welcome back everybody to our studies ofthe law of the European Union we’recontinuing talking about the variousdifferent institutions of the EuropeanUnion which are of particular relevanceto our studies as lawyers in inunderstanding what the European Unionactuallyis we took a brief overview in theprevious lesson on the variousinstitutions of the European Union asestablished by the treaty on EuropeanUnion in this lesson we’re going tostart to talk about the first of thesemajor institutions in more detail we’regoing to talk about the EuropeanParliament so the previous lesson as Imentioned we talked about the ways inwhich the European institutions areestablished by Article 13 of the teu thethe treaty on European union and thislesson like I said is going to examinethe first of these looking at the rolethe powers and the functions of theEuropean
The role of the European Parliament
Parliament so one of the things that isimportant to note about the EuropeanParliament is that it is the onlyinstitution within the European Unionthat is directly elected by the CIcitizenry of the member states you willhave European parliamentary elections atvery uh regular intervals uh if you area member of the European Union if youare in a member state that is a part ofthe EuropeanUnion now the main functions of theEuropean Parliament involves holding toaccount the commission as well asholding to account the president presidof the commission uh both of which arevery important roles uh for theestablishment of democratic legitimacyand accountability within the EUR Unionitself within the Union’s politicalsystem now the formal codification ofthe rules and powers of the EuropeanParliament are outlined in article 14 oftheteu so if we look at the treaty onEuropean Union specifically article 14it says the following it says that theEuropean Parliament shall jointly withthe council exercise legislative andbudgetary functions it shall exercisefunctions of political control andconsultation as laid down in thetreaties it shall elect the president ofthe commission this one of the mainmethods by which it holds the presidentof the commission account it elects thepresident of the Comm of thecommission the European Parliament shallbe composed of Representatives of theUnion citizens they shall not exceed 75050 in number plus a presidentrepresentation of citizens shall be disdigress proportional uh with a minimumthreshold of six members per memberState no member State shall be allocatedmore than 96 seats so this isessentially talking about the ways andthe methods by which we seerepresentation being established withinthe European Parliament itself it isdone on a proportional basis you havethe smaller member states having lessseats and you have the larger memberstates States having more but there is aminimum and then maximum threshold thatis established by this particularprovision as well the minimum thresholdis six members per member State and themaximum threshold is 96 seats per memberState as well the European Council shalladopt by unanimity on the initiative ofthe European Parliament and with itsconsent a decision establishing thecomposition of the European Parliamentrepres respecting sorry the principlesreferred to in the first subparagraph part three says that themembers of the European Parliament shallelect for a term of 5 years by directUniversal surage in free and secretballots so this is essentially talkingabout the term limits for members of theEuropean Parliament you have a term offive years is done through an electionum which is a free and secret ballotwhich is representative of the electionsto the citizenry and is also donethrough universal suffrage so we’re notgoing to limit the ability forindividuals to actually uh to to vote onthe basis of uh various characteristicsand discriminatoryprinciples part four says that theEuropean Parliament shall elect itspresident and its officers among itsmembers okay quite simple let’s thinkabout this in more detail then uh thepresident of the uh European Parliamentis elected from the members of theEuropean Parliament so these are knownas theMEPS so a president of the EuropeanParliament will be one one of thesemembers and like it says here will beelected from this um pool of members ofof members of the EuropeanParliament and the par president willserve for half of a parliamentary termso a given the fact that article 14 ofthe te outlines a parliamentary term asbeing 5 years a president serving halfthat time means that they serve two anda half years so you have two presidentsper parliamentaryterm they will be the primaryrepresentative of the parliament when itcomes to negotiations and conversationswith other members of the European UnionI.E with when it comes to otherinstitutions so whether are negotiationsand conversations that are had betweenbetween the Parliament and thecommission or the council and the andthe Parliament etc etc it will be thepresident that spearheads the majorityof these various kinds of conversationsandnegotiations they are also the personthey are also sorry the person who givesthe green light to documentation onbehalf of the parliamentitself now given all of these factors interms of the composition and structureof the parliament what do the powers ofthe parliament entail well according toarticle 14 the European Parliament isgiven the power to amend adopt or rejectthe European Union’s budget so it hasquite significant financial controlsover the other member the otherinstitutions so I said the EuropeanUnion and this is reflected in the factthat the European Parliament is adirectly accountable and a directlyelected by the people of the memberstates of the European Union it makessense to suggest that they will have alot more Authority when it comes to thebudgetary and financial decisions thatare made by the union with the taxpayersmoney that is um given to the union bythe memberstates this is a power that is shared inconjunction with the Council of theEuropean Union and the procedure foradopting and establishing the EU budgetis outlined in more detail in article314 of the treat on the functioning onthe European Union so the tfu outlinesthe general procedure for which an EUbudget is established this is a basicoverview what will happen is theEuropean commission will draft aprovisional EU budget which will then besent to both the Council of the EuropeanUnion as well as the European Parliamentthe council will then adopt a positionon the budget before sending thisinformation to the parliament the budgetthen goes through a number of stageswithin the parliament itself and alsowithin the Parliamentary budgetcommittee before being if it is agreedit is adopted by the Parliament andtherefore adopted as the official EUbudget if it is rejected then it meansthat the whole process must begin againwith the commission submitting a newdraft budget with relevant amendments
The relationship between the Parliament and the Commission
attached now when it comes to therelationship between the Parliament andthe commission this is arguably the mostimportant legal power of the parliamentit has the ability to hold the Europeancommission to account this is outlinedin article 234 of the treaty on thefunctioning of the European Union whilearticle 234 says is that if a motion ofcensure on the activities of thecommission is tabled before it theEuropean Parliament shall not votethereon until at least 3 days after themotion has been tabled and only by openvote if the motion of censure is carriedby 23 majority of the votes castrepresenting a majority of the componentof members of the European Parliamentthe members of the commission shallresign as a body and the highrepresentative of the union for foreignaffairs and security policy shall resignfrom the duties that he or she carriesout in the commission they shall remainin office and continue to deal with thecurrent business until they are replacedin accordance with article 17 of the teuin this case the term of office and themembers of the commission appointed toreplace them shall expire on the datewhich the term of office of the membersof the commission obliged to resign as abody would have expiredwhat is this essentially telling us wellit gives us the ability for theparliament to essentially resign and uhdeliver and issue a motion of censure tothe commission H and therefore look toappoint a new commission which isincredibly important and an incrediblyinfluential power that the EuropeanParliament has.
