Institutional reform 

The need to reform the EU's institutions stems from the fact that they were designed for the original Community of six Member States and are clearly not suited to the needs of an enlarged Union of 25 or more members. It will be increasingly difficult to reach a consensus once the number of participants involved in decision-making increases from the current 15.

Attempts at reforming the EU's institutions were made in the Treaty of Amsterdam and the Treaty of Nice (in force since 1 February 2003). However, the changes it introduced were insufficient and the Convention was called on to propose a new institutional architecture for the Union.

The current status of the EU's main institutions:

• European Parliament: Originally a deliberative assembly, composed of members of national parliaments, with mainly advisory functions, underwent profound change since the first direct elections in 1979. It now assumes legislative, budgetary and political functions. The total number of MEPs is currently 626. The Treaty of Nice raised this ceiling to 732 to take account of the planned enlargement. The composition of the Parliament is the result of a system of "degressive proportionality". This system distorts representativity so that a Luxembourg MEP currently represents 72,000 citizens, while a German represents 829,000.
• Council: It has both legislative and executive functions. The legislative work of the Council is currently spread across a number of different formations. The General Affairs Council co-ordinates the work of other Council formations. The Seville European Council in June 2002 decided to limit the number of Council formations to nine, and to hold separate meetings of the two main areas of activity of the General Affairs and External Relations Council. The Council is currently headed by a rotating system of presidencies, with all Member States taking turns every six months. After enlargement, the period between Presidencies will exceed 12 years, affecting the continuity. It will also be more difficult to reach agreement on the basis of unanimity after enlargement. The Nice Treaty adopted a new triple system requiring a majority of weighted votes, a majority of members of the Council, and a majority representing at least 62 percent of the Union's population. However, this system is very complex and the allocation of votes is degressive, giving smaller Member States greater weight relative to population than to bigger Member States.
• Commission: It is appointed by the Heads of State or Government, acting by qualified majority, and subjected to a vote of approval by the European Parliament, by simple majority. The Commission originally consisted of 9 members, and it currently has 20 (one national from each of 10 smaller Member States, and two from each of the 5 largest Member States). The Treaty of Nice provides for one Commissioner per Member State. Once the Union has reached 27 Member States, there shall be fewer Commissioners than Member States, on the basis of equal rotation.
• European Council: It brings together the Heads of Government or State of the Member States and the President of the Commission. Its objective is to provide the Union with the impetus for its development and define general political guidelines.

 

On 24 April 2003, the Convention Praesidium made a proposal on how to reform the Union's institutions (draft articles 14-23 for Title IV of Part I of the Constitution).

These are some of the main proposals:

