A Parliament with a Purpose

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European Alternatives is calling on the European Parliament to demand Jose Barroso, President of the European Commission, make European decision-making more democratic. Over the coming months the Parliament has an opportunity to make its voice heard in a new institutional settlement with the Commission

CAMPAIGN UPDATE

European Alternatives has been running a campaign for greater democracy in the EU over January 2010. During this time the European Parliament has been auditioning the nominated European Commissioners, and voted to approve the entire Commission on the 9th February.

We have been calling for three conditions to be met to improve the democratic importance of the European Parliament, without having to change the current treaties.
These conditions are the following:

The conditions:

Laws proposed by the citizens’ representatives
If the European Parliament proposes a legislative measure, the European Commission should come up with a legislative proposal within a year. This means that the Parliament can effectively make European laws on behalf of the citizens it democratically represents

A foreign policy responsible to the citizens
Members of the European Parliament should take an active part in the negotiation of all international agreements of the European Union. This means European citizens can finally have a say over the foreign policy of the European Union

International representatives agreed by the citizens
Nominations for the key posts of the EU External Action Service should be approved by the Parliament after facing a hearing. If these people are meant to represent EU citizens abroad, they must have the approval of the citizens’ representatives.

These three conditions already have wide support amongst the members of the European Parliament from all parties, and have been much discussed. They do not require changes in the Treaties, but only for the European Commission to agree to carry them out in practice.

On the 27th January representatives of the European Parliament met with Jose Barroso to agree on the basis of a new framework for relations between the Parliament and the Commission.

Barroso granted the parliament a greater role in foreign affairs, the chairman of the relevant parliamentary committee will have a seat in some international negotiations led by the Commission, and the parliament should have more information about foreign relations of the Union. Of course, it will be important to follow how true this is in the proceedings of the institutions over the next 5 years.

Barroso refused the other two requests on our list. He refused to give the parliament any say over the appointment of high officials to the External Action service, and, crucially, he refused the request that the parliament should be able to propose legislation. He only committed the Commission to responding to the suggestions of the parliament within 3 months. Of course, the question is how hard the Commission will be pushed by the parliament to justify its responses to legislative procedures. If the parliament and citizens work together to make the Commission explain itself, then European democracy will be improved.

On the 9th of May, before voting in the new Commission, the European Parliament passed a resolution on the Framework agreement, which is to be concluded with the Commission in the coming months. The resolution can be read here

This resolution notably pushes for the Parliament to have the power to censure individual Commissioners, whereas at the moment it can only censure the entire Commission.

European Alternatives commits to continuing to campaign public for the democratic role of the parliament in the European Union over the coming term of the Commission. The forthcoming period will decide how much more democracy the Lisbon Treaty has brought to the EU. This will be decided the practices that are adopted in implementing the new arrangements. Citizens and parliamentarians must work together to ensure that the voice of European citizens is fully heard and taken into account in Union decisions.

An article on the reasons behind our ongoing campaign can be read here

4 Responses »

Julien Frisch said:

I am against blocking the Commission for the reasons mentioned.

If the Commissioners are qualified and trustworthy to do the job, the new Commission should take office as soon as possible. The old caretaker Commission is in office for too long already, and I want that the EU continues working now.

The first point you raise should have been included in the Lisbon Treaty, and as far as I am informed the Commission is already taking up initiatives that the EP proposes.

The second point is sufficiently vague to support it, but it is no priority unless there are no basic rights included in the Treaties concerned by the Treaties.

And the third point is totally uninteresting – I have no problems with ambassadors named by Ashton; this is what happens in most countries, if I am not mistaken. Many countries don’t even have a system in which their ministers are approved individually (although this would be nice in some cases), but I think appointing ambassadors through parliamentary approval is not important at all.

# 15 January 2010 at 2:38 pm

Niccolò Milanese said:

Thanks Julien.
We disagree with your reasoning:

The argument that the Parliament must not cause a delay in the appointment of the Commission is the same as saying it has no voice at all. The parliament must have the power to reject or delay the appointment of the Commission if it is unhappy with it.
Moreover, there is a caretaker commission at the moment precisely to ensure that the EU continues to function.

It is true that the Commission sometimes takes onboard the proposals of the European parliament, but it is equally true that sometimes they do not. It is no form of democracy to have a commission which only listens to the parliament when it agrees with it. That is why there should be a commitment that whether the Commission agrees or not it will listen to the parliament.

The European union is totally reforming the way in which its foreign relations work. At the moment European parliamentarians are not regularly included in international negotiations. In the Lisbon Treaty there are no specific provisions for this.

Many MEPs have been calling for the nominations of the senior posts of the External action service to face hearings in the parliament to ensure that the representatives of the EU abroad are truly European, and not simply representatives of the most powerful nation states.

# 15 January 2010 at 3:12 pm