EU Decision-making Research Articles

Two sides of the contemporary system of quasi-legislative acts of the Commission of the European Union

The scientific article is devoted to the issue of complex legal analysis of both advantages and disadvantages of the contemporary system of Commission’s quasi-legislative acts which is composed of implementing and delegated acts. Commission’s implementing and delegated acts play a crucial role in the EU, but the abusive application by the EU legislator of the delegation of quasi-legislative powers to the Commission of the EU cause various negative consequences on the EU legal order. The author outlines the following positive sides of Commission’s quasi-legislative acts: acceleration of the EU decision-making process, adding the EU decision-making process flexibility, improvement of the quality of the EU legislative acts and unloading the overall EU legislature’s workload. Taking into account the latest statistics, the author has proved that the process of the adoption of implementing and delegated acts is in four times faster than ordinary and special legislative procedures. It is emphasized that COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 made the EU urgently enact a bunch of legislative acts that were mainly adopted in the form of Commission’s quasi-legislative acts. The author also points out that the quality of the EU’s legislation has been improved as well as EU’s legislator workload has been greatly reduced because of Commission’s implementing and delegated acts. At the same time, the author specifies that the absence of an explicit legal distinction between Commission’s implementing and delegated acts leads to numerous interinstitutional litigations and disputes and undermines the hierarchy of legal acts under the provisions of the Lisbon Treaty. It is established that an excessive application by the Commission of the EU of the quasi-legislative instruments may breach the principle of institutional balance and may lead to the replacement of the sole EU legislator – the European Parliament and the Council. Eventually, the author argues that the lack of transparence and accountability of the Commission of the EU during the process of adoption of implementing and delegated acts deepen the ‘democratic deficit’ problem within the EU.

Asymmetric ratification standards and popular perceptions of legitimacy

ABSTRACT The ratification of EU agreements is characterized by the application of different democratic procedures across member states. Building on the demoi-cratic theory of legitimate global governance, I argue that citizens benchmark their national procedure against highly visible direct democratic ratification votes held in other member states. If citizens experience unequal influence on EU decision-making, the perceived legitimacy of the EU regime erodes. I test this argument with a research design that combines a population-based survey experiment and a quasi-experiment. First, a survey experiment in Germany reveals that information about asymmetric ratification standards decrease fairness perceptions and satisfaction with EU democracy. Second, a natural experiment around the 2005 French vote on the EU constitutional treaty shows that the referendum decreased satisfaction with EU democracy in states with pending and indirect ratification. These findings suggest that asymmetric access of citizens to EU decision-making can decrease popular support for EU governance.

Power in the European Union: an evolutionary computing approach

ABSTRACT Even the best existing model of legislative decisionmaking in the European Union, the compromise model, makes huge prediction errors when it is assumed that each actor’s power is determined by their formal voting weight. A few studies have attempted to improve the model’s predictive accuracy by examining alternative distributions of power, but extending their brute force approach poses daunting computational challenges. In this paper I illustrate how techniques from evolutionary computing can be employed to overcome these challenges. I then demonstrate the new possibilities that this approach opens up by identifying the relative power of each actor that best predicts policy outcomes from the EU-15 period. Some actors appear to punch significantly above or below their formal weight, with power varying dramatically across legislative procedures. My analysis highlights important unanswered questions about power in EU decisionmaking, and potentially indicates fundamental problems with the compromise model or the underlying data.

Quantitative analysis on interest group influence using data from EU open consultations

Online submission of interest group comments was introduced in year 2000 and since then has become a regular instrument of stakeholder consultation, providing a new, recent data source, which has largely been ignored so far. The empirical analysis in this research confirms that information supply via online consultations has only a limited effect on interest group influence. The findings of this research are valuable in gaining a more improved view of the effects of interest group activity targeting EU decision-making.

The Early Warning System and policymaking in the European Union

Does the Early Warning System alert the European Commission about the prospects of passing new policy? We present a model of European Union policymaking in which the Early Warning System plays an important signalling role. In our model, the Commission uses signals from the Early Warning System to update its belief about governments’ voting strategies in the Council. The Commission may then anticipate difficult negotiations by withdrawing its proposal early. We find empirical evidence for our theory: (1) reasoned opinions submitted by national parliaments strongly predict opposition from their governments and (2) the Commission is more likely to withdraw proposals that receive reasoned opinions, even in the absence of a yellow card. Our results run counter to the dominant view in the literature that the Early Warning System is not a very relevant aspect of EU decision-making. Instead, reasoned opinions constitute a clear signal that negotiations are more likely to fail.