• The Union's Institutions (Article 14): The Union will be served by a single institutional framework, consisting of the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council of Ministers, the European Commission, the Court of Justice, the European Central Bank and the Court of Auditors.
• The European Parliament (Article 15): It will, jointly with the Council, enact legislation, as well as exercise functions of political control and consultation. It will elect the President of the European Commission. It will be directly elected by universal suffrage for a term of five years. Its members will not exceed 700 in number. Representation of European citizens will be degressively proportional, with a minimum threshold of four members per Member State.
• The European Council (Article 16): The European Council shall meet quarterly, convened by its President. Decisions of the European Council shall be taken by consensus.
• The European Council Chair (Article 16a): The European Council shall elect its President, by qualified majority, for a term of two and a half years, renewable once. The person elected must be, or have been for at least two years, a member of the European Council. He will represent the Union on issues concerning its common foreign and security policy in the world. The European Council may decide by consensus to create a board consisting of three of its members chosen according to a system of equitable rotation.
• The Council of Ministers (Article 17): It will, jointly with the European Parliament, enact legislation, and carry out policy-making and co-ordinating functions. It will consist of a representative of each Member State at ministerial level for each of its formations. Decisions of the Council shall be taken by qualified majority.
• Council formations (Article 17a): There will be the General Affairs Council, the Legislative Council, the Foreign Affairs Council, the Economic and Financial Affairs Council and a Council on Justice and Security. The Presidency of a Council formation, other than that of Foreign Affairs (chaired by the EU Foreign Minister) is to be undertaken by a Member State for a period of at least a year, taking into account European political and geographical balance and the diversity of all Member States. The General Affairs Council is to ensure consistency in the work of the Council of Ministers and prepare meetings of the European Council. The Legislative Council is to enact European laws and European framework laws. The Council, in its General Affairs formation, may decide on further formations.
• Qualified majority (Article 17b): Qualified majority is to consist of the majority of Member States, representing at least three fifths of the population of the Union.
• The European Commission (Article 18): The European Commission will exercise executive and management functions. Union acts can be adopted only on the basis of a Commission proposal. The Commission will consist of a President and up to fourteen other members. It may call on the help of Associate Commissioners.
• The President of the European Commission (Article 18a): Taking into account the elections to the European Parliament, the European Council, deciding by qualified majority, will propose to the European Parliament a candidate for the Presidency of the Commission. The candidate will be elected by the European Parliament by a majority of its members. Each Member State shall submit a list of three persons, of which at least one must be a woman, whom it considers qualified to be a Commissioner. The President-elect, taking account of European political and geographical balance, will select the members of his Commission and submit them as a body to a vote of approval by the Parliament. The Parliament may pass a censure motion on the Commission, forcing all members of the Commission to resign. The President may appoint Associate Commissioners, chosen according to the same criteria. Their number must not exceed the number of members of the Commission.
• The Foreign Minister (Article 19): The European Council, deciding by qualified majority, with the agreement of the President of the Commission, will appoint the Union's Foreign Minister. He shall conduct the Union's common foreign and security policy. The Foreign Minister will be one of the Vice-Presidents of the Commission.
• The Court of Justice (Article 20): It will ensure respect for the Constitution and Union law. The Court will consist of one judge from each Member State, and will be assisted by Advocates-General. The High Court will include at least one judge per Member State. They will be appointed by common accord of the governments of the Member States for a renewable term of six years.

In addition to that, the Convention Praesidium proposed to set up a new Congress of the Peoples of Europe (Article X of Title VI on "The Union's Democratic Life"). The Congress will provide a forum for contact and consultation in European political life. It is to meet at least once a year, in public. It will be convened and chaired by the President of the European Parliament. One third of the Congress will be members of the European Parliament, two thirds will be representatives of national Parliaments. The total will not exceed 700.

Valy Giscard d'Estaing, the Convention Chairman, forged a compromise on 6 June 2003 that might form a basis for a deal. The main points of the compromise are:

• a new president of the European Council with limited powers to serve for a renewable term of 2.5 years;
• a new EU foreign minister;
• a stronger president of the European Commission;
• an equal rotation of posts in the Commission from 1 November 2009, with a two-tier system of voting and non-voting Commissioners;
• the Commission to propose the EU multi-annual programme;
• the European Parliament to gain voting rights over 34 new policy areas;
• a rotating chairmanship of ministerial Council meetings;
• decisions to be taken by double majority voting from 1 November 2009, consisting of a majority of Member States and 60 percent of the EU's total population.

 

The Convention's Chairman, Valy Giscard d'Estaing, with the support from Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Poland, believes that the new Constitution should change the balance of power in the Union, because it will be heavily tipped in the favour of the smaller Member States after enlargement. Under the current system, the seven smallest EU members, with 2.4 percent of the population, would have more seats and votes on the Commission than the six biggest states, which represent 75 percent of the population. Mr Giscard said: "Taking the number of states into account is one thing. We also have to take into account their populations, because we operate in a democratic way here."

The 18 current and future smaller Member States have rejected the plans, but the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Poland support the plan that would give them more clout in EU decision-making.

On 5 May, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg presented their joint position on the Union's institutional architecture to the European Convention in response to the proposal by the Convention's Praesidium. The main points of the Benelux proposal are:

• The European Parliament elects the Commission President;
• The Council takes decisions by qualified majority, which consists of a majority of Member States representing at least 60 percent of the Union's population;
• The General Affairs Council, chaired by the President of the Commission, ensures the continuity and coherence of the Council's activities and prepares the work of the European Council;
• The Foreign Affairs Council, chaired by the EU Foreign Minister, prepares and adopts the Union's foreign policy as defined by the European Council;
• The European Council meets every three months and takes decisions by unanimity.
• The Council is to be presided by all Member States taking turns every six months;
• The Commission is to consist of maximum 15 Commissioners, assisted by the same number of Assistant Commissioners. Each Member State cannot have more than one Commissioner. Commissioners are to be appointed by rotation, based on the principle of equality of all Member States. The Commission is to take decisions by the majority of Commissioners. Assistant Commissioners cannot vote.
• The Foreign Ministers is one of the Vice-President of the Commission. He/She is to be responsible for the Union's external relations and the security and defence policy.

