The EU Series Part III: The Institutions – What The Heck Are They?

Back in the October edition of the Marine Times, Part I of this series established that even after several EU referendums the Irish public, as a whole, has a loose understanding of what the EU actually is and what it does.

What this series of articles have aimed in a small way is to iron out some of the ambiguity that surrounds the EU that has festered over time.

This lack of understanding might relate to disinterest, but in the case of many readers of the Marine Time, a distinctive distrust with the EU due to its flawed Common Fisheries Policy has led to many distancing themselves from the EU.

However, for good or bad, and even despite the currently crisis in the single currency, the EU is going to remain part of our everyday lives. With rhetoric from the EU in recent months speaking of ‘deeper integration’ and ‘more Europe’, it is clear that the EU as a whole will be shifting direction.

What shape that direction will be remains to be seen, but by the time the current term of the European Commission ends in 2014, which also coincides with the next European Parliament elections, proposals will more than likely be published.

Due to the nature of the Irish constitution, a referendum must be held if any further transfer of responsibility to the EU takes place. This scenario looks likely to take place whenever the potential reforms are completed, as they are expected to be far reaching.

Therefore, if a referendum is likely to take place on significant changes in how the EU functions, is it not in all our interest to obtain some knowledge of how the EU operates? It is that, or wait until the blizzard of leaflets descent upon us during the campaign.

The EU Series that was presented in the Marine Times over the past three months has aimed to break down the complex layers of the EU. Part I of this series dealt with where the EU originated from, while Part II in the November edition charted the previous changes to the EU Treaties.

In this Part III, the final of the EU series, we will look at the core institutions of the EU’s decision making process, while keeping the descriptive focused of each on fisheries.

The institutions of the EU are: European Commission (EC), Council of the EU (CEU), European Council, the European Parliament (EP) and the European Court of Justice (ECJ). There are others bodies such as the European Central Bank and the Court of Auditors, but these are not directly involved in the decision making procedure which the previous five make up.

We begin with the European Commission (EC), which can basically be termed as the civil service of the entire EU. It drafts proposals for new EU laws in areas laid out in the EU Treaties.

Each of the 27 Member State has one Commissioner appointed to the EC. These Commissioners form the political leadership of the policy area that each is assigned by the Commission President for their five year term. The current president is the Portuguese José Manuel Barroso, who has held the post since 2004 is now in his second term.

The EC is nominated by the European Council (which we will discuss later along with the European Parliament), with each Member State government putting forward their own candidate. But final approval is subject to the decision of the European Parliament (EP), which also has the power to dismiss the EC.

Each of the allocated policies are organised into departments, similar to a national civil service, known as Directorates-Generals (DGs). These are comprised of administrators, lawyers, economists, translators, etc.

In 2009 Maria Damanaki was nominated by her party, the Panhellenic Socialist Movement, for the EC as the Greek Commissioner. She was subsequently given the portfolio Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, referenced to as DG MARE, which has a staff total of 287 according to 2011 EC figures. The Maltese Joe Borg held the position beforehand.

DG MARE together with the remaining 26 DGs, make up the EC whose purpose, as defined by the EU Treaties, can be boiled down to three main points. Firstly it is the only institution of the EU to have the right to propose legislation. In order to create legislation that protects and takes into account the interests of all EU citizens, the independent nature which each Commissioner and their staff take ensures no one agenda of a Member State dominates the EC.

Secondly, the EC with the European Council and EP agree to the budget for the whole EU and supervises how the funds are spent through agencies, along with national and regional authorities. In the case of fisheries, funding is allocated through the current European Fisheries Fund, which is due to be replaced during the present Review of the Common Fisheries Policy by a new European Maritime and Fisheries Fund.

It is then the role of the Court of Auditors to scrutinise independently EU spending in total. Ireland’s representative here is Kevin Cardiff, former Secretary General of the Department of Finance, who was appointed in March 2012.

Thirdly, as established by the EU Treaties as the ‘guardian of the Treaties’, the EC monitors Member State actions to see if they are applying EU law as is their obligation. This is one of the limitations of the EU in terms of fisheries, as responsibility for enforcement is left to national Member State authorities, which many complain has led to an ‘uneven playing field’ across the EU in terms of enforcement.

This limitation of DG MARE on enforcement relates to a lack of EC resources in general which have always been a thorny issue between the EC and Member States during budget negotiations, often over the fear of possible infringement on national sovereignty.

Many see the EC as a gigantic ball of bureaucracy, but when it is compared to the staff levels of just the three Irish state agencies connected to the Department of Marine, it shows a different situation. The Sea Fisheries Protection Authority (93), BIM (123) and the Marine Institute (186) bring the total of employed in state agencies to 402 in 2012.

This can be compared to DG MARE’s 287 which have to cover the entire EU policy field of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries. And we must remember that Ireland is one of the smaller Member States, with a smaller civil service. For those interested, the total 2011 staff numbers for the EC stood at 23,812 to cover 27 policy areas for c. 502,519,900 million people within the EU.

The EU attempted to remedy this lack of a ‘level playing field’ in relation to fisheries, with the establishment in 2005 with the European Fisheries Control Agency whose mission is ‘to promote the highest common standards for control, inspection and surveillance under the Common Fisheries Policy’. A daunting task to be given to the Vigo based agency, especially with staff levels in 2011 at just over 55. Also, the only other relating EU agency in this context is the European Maritime Safety Agency, based in Lisbon with a staff in 2011 of 240.

