European Parliament, general information

Powers and procedures

The Parliament acts as a co-legislator, sharing with the Council the power to adopt and amend legislative proposals and to decide on the EU budget. It also supervises the work of the Commission and other EU bodies and cooperates with national parliaments of EU countries to get their input. See how it all works here.

 

 Organisation and rules

Learn more about how an international, multi-lingual, political institution like the European Parliament functions on a daily basis. Find out about the procedures, the places of work, the people that provide support to the MEPs and the EP budget.

Human rights and democracy

The Parliament sees its role not only in promoting democratic decision-making in Europe but also in supporting the fight for democracy, freedom of speech and fair elections across the globe. Learn more about how Parliament stands for human rights in the world.

 

 EP in the past

Parliament has been steadily gaining powers through successive amendments of the European treaties which have given more and more clout to EU’s only directly elected body. See how the Parliament gradually emerged as a key player in the EU decision-making process.

Ordinary legislative procedure

The ordinary legislative procedure gives the same weight to the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union on a wide range of areas (for example, economic governance, immigration, energy, transport, the environment and consumer protection). The vast majority of European laws are adopted jointly by the European Parliament and the Council.

The codecision procedure was introduced by the Maastricht Treaty on European Union (1992), and extended and made more effective by the Amsterdam Treaty (1999). With the Lisbon Treaty that took effect on 1 December 2009, the renamed ordinary legislative procedure became the main legislative procedure of the EU´s decision-making system.

Budgetary powers

 Following the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, the European Parliament now shares the power to decide on the entire annual budget of the EU with the Council of the European Union and it has the final say.

Supervisory powers

The President of the European Parliament has the right to speak at the start of each European Council, setting out Parliament’s position on the subjects to be addressed by the heads of state and government.

After each summit the President of the European Council presents a report to the European Parliament on the outcome.

Sources: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/aboutparliament/en/20150201PVL00006/Supervisory-powers

https://www.google.ro/search?q=european+parliament&biw=1280&bih=895&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=2T9cVfSSCJDB7AbRpoOwBg&sqi=2&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ#imgrc=xRYs3BayP3_BBM%253A%3BsLYbbaY-AWINhM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fprobonojournal.com%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252F2014%252F12%252FEuropean-Parliament-S.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fprobonojournal.com%252Fpope-francis-in-front-of-the-european-parliament%252F%3B3072%3B2304

 

 

European Commision, general informations

Composition

The 28 commissioners, one from each EU country, provide the Commission’s political leadership during their 5-year term. Each Commissioner is assigned responsibility for specific policy areas by the President.

The current President of the European Commission is Jean-Claude Juncker.

The President is nominated by the European Council. The Council also appoints the other Commissioners in agreement with the nominated President.

Purpose

The Commission represents and upholds the interests of the EU as a whole. It oversees and implements EU policies by: proposing new laws to Parliament and the Council ; managing the EU’s budget and allocating funding ; representing the EU internationally, for example, by negotiating agreements between the EU and other countries.enforcing EU law (together with the Court of Justice).

Enforcing European law

As ‘guardian of the Treaties’, the Commission checks that each member country is applying EU law properly.

If it thinks a national government is failing to apply EU law, the Commission first sends an official letter asking it to correct the problem. As a last resort , the Commission refers the issue to the Court of Justice. The Court can impose penalties, and its decisions are binding on EU countries and institutions.

Representing the EU internationally

The Commission speaks on behalf of all EU countries in international bodies like the World Trade Organisation.

It also negotiates international agreements for the EU such as the Cotonou Agreement (on aid and trade between the EU and developing countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific).

Location

The Commission is based in Brussels and Luxembourg and has offices (representations) in every EU country and delegations in capital cities around the world.

sources: http://europa.eu/about-eu/institutions-bodies/european-commission/index_en.htm

EU relations and agreements with USA

History

The EU and U.S. are the biggest economic and military powers in the world (even if the EU does not have a common defense policy), they dominate global trade, they play the leading roles in international political relations, and what one says matters a great deal not only to the other, but to much of the rest of the world. And yet they have regularly disagreed with each other on a wide range of specific issues, as well as having often quite different political, economic, and social agendas. Due to the European Union not having a fully integrated foreign policy, relations could be more complicated where the EU did not have a common agreed position e.g. EU foreign policy was divided during the Iraq War. Understanding the relationship today means reviewing developments that predate the creation of the European Economic Community (precursor to today’s European Union).

Trade

Euro-American relations are primarily concerned with trade policy. The EU is a near-fully unified trade bloc and this, together with competition policyt, are the primary matters of substance currently between the EU and the USA. The two together represent 60% of global GDP, 33% of world trade in goods and 42% of world trade in services. The growth of the EU’s economic power has led to a number of trade conflicts between the two powers; although both are dependent upon the other’s economic market and disputes affect only 2% of trade. See below for details of trade flows.

Eu – US policy

Annual Summits are held between United States and European Union policy makers. When these take place in Europe, they have historically taken place in the country that holds the rotating Precidency of the European Union.

Defence contracts

In March 2010 EADS and its U.S. partner pulled out of a contract to build air refuelling planes worth $35 billion. They had previously won the bid but it was rerun and EADS claimed the new process was biased towards Boeing. The European Commision said it would be “highly regrettable” if the tendering process did prove to be biased. There was substantial opposition to EADS in Washington due to the ongoing Boeing-Airbus (owned by EADS) dispute.

Delegations

The current Eu ambassador of the United States is Jao Vale de Almeida and the Eu’s embasssy in Washington D.C., was the first overseas delegation of the EU to open.

The U.S. ambassador to the EU is William KennardThe United States was the first third-country to recognise the EU’s earliest forerunner, the European Coal and Steel Community, and first appointed an observer in 1953: David E. Bruce. Their first mission opened in 1956.

The Transatlantic Economic Council is headed by the U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economic Affairs and the EU’s Commissioner of Trade.

sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States%E2%80%93European_Union_relations