The Nexus between Economic Sentiment Indicator and Gross Domestic Product; a Panel Cointegration Analysis

Abstract Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) became the most popular composite indicator within the EU with the purpose of monitoring and/or forecasting business cycles in one country or for a region as a whole. Since it is calculated regularly, on a monthly base, and is based on five distinct confidence indicators, the main concern is whether the ESI can be explained and/or can explain the current, past or future values of relevant macroeconomic variables. This implies its relevance in predicting both short- and long-term economic outcomes of, for example, variation in income, unemployment fluctuations, consumption change, inflation modifications, sectoral alterations and etc. The question that arises often in academic, as well as within the EU decision-making circles is whether the ESI be used as an explanatory variable with valuable information for modelling the national output developments. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to reveal the true strength and significance in the ESI-GDP nexus for the EU. Empirical research is based on panel cointegration analysis that utilizes data on the ESI and GDP over the period 2000-2018 for the EU28 countries. The causal relationship between the variables appears to be consistent in the short- and long-run across the panel, suggesting that ESI movements do explain movements in national output, hence can help both private and public sector decision-makers to evaluate their goals and plan their actions.

The Subsidiarity Principle and National Parliaments Role: From Formal Need to Real Use of Powers

Subsidiarity constitutes a guiding principle of the EU exercising power and the idea of involving national parliaments in the EU legislative procedure was seen as the best solution to increase democracy and transparency of the EU decision-making process at the European Convention established in 2001. Such a mechanism enables national parliaments to ensure the correct application of the principle of subsidiarity by the institutions taking part in the legislative process. This article examines how this principle is implemented by the national parliaments and EU responsible institutions. What is the novelty derived from the Treaty of Lisbon? Do national parliaments participate actively in the implementation of subsidiarity? If yes, what are the tools at their disposal? To answer all of these questions we try to shape a framework for understanding the phenomenon.

EMU’s asymmetries and asymmetries in German and French influence on EMU governance reforms

ABSTRACTThis contribution looks at asymmetries in terms of French and German influence on EMU’s governance reforms during the two decades since the start of EMU in 1999. Drawing on the literature dealing with the sources of power and influence in EU decision-making, this contribution investigates key moments of the evolution and reform of EMU – the establishment and reform of fiscal rules, the creation of fiscal instruments and institutions of risk mutualizing including risk sharing pillars of the Bank Union. It makes a contribution to the literature by providing an account of the asymmetry of German and French influence and power in EMU governance reforms and, most importantly, their variations over time. Furthermore, it contributes to our understanding of the lasting nature of asymmetry in EMU.

ПРОБЛЕМА «ДЕФІЦИТУ ДЕМОКРАТІЇ» ТА ЇЇ ПОДОЛАННЯ У ЄВРОПЕЙСЬКОМУ СОЮЗІ

The article analyzes the approaches to the interpretation of the term "democracy deficit", which takes place in the modern European discourse of integration. It is concluded that in the framework of the first approach, the "deficit of democracy" is linked to the problem of the legitimacy of decisions taken by the "pan-European center". As part of the second with a number of distortions that are prone to a democratic form of government in developed democracies. The causes and conditions of the "democracy deficit" are considered. The peculiarities of legal instruments of citizens' influence on the functioning of the European Union and the problem of the "democracy deficit" at the present stage of its development are considered. The reasons and conditions of "deficit of democracy" emerged, ways of solving this problem were analyzed. The particularities of legal instruments of citizens’ influence on the functioning of European Union and the problem of «democratic deficit» at the modern stage of its development. It is emphasized in the article, that the problem of «democratic deficit» remains a key problem of the EU institutional system and EU decision-making. Legal amendments of the EU founding treaties were provided to minimize the problem of «democratic deficit». The most important changes were determined with the Lisbon Treaty, which fixed several effective legal remedies. For instance, the legislative power of the European Parliament as the unique legitimist institution elected directly by citizens was increased. Changes included the change in calculating such a majority to a new double majority based on in the principle of representation of citizens in the Council of Ministers. The Treaty of Lisbon expanded the role of Member States’ parliaments in the legislative processes of the EU by giving them a prior scrutiny of legislative proposals before the Council and the Parliament can take a position and some control powers. One of the major innovations introduced by the Lisbon Treaty and aims at involving citizens more closely in agenda-setting at EU level is the European citizens’ initiative. The specific character of the EU institutional system and lack of some legal mechanisms of citizens’ participation in the process of EU decision-making, similar to those of national level, demonstrates the existence of the problem of «democratic deficit». Nevertheless modern legislation of EU proves that there is no ground to make a conclusion about weakness of political scope of the European citizenship.

