Brexit. Its everywhere, you can’t escape it. And yet, it seems to me that a lot of people do not understand what the European Union actually is! And yet surely how it works, functions and how it affects the UK is crucial to understand how to leave the EU and the impact Brexit will have on our country. So, what is it?
To try to answer this questions I am going to give an overview of some key areas and quash some common misconceptions about the EU. For example, that the EU is unelected and therefore undemocratic. I am going to start in this blog by giving an overview of the institutional framework of the European Union and consequently quash this particular misconception.
The Council
The council consists of one representative from each Member State. This is not a fixed body as the representatives will change depending on the topic to be discussed at each meeting. For example, if the meeting was involving agriculture then the representatives from each state would be their agricultural ministers. Each Member State will have a President of the Council at some point as the Presidency rotates every six months from one Member State to another based on a pre-agreed rota. The Council is responsible for co-coordinating the general economic policies of the Member States.
The European Council
The European Council consists of the Heads of State or Government of the Member States and its President. It will only meet about 5 or 6 times a year. It’s role is to discuss key political decisions and establish policy guidelines. It is an important mechanism for inter-government cooperation. The current President is Donald Tusk.
The Commission
There is a Commissioner for every Member State who are appointed every 5 years. The selection process is as follows:
- The European Council agrees by qualified majority voting (QMV) whom to nominate for Commission President. This President – designate must be approved by Parliament.
- The European Council and President – designate select the other members of the Commission. This is adopted via QMV by the European Council and sent to the Parliament for approval. The Parliament will vote on whether to approve or not
- The new Commission will be appointed by the European Council
In reality, those chosen by the President-designate and the European Council are the individuals chosen by the Member States.
Their functions include: Implementing Union policies and the budget; ensuring Member States comply with their obligations under EU law, administering and enforcing EU Competition Law and negotiating international agreements between the EU and other countries.
The Parliament
The number of MEPs from each Member State is determined by the size of the state’s population. MEPs have to be directly elected in their Member State based on the voting systems of that state. They sit according to political sympathies rather than nationality. Parliament has supervisory and legislative powers.
Unelected?
Clearly, the members of the Council and European Council are made up of elected politicians in their own Member States. Therefore, they are elected. Clearly, MEPs in the Parliament are elected in their own Member States. The Commission is technically chosen by the European Council and President – designate. However, firstly the European Council is made up of elected Heads of State and secondly, in reality the candidates proposed by the Member States are generally chosen.
In my next blog I will go through how the EU creates and passes legislation to build on this basic framework.