If a situation does arise where a Member State government is failing to enforce EU law, as a last resort, the EC refers the issue to the European Court of Justice (ECJ). The ECJ can impose penalties on its biding decisions as in the case when Ireland unilaterally issued two Statutory Instruments in February 1977 which the government claimed at the time were in the interests of conservation.

The ECJ would finally rule the following year that the unilateral measures, which it ordered to be lifted, would have no effect on the Irish fleet, apart from two vessels that did not operate in that area, thereby creating ‘differences of treatment between the various Member States’ as each of their fleets were comprised of different vessels.

Next we move onto the confusing array of councils which get thrown around in between one crisis meeting or another. The Council of Europe was founded in 1949 and promotes co-operation between its 47 members from across Europe in the areas such as human rights. It is completely separate to the EU and its best known body is the European Court of Human Rights, which enforces the European Convention on Human Rights.

Although created in 1975 with no formal legislative power, the European Council is now a formal institution of the EU as a result of the Treaty of Lisbon. Consisting of the heads of governments from Member States, together with its Belgian president Herman Van Rompuy, it is charged under the Treaty of Lisbon to define ‘the general political direction and priorities of the EU’.

The Council of the European Union (CEU), or often referred to as the Council of Minister, is at the core of the EU’s decision making process. It is here that relevant Member State government ministers meet depending on which policy area is scheduled. There are ten committees which make up the CEU.

Some such as Economic and Financial Affairs (often referred to as ECOFIN) composes of finance ministers, meet once a month, while others such as Environment (ENVI) or Education, Youth, Culture and Sport (EYC) meet three or four times a year. Agriculture and Fisheries (AGRIFISH), which also sits once a month, see Minister Simon Coveney attending.

The remit of the CEU is to adopt legislative proposals by the EC, and in the case of fisheries, adopt them with EP on an equal footing as a result of the Treaty of Lisbon. Together with the EP it also adopts the EU budget, concludes international agreements on behalf of the EU along with forming common foreign policy positions.

In reaching such decisions, Member States must reach a majority of the allocated weighted votes, which are dependent on the population size: the highest by Germany, France, Italy and Britain is 29 each, with the lowest being Malta at 3. Ireland, together with Denmark, Lithuania, Slovakia and Finland each has 7.

The presidency of the CEU is rotated between Member States on a six monthly basis, from January to June and July to December. Currently Cyprus has held the presidency since July after taking over from Denmark, with Ireland taking up the roll from January 2013. This will prove critical in relation to the Review of the Common Fisheries Policy, which is going to overshoot its original deadline of December 31^st for negotiations to be concluded.

Minister Simon Coveney will chair each of the AGRIFISH committees, proposes guidelines and draws up the compromises needed for the CEU to take decisions. His role during this six month period will have long bearing impacts on where the Irish fishing industry will go depending on what the final CFP agreement will be.

Lastly we come to the European Parliament (EP), which since 1979 has been the only directly elected institution of the EU. Together with the ECU, the EP debates on legislation prosed by the EC. Although it is based in Brussels, when Member of the European Parliament (MEP) have to vote on legislation, its official headquarters are in Strasburg, which is denoted by the blue seats.

Originally an expression of successful cross-border European cooperation, the once a month week long plenary session is now a long standing grievance of inconvenience. But a decision to have the plenary in Brussels would require agreement from all Member States, and surprisingly France feels strongly that the monthly exodus of MEPs and staff to the French city and its hotels should continue.

There is a total 754 MEPs elected to the EP for five year terms. The previous election was in 2009 with the next scheduled for May 2014, the same time as local elections take place here in Ireland.

The number of allocated MEPs is based on population size, with Germany having 99 and Malta just 6. Ireland, together with Lithuania, has 12 MEPs. There are four regions in Ireland: Dublin, East, South and North-West, with each having three MEPs.

MEPs come together and sit in one of seven political groupings within the EP which are based on shared ideology with their Member State political parties have. For example, Fine Gael sit with the centre-right European Peoples Party, Fianna Fáil is in the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, Labour sit with the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, while the United Left Alliance are in the European United Left–Nordic Green Left.

Just like with a national parliament, there are committees set up relating to specific policies. In the EP there are a total of 22, with the Committee on Fisheries (known as Committee PECH) dealing with this topic. It compromises of one chairman, three vice-chairs, 21 full Members, including Pat ‘the Cope’ Gallagher (FF), with 24 Substitute members including Jim Higgins (FG). Once any committee has voted to the EC legislative amendments, it goes to the EP to be voted upon in the plenary sessions, which was mentioned earlier.

Above, the last of the EU series, was a brief and compact explanation of the key EU institutions and where fisheries is found within them. As always, greater information can be found from websites run by the institutions and media sources which can be accessed through a simple google search. If you would like to read again Part I and II of The EU Series, it is available on this blog: atbearaboi.wordpress.com by entering the article titles in the search engine on the right hand side of the page.

From the January edition of the Marine Times, I will be covering both within the Houses of the Oireachtas and at EU level, debates on pieces of fisheries legislation, as well as other fishery related news. Finally, I wish you all a peaceful Christmas and prosperous 2013.

Ciarán O’ Driscoll, originally from Castletownbere, Co. Cork, is currently undertaking a PhD on European fisheries policy at UCD.

This article first appeared in the December 2012 edition of the Marine Times.

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