SOME RECENT DEVELOPMENTS REGARDING THE EUROPEAN UNION FISCAL POSITION

During the last decade, fiscal policies in the euro area and structural reforms in the European Union’s countries that experienced different fiscal problems were a priority for the EU decision-makers. The existence of sound and sustainable public finances in the EU and, in particular, in the euro area is based, on the one hand, on macroeconomic stability, and on the other hand, on balanced and sustainable economic growth. This paper focuses on capturing the recent developments in public finances, more precisely some indicators essential for assessing the health of the EU economy and of its Member States. The results of our research show an improvement of them, as a whole, as an effect of structural reforms, investments and also of responsible fiscal-budgetary policies.

The European Parliament and the Layered Politicization of the External Dimension of the Common Fisheries Policy

When the Lisbon Treaty entered into effect, the European Parliament became a core player in the decision-making processes of the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and its external dimensions. This new role suggested a shift towards stronger politicization in what had previously been a rather technocratic policy field. However, the CFP is not yet marked by a clear and consistent level of politicization. I use the concept of ‘layered politicization’ to explain this pattern. Although it is not comparable to the degree of political controversy shaping fully politicized policy fields, some similar political dynamics can be observed. Among them is a transformation in the policy process due to higher ratification requirements; a higher likelihood of political deadlock resulting from an increasing number of veto-players; and a strengthening of the contested legitimacy of EU decision-making. An empirical test of these theoretical propositions is provided here in the form of two case studies; the negotiation of Fisheries Partnership Agreements with Morocco and Mauritania.

A view from the policy community: a new strategic narrative for Europe?

ABSTRACTReflecting on the results presented in articles in this special issue, European leaders should take greater account of external perceptions in crafting the European Union's strategic narrative and guiding its actions. Failure to do so has impaired external policies like the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, the European Neighbourhood Policy and Eastern Partnership. Leaders emerging from the Arab uprisings perceived the EU as complicit with their countries’ former anciens régimes and Russian leaders see EU support for democracy and the market economy in former Soviet states as duplicitous and instrusive. Awareness of such perceptions should be filtered into EU decision-making, without validating views that European officials and diplomats consider misleading.

EU Decision-making Mechanisms: Current Trends

EU Decision-making Mechanisms: Current Trends

Constitutionalization and Entrepreneurship: Explaining Increased EU Steering of Renewables Support Schemes

This article sheds light on two under-researched issue areas: the energy policy-shaping role of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and how constitutionalization of EU state aid law gives the European Commission (Commission) increased leverage over EU policy development. EU state aid governance is embedded in the Treaty of the Functioning of the EU’s prohibition of state aid. The CJEU and the Commissions’ Directorate-General for Competition (DG Comp) have played important roles in the emergence of stronger EU steering of renewable energy support schemes after 2014. For many years, powerful member states, most notably Germany, stopped the adoption of EU rules requiring more market streamlining and European harmonization of renewables support. This primarily played out in regular EU decision-making (co-decision) related to adoption and revision of the Renewable Energy Directive. A radical shift occurred in 2014 when the Commission introduced new guidelines on state aid for environmental protection and energy, giving the Commission increased authority over development of renewables support schemes across Europe. These guidelines called for renewables investments to become more exposed to energy market pricing and introduced auctioning as the main allocation mechanism. Support schemes for renewable energy were included for the first time in the EU state aid guidelines for environmental protection in 2001. Back then, member states had ample leeway to design support schemes as they pleased. The 2014 version of the guidelines includes far more detailed requirements. While the first CJEU ruling on renewables state aid hindered the Commission to intervene, new CJEU rulings after 2008 enabled the Commission to draft more restrictive guidelines. This article concludes that constitutionalization, combined with the policy entrepreneurship of Commission officials, explains the shift in EU steering in 2014. This indicates that constitutionalization and Commission entrepreneurship should be assessed in conjunction. Constitutionalization may be particularly important in the state aid area due to the superior competence of the Commission.

