) consultation – the Council consults the Parliament as well as the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and the Committee of the Regions (CoR). The Parliament can accept or reject a proposal presented by the Commission. It may also suggest amendments, which the Commission will consider introducing. The Council however is not obliged to accept the amendments and its decision is final. 2) Assent – means that the Council has to obtain the Parliament's assent before certain very important decision is taken. The Parliament can accept or reject a proposal presented by the Commission. However, it cannot amend a proposal. Acceptance requires absolute majority of the vote cast. This procedure is the least used, but is applied to certain very delicate and important areas. 3) Co-decision – this is the most common procedure for adopting EU legislation and requires official approval of both the European Parliament and the Council. Both bodies are on an equal footing and have the chance to propose amendments to the text.

In addition ‘Commitology' may be defined as a process for adopting measures to implement legislative acts. In this process measures are adopted by the Commission, assisted by a committee of experts from the Member States. This process was devised when the Council began delegating executive powers to the Commission. It was first introduced in 1962 to implement a series of Council regulations organising the market in agricultural products and has continued to be used in the CAP sphere. The number of such committees has grown considerably since then. The Parliament must be fully informed of any measures under the commitology procedure when the basic legislation is adopted by co-decision[4]

In addition the European Court of Justice has been a major catalyst for activity in the European Commission and deserves a mention. It has taken some brave judgments and conviction in the face of vested interests and States has firmly anchored health care into the Internal Market.

The EU's decision-making system has evolved over half a century. But it was originally designed for a community of six nations. The system therefore needs simplifying. Questions regarding who should be responsible for doing what and how democratic decisions should be made in a Union of 27 or more countries. The Constitution for Europe[5] (2004) represented the completion of a long process of integration marked by ever-closer integration and by the successive enlargements of the Union. The European Council established the European Convention (Member States, European Parliament, national parliaments and the Commission) to prepare the reform and make proposals. It proposed an in-depth reform of the Union to make it more effective, more transparent, more comprehensible and closer to European citizens. But French and Dutch voters rejected it in 2005.

The EU leaders unleashed a new initiative at a summit in Berlin (March 2007) to draw up a fast-track replacement for the failed EU constitution by Christmas. The German Chancellor Angela Merkel has stated that she wants the new text to include as much as possible of the proposed constitution. Agreement by EU leaders on a new treaty by December would leave up to 18 months for each country to ratify it.

[1] For more information see; http://www.consilium.europa.eu/showPage.asp?id=242〈=en

[2] For more information see; http://www.europarl.europa.eu/

[3] For more information see; http://ec.europa.eu/index_en.htm

[4] For more information see; http://www.europarl.europa.eu/igc1996/fiches/fiche21_en.htm

[5] For more information see; http://europa.eu/scadplus/constitution/index_en.htm