Dans sa premie r#tion aux propositions du Praesidium, la Commission a d¬arñue les rormes propos3 áient en porte ýaux avec la principe de transparence et mettaient en danger l'5ilibre des pouvoirs tel qui praut actuellement dans le fonctionnement de l'Union. La Commission d¬are qu'au lieu d'accroòe la confiance et la responsabilit les rormes propos3 auraient un effet n¡tif sur l'efficacitÊinstitutionnelle, elle endommagerait la mèode communautaire et entraerait encore plus de confusion "qui fait quoi" dans l'Union. Une telle structure aboutirait probablement ýne duplication des responsabilit`selon la Commission.

On 30 April 2003, the Commission adopted the following position on the institutional reform of the EU:

• There is no need for a full-time European Council President, assisted by a 'Bureau'. It is not clear who will take over the tasks currently performed by the national administrations in charge of the Presidency.
• Each Council formation should designate a member as a President for a one year period.  
• The Council should adopt legislation with a double majority, representing a majority of Member States and a majority of the population. The Praesidium's proposal to raise the threshold to 3/5 of the EU population would render decision-making more difficult.
• External representation should be in the hands of the future Minister for Foreign Affairs/Vice-President of the Commission only for issues related to the Common Foreign and Security Policy. For all other fields, external representation should occur through the Commission.
• The Commission is to consist of one Commissioner per Member State; all Commissioners should have equal status, but powers should be delegated to specific groups of Commissioners.

The European People's Party (EPP) Convention Group rejected the proposals as "autistic". The EPP Convention Group Chairman Elmar Brok (CDU, Germany) said: "President Giscard is in no sense reflecting the views expressed in the Convention. This is purely about reducing the powers of smaller EU countries, the Commission, and the European Parliament."

Daniel Gros and Wolfgang Hager from CEPS propose that the chairman of the various Councils "be (s)elected by its peers for a period of three years" by qualified majority voting to ensure that the office holder has a broad base of consensus. The rotating Presidency could be kept at the Head of States level, suggests CEPS.

Edward Best from the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA) told EurActiv.com: "We should be very careful about going too far in the direction of 'leadership by the large' at the expense of 'coordination by the common'". Mr Best underlined that "management of EU external relations by the Big Few is also sensitive, as is any questioning of the equality of states". "To propose a Union which is still more strongly led by the European Council, and even presided by one of these Heads of State or Government, could be to overlook some basic functions of Community institutions," he warned.

Charles Grant, Director of the Centre for European Reform (CER), proposed the establishment of four 'super-councils': the Ecofin, the General Affairs Council, a new Foreign Affairs Council, and a Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) Council. The Ecofin, General Affairs and JHA Councils should each elect one of their number as chairman, for a period of two-and-a-half years. The Foreign Affairs Council should be chaired by the High Representative, appointed by the heads of government. He should also assume the external functions of the rotating presidency. The existing sectoral councils would become 'sub-councils', and should be chaired by the sectoral Commissioners, with the exception of the Defence sub-council that should be chaired by one of the Defence Ministers. The GAC would co-ordinate their work, except when financial issues were to the fore, when Ecofin would do the job. The chairmen of the super-councils should become formal members of the European Council. They and the Commission president would be the transmission channels for implementing summit decisions and guidelines, proposes Mr Grant.

The European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT), representing leading European industrialists, called on the EU Convention to reinforce the powers of the Commission. The ERT stated at the Convention's working session on 25 June that a stronger Commission is key to making the Union more competitive because it is "the genuinely Europe-focused institution and the one most capable of articulating the common European interest above national and regional interests". The ERT backed the Commission's call for more economic powers. It expressed concern that the Commission's economic powers would be eroded by transferring them to the Member States or by creating a system of "shared responsibility". The ERT also supported proposals by Romano Prodi, the Commission President, to create an inner cabinet inside the Commission to prepare for the enlargement, which will increase the Commission size to 27 members. The industrialists fear that enlargement will make the decision-making in the Commission more difficult.