Coalition of states for influence in the European Council. Brexit - a step towards decisional balance in the European Council?

Abstract The EU decision-making process is one that has changed over time with the Treaties, with the extension, modification of EU policies and the areas where the EU is acting. In addition to the above, in 2016 we have one more reason to add to the changing of the decisional process “-Brexit”- a political turnaround that stimulates new changes at the decision-making level and raises questions about the future of the European Union. Federalists claim that these events will lead to a strengthening of the Union, and euro-skeptics claim that this is a step towards breaking the Union. Two years after the Brexit started, the European Union continues to remain a prominent actor in the international arena, but another question is being raised: “Will EU institutions act on the same principles? Or will there be changes in the decision-making process?”. In this article, we will analyse the state coalitions in the decision-making process, and the role of Brexit in forming coalitions for establishing a decisional balance in the European Council. Following the analysis of the power rapport in the European Council, we refer to small and medium-sized states that work together closely to counterbalance the decisions of the big states, and the new coalitions to achieve their goals in the new political context.

National Parliaments and Political Control of EU Competences: A Sufficient Safeguard of Federalism?

It is clear that the formal inclusion of the national parliament as a political actor within the EU decision-making process has been one of the most important innovations of the Lisbon Treaty. Their role, however, remains controversial. It is on the one hand disputed whether national parliaments enjoy sufficient powers to tame ‘competence creep’. On the other hand, it is contested to what extent it is desirable that they should become involved as a legislative actor in the EU’s decision-making procedure. This essay contributes to these debates by critically examining to what extent national parliaments can contribute to the enforcement of the subsidiarity principle. The article contends that national parliaments by having taken a too expansive view of their remit under Protocol No 2 appears to have ‘misunderstood’ their role within the EU- decision making procedure. Notwithstanding this, it is sustained that national parliaments could, in the absence of other trustworthy safeguards of federalism, be seen as a promising avenue for legitimate political control of the exercise of EU competences

Editorial

Editorial

Case C-57/16P ClientEarth v Commission: Citizen’s participation in EU decision-making and the Commission’s right of initiative

Case C-57/16P ClientEarth v Commission: Citizen’s participation in EU decision-making and the Commission’s right of initiative

Opposition or consensus in the Justice and Home Affairs Council? The how and why of increasing member state contestation over EU policy

ABSTRACTThe article fills a research gap on voting behaviour in the Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) Council by presenting an analysis of 12 years of voting records (2004 to 2016). Consensus, said to be the default option for EU decision-making, was also dominant in the JHA field. However, the research observes a tremendous increase in ‘no’ votes and abstentions during the post-Lisbon period. In explaining contestation, a qualitative analysis of interview data and voting statements identifies four dominant reasonings: contestation can be related to member states’ sovereignty concerns, imply a critique on the respective proposal’s expected functionality, mark a misfit with national rules and politics, or point to unwanted budgetary effects. The findings show that the JHA Council has become more publicly political and has come to be a venue for national expression of discontent over the details of an EU Area of Freedom Security and Justice.

International dimensions of EU soil policy – The main binding and non-binding legal instruments

Global soil degradation is one of the most challenging environmental problems which requires an effective solution. However, the issue of soil protection is almost completely lacking in the field of international environmental law, which does not help address this problem successfully. This legislative indifference can also be observed in EU decision-making, even though it intends to play a leading role in the domain of environmental protection and nature conservation at global level. In addition to highlighting the importance of soils, this paper aims at presenting major international legal instruments defining EU soil policy. It provides an overview of binding and non-binding legal sources, international initiatives and programmes that have had a significant impact on the European soil protection. The social, economic and legal environment defined by them give EU legislation the room for manoeuvre, significantly affecting the everyday life of present and future generations. The role of soil as a natural resource, however, seems to be appreciative in recent years, as demonstrated by some international documents. At the same time, until the achievement of long-term, sustainable soil management and the creation of a ‘land degradation neutral world’, there is still a long way to go and this would be greatly aided by a comprehensive, modern approach to legislation.