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    Democratic Deficit (Different Outline) - 1

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    Democratic Deficit (Different Outline) - 1

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    Democratic Deficit (Different Outline) - 1

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    Advance Tertiary College European Union Law – Institutions

    (Answer Outline)
    Q. 1 Zone B 2012
    ‘The “democratic deficit” in the European Union has diminished with each subsequent Treaty.’
    Discuss this statement, with particular reference to the relationship between the Council and the
    European Parliament.

    1) “Democratic Deficit”
    Generally, democratic deficit (or also known as democracy deficit) occurs when ostensibly
    democratic organizations or institutions (particularly governments), fall short of fulfilling the
    principles of democracy in their practices. It can also be the case that there are wide discussions
    regarding the representative and linked parliamentary integrity, shining incompatibility with the
    principles of democracy.
    It is opined that this “disease” in the European Union, has diminished with each subsequent
    Treaty, hence affirming the given statement in the question. This is because, each subsequent Treaty
    in the European Union provides for some development in the institutions of the Union, and the role
    and functions of the legislators. The development of the Union legal order has definitely come to a
    point where it is now in line with the principles of democracy.

    2) European Parliament
    It should be noted that the greatest institutional change in the evolution of the European
    Parliament has been the development of the powers and status of the European Parliament. Its
    powers and functions have elevated from simply being a ‘consultant’ to a ‘co-legislator’ with the
    Council – Article 14 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU).
    This is not the only change that the European Parliament undergone. In its early days, it was
    actually called the Assembly and was one of the institutions of the European Coal and Steel
    Community (ECSC). It had 78 members, who were Members of Parliament (MPs) from national
    parliaments, with double mandate. In March 1958, this composition expanded t0 142 members
    when it became Assembly for all 3 Communities that existed in that time – ECSC, EURATOM, EEC.
    The first direct elections to the Parliament were in 1979. Before this, the members of the
    European Parliament were not directly elected but appointed from among the members of the
    respective national Parliaments. Today, they are elected ‘by direct universal suffrage in a free and
    secret ballot’ – Article 14(3) of the TEU. The allocations of Members of the European Parliament
    (MEPs) from each Member State were negotiated for the Nice Treaty and the incumbent Parliament
    was elected into office in 2009.
    Since there, Article 14(2) of the TEU set out the maximum number of seats, where it shall not
    exceed 750, plus the President. This means 751; with ‘degressively proportional’ representation of a
    country’s citizens. The maximum number of members per country is set at 96, the minimum being 6.
    Note that MEPs may not concurrently be members of a national government or hold office in
    another Union institution, but they may serve in their own national Parliaments.
    This is a clear indication as to the “democratic deficit” being diminished. Today, we have the
    involvement and representation of the people of each Members States. Statistically, the Parliament
    represents nearly 500 million citizens of the European Union.
    Advance Tertiary College European Union Law – Institutions
    (Answer Outline)
    3) Electoral System of the European Parliament
    There is no uniform electoral procedure, however, there is some form of “democracy” within the
    Union legal order, and this is substantiate in the form of elections that are held in accordance with
    national voting systems.
    This is of course subject to some conditions:
     The system must be a form of proportional representation, but the type is to be determined
    by the Member State.
     Parliaments should propose either a uniform, Union-wide electoral procedure or the
    Member States should choose the method ‘in accordance with principles common to all
    Member States’ – Article 223(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union
    (TFEU)

    4) Rights of Union Citizens


    It is also evident that “democracy deficit” is no longer a problem in today’s Union legal order
    because every citizen of the Union now has the right to vote and stand in local and European
    Parliament elections in any of the Member States – Article 22 of the TFEU, under the Citizenship
    Chapter in the Treaty (now named Non-discrimination and Citizenship of the Union).

     Case C-145/04 Spain v UK (2006)


     Court of Justice agreed that nationals of a Member State, resident in Gibraltar, should be
    allowed to vote in national and EP elections.
     In this case, the United Kingdom had made rules providing for Gibraltar UK citizens to vote
    after the European Court of Human Rights ruling in Matthews v UK (1999).

     Case C-300/04 Eman and Sevinger v College van Burgemeester en Wethousders van Den Haag
    (2006)
     In this case, the Dutch Government had attempted to exclude the Aruba residents from
    voting, even though Dutch nationals resident in a non-EU country had such rights.
     Court of Justice agreed that nationals of a Member State, resident on the Caribbean island
    of Aruba, should be allowed to vote in national and EP elections.

    5) The Council
    The Council was known as the Council of Ministers until 1993 (after the coming into force of the
    Maastricht TEU on 1 November 1993), when its name was changed to the Council of the European
    Union. The Treaty of Lisbon simply refers to it as ‘the Council’.
    The Council represents national interests – the interests of the Member States. It is the main
    legislative and decision-making body of the Union. It considerers legislative proposals from the
    Commission, and usually acting by qualified majority vote (QMV), it decides whether to enact them
    or not.
    Under the 1957 Treaty of Rome, it was the only legislative body, with sole power to enact
    legislation. However, as we have seen, this power has increasingly been shared with the European
    Parliament, reflecting the Parliament’s status as the one democratically elected institution of the
    Union.
    The Council is composed of representatives of the Member States at ministerial level, authorized to
    commit the government of that Member State to specific action. Each government delegates to the
    Council one of its members according to the matter being discussed ay any particular meeting. For
    Advance Tertiary College European Union Law – Institutions
    (Answer Outline)
    example, national ministers of agriculture make up the Agricultural Council and national ministers of
    finance constitute the Economic and Finance Council.

    6) Voting in the Council


    The Council voting system, as mentioned, is based on the so-called qualified majority system. From 1
    November 2014 a new procedure for qualified majority voting was introduced. Under this
    procedure, a qualified majority is reached if 2 conditions are met:

     55% of Member States vote in favour – in practice this means 16 out of 28.
     The proposal is supported by Member States representing at least 65% of the total EU
    population.
    As such, with this, there is a clear representation of the people from all 28 Member States.

    7) Relationship between the European Parliament & the Council


    The legislative procedure that applies in any area of European Union competence is set out in the
    relevant Treaty Article. As we have learnt, the Commission has the power to initiate legislation, but
    the Council is the main legislative body of the Union. The Commission has limited powers to legislate
    on its own and it enacts delegated legislation under powers conferred by the Council. This delegated
    legislation accounts for the greatest volume of Union legislation.
    The European Parliament on the other hand, under the original Treaty of Rome, only was a
    consultant in the area of legislative procedure. However, we’ve also learnt that its powers of
    participation in the legislative process have greatly increased:
     Via the cooperation procedure (introduced in the Single European Act, and now abolished).
     Via the co-decision procedure, introduced in the Maastricht Treaty on European Union,
    simplified and expanded in scope by the Treaty of Amsterdam, renamed ‘ordinary legislative
    procedure’ in Article 289 of the TFEU and described in detail in Article 294 of the TFEU.
    Many different legislative procedures are formalized within the Treaty of Rome and the Treaty on
    European Union. What follows, is an account of the most frequently used procedures in which:
     The Council is legislator/Council and Parliament act together to legislate
     The Commission is legislator

    8) Conclusion
     “Democracy deficit” is diminished in the current Union legal order.

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