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The Executive 3/11/12 1:52 PM The institutions of the EU • Institutions as “rules of the game” • Major Formal EU Institutions o Council o Commission o Parliament o Court of Justice • Branches of government o Executive o Legislative o Judicial What does the executive do? • Administrative tasks • Regulatory tasks • Political tasks • Legislative tasks Who is the executive of the EU? The Council as executive • Sets medium- and long-term policy goals • Implements EU policies within member states • Helps manage day-to-day tasks of EU • Retains authority over CFSP The Commission as executive • Structure of Commission o President of the Commission o High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy o College of Commissioners  Reinforced the debates as to what to do with the size of the commission  Small Countries didn’t want to give up representation  Wanted big countries to give up their second commissioner and they keep their own commissioner- Winning argument 27 Commissioners o Directorates-general  Works under the college of commissioners  Changed over time, but now they are aliened with the portfolios of the commissioners  Advise the commissioners, do the work, write regulations, etc o Staff  Write in other languages, 20 official languages, every document produced needs to be translated in all the official languages • Power of the Commission o Agenda-setter (proposes and shepherds legislation)  Short term political setters, laws, commission gets first crack at writing the legislation o Regulatory power  Paying the bills, collecting money, etc o Administrative power o Budgetary power  Sets annual budget of the EU o International negotiator  EU is a member of the World Trade Organization, commission speaks for the EU at this event  G20- EU is an official member, commission represents the EU  Largely on economic matters, Council would choose the voice on political matters- never happens since they don’t talk in “one voice” o Sue member states for violating EU law  European Court of Justice o Changes with Lisbon Comitology- made up word • Huh? o Study of the science of committees o System of committees by which the Council oversees the Commission’s implementation of the laws • Council oversees Commission’s implementation of the laws o Delegate power to commission , oversees • The procedures of comitology-o Lowest level- commission makes regulations and notifies Council o Highest- Commission makes recommendation and the Council can veto, not just suggest, but Direct the Commission on what to do o Hix has the levels of Comiology Explaining the complicated executive structure • Spatial theory o Way to simplify politics o Assumption  Actors have fixed preferences  Locate their preferences in some sort of space  Dimensions of Politics, ways to summarize political debates  The closer the policy is to the ideal point the more the actor will differ, if the policies are equidistant they will be indifferent Pro Integration Anti-Integ L Economics R • Principal-Agent theory- Principal can delegate power to the agent to do the work for them. Principal has power, delegates decisions o Delegation increases efficiency  Up side of delegation o Delegation can lead to “drift”  If you delegate to someone else with different preferences, outcome can drift to someone else’s preferences  Legislature delegates to executive, executive preferences are different to the outcome drifts- more strain reduces the efficacyo Member-states must balance desire for effective policymaking and desire to retain sovereignty/control over outcomes  Member states are the principals- represented by the Council  Members don’t have the time or ability to do the work all themselves  Council could have different preferences than the member states • Council is the Agent  Whatever the agreement/policy is going to be further to the left than the Commission is sitting at  Council can takes steps to prevent drift • Common Foreign Security Policy- Council does not delegate  Preference Divergence • If there is a divergence in preferences, there is likely to be much more delegationThe Legislature I: The Council 3/11/12 1:52 PM The Council of Europe v. the European Council c. the Council of the European Union (Council of Ministers, Council) • Many Councils • Council of Europe is not apart of the EU, and for our purposes can be ignored • Separate Institutions o The European Council  Prime Ministers, Chief Executives  Serves as the Top of the councils put together o The Council of the European Union  Ministers, Councils made up of the ministers for the various councils  Agricultural Ministers for the Agriculture Council, Foreign Policy Ministers for the Foreign Policy council Structure of the Council- At the top, you have the European Council (1), everything else is the Council of the EU • The Presidency o The old Rotating Presidency  ROTA- Rotating Presidency every 6 months, rotating between countries, share responsibility  Troika- Previous country, current country, and the incoming country o The new single Presidency  Need to create a new position, President of the European council  Kept Council of EU with the rotating presidency  2.5 Year term, chosen by the Prime Minister  Herman Van Rompuy- current president, given single face to the EU  Going to be a well known/large figure that would become the most visible person of the EU  Chosen by the Council, technically decided by QMV, but strive for consensus  Prime Minister of Belgium before President of EU • Chosen because he demonstrated that he could bring together two areas in Belgium that didn’t agree politically with each other • If he could bring together two entities at odds with each other, he could bring together the countries of the EU o Roleo Influence • The General Affairs Council (2) o Directly under the European Council, foreign ministers o Under this you have equal entities, Agriculture (3), ECOFIN (3), Fishing (3) • ECOFIN (3) o Economics and Finance (Euro), report to the General Affairs •


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FSU CPO 3101 - The Executive

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