European Union - Tenth Report
Here you can browse the report which was ordered by the House of Lords to be printed 26 February 2008.
CONTENTS
Terms of Reference
REPORT
FOREWORD—WHAT THIS REPORT IS ABOUT
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 2: GENERAL PROVISIONS: FOUNDATIONS
OF THE UNION
The structure of the Treaties
What is in the amended TEU and TFEU
What becomes of the Pillars?
Are the amendments to the structure helpful?
Conclusions
The values and objectives of the European
Union
Box 1: Article 3 of the amended TEU
Conclusions
Citizenship of the Union
The competences of the European Union
The principles of conferral, subsidiarity
and proportionality
How will the Union's competences work?
Box 2: Article 2 of the TFEU
Types of competence
What will the Union's competences be?
Table 1: Types of EU competence
Limits on Union competence
Are the Union's competences extended by the
Lisbon Treaty?
Are the Lisbon Treaty's definitions of competences
helpful?
Are shared competences residual competences?
Conclusions
Legal personality
What is the practical effect of extending
legal personality to the whole Union?
Conclusions
The impact of the Treaty on the size of the
Union
European Union enlargement
Right to withdraw from the Union
Conclusions
CHAPTER 3: SIMPLIFIED TREATY REVISION
AND PASSERELLES
CHAPTER 4: THE IMPACT OF THE TREATY ON
THE EUROPEAN INSTITUTIONS
What are the European Institutions?
The Impact of the Treaty on the European
Council
Status of the European Council
Simplification or complication?
A full-time President of the European Council
Is a full-time President necessary?
Benefits of a rotating Presidency
Power of the President
What will be the President's role?
Relationships between the senior positions
in the Union
Ambiguity about relations between the
senior leaders?
Conclusions
The impact of the Treaty on the Council of
Ministers
The rotating Council of Ministers Presidency
Voting in the Council of Ministers—extension
of qualified majority voting
Voting in the Council of Ministers—reform
of qualified majority voting
Table 2: Changes to qualified majority voting
The UK's position under the new QMV rules
The impact of the reforms to qualified majority
voting
Passing legislation more easily
Is the change in rules significant?
Is the new system an improvement?
The timetable for transition to full use
of double majority voting
The blocking minority
The "Ioannina-II" mechanism
Transparency in the Council of Ministers
Conclusions
The impact of the Treaty on the European
Commission
Function of the Commission
Membership of the College of Commissioners
A more executive Commission
The loss of the UK Commissioner—some
of the time
The Commission's relations with Member States
temporarily without Commissioners
The Commission President
The Commission's accountability to the European
Parliament
European Parliamentary party nominations
for President
Will the link with the European Parliament
become stronger?
The possibility of packaging
Conclusions
The impact of the Treaty on the European
Parliament
The extension of co-decision
Other alterations to the European Parliament's
role
Comments on the European Parliament's expanded
role
Scrutiny of legislation
The party-politicisation of the European
Parliament
Is the extended role of the European Parliament
overstated?
"First-reading deals"
Changes to the European Parliament's membership
Table 3: The distribution of seats in the
European Parliament
European political parties
Conclusions
The impact of the Treaty on the European
Court of Justice
The capability to make changes to the
CJEU in future
Function
Box 3: Article 19, amended TEU, paragraph
3
The jurisdiction of the CJEU
The role of the CJEU in justice and home
affairs law
The role of the CJEU in foreign policy law
The CJEU's controls on legality and failure
to act
Actions for failure to fulfil obligations
Right of individuals to refer cases to the
Court
Emergency preliminary rulings
Intellectual property
Is an expanded role for the CJEU a good thing?
Can the CJEU cope with its expanded role?
"Variable geometry"
A point of principle: mutual sincere cooperation
Primacy of law
Conclusions
Overall impact on institutional balance
Democracy and national parliaments
The European Council and the Council of Ministers
The Commission
The balance of influence
Conclusion
CHAPTER 5: FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS
Protection of fundamental rights in the
existing EU legal framework
Charter of Fundamental Rights
Fundamental rights protection under the Treaty
of Lisbon
Charter of Fundamental Rights
i. The difference between rights and
principles
ii. References to national law
a. The right of access to health care
b. The right of collective bargaining and
action
iii. New rights or re-statement of existing
rights?
a. The right to freedom of the arts and sciences
b. The right to education
c. The right of access to a free placement
service
iv. Horizontal articles
The Charter's new status
i. Understanding Article 6(1) TEU
ii. The general impact of the change to the
Charter's status
iii. Overlap with the ECHR and the Strasbourg
Court
The UK and Polish Protocol
ii. The terms of the Protocol
iii. The effect of the Protocol
Accession to ECHR
CHAPTER 6: AREA OF FREEDOM, SECURITY AND
JUSTICE
EU cooperation in justice and home affairs
General reactions to the changes in the area
of Freedom, Security and Justice
Institutional changes in freedom, security
and justice
i. Arrangements under the existing Treaties
a. Legislative procedure
b. Possibility for enhanced cooperation
ii. Position post-Treaty of Lisbon
a. Changes to legislative procedure
b. The emergency brake and enhanced cooperation
The right of initiative
i. Arrangements under the existing Treaties
ii. Position post-Treaty of Lisbon
Jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice
i. Arrangements under the existing Treaties
a. Title IV jurisdiction
b. Title VI jurisdiction
ii. Position post-Treaty of Lisbon
a. Extent of increased jurisdiction of the
Court
b. General views on the Court's enhanced
jurisdiction
c. Practical effects of the Court's enhanced
jurisdiction
c(i) Increase in workload
c(ii) Shape of the Court's docket and judges'
expertise
d. Effect of changes to the rules on standing
Passerelles in FSJ
i. Arrangement under the existing Treaties
ii. Position post-Treaty of Lisbon
National parliaments and devolved administrations
FSJ policy areas—changes in scope
Borders, asylum, immigration and visas
i. Arrangements under the existing Treaties
ii. Position post-Treaty of Lisbon
Civil justice
i. Arrangements under the existing Treaties
ii. Position post-Treaty of Lisbon
Police and judicial cooperation in criminal
matters
i. Arrangements under the existing Treaties
ii. Position post-Treaty of Lisbon
a. Rules regarding mutual recognition, judicial
cooperation and criminal procedure
b. Approximation of substantive criminal
law
c. Eurojust and a European Public Prosecutor
d. The role of mutual recognition
e. Police cooperation
f. Europol
Issues of "cross-border"
National security and internal security
The UK opt-ins
The current position as regards the UK's
right to opt in
i. The current Title IV Protocol
ii. The current Schengen Protocol
The position under the Treaty of Lisbon
i. The amended FSJ Protocol
a. Scope of the opt-in
b. Repercussions of non-participation in
an amending measure
c. Views on the extended opt-in
ii. The amended Schengen Protocol
a. Scope of the opt-in
b. Repercussions of non-participation in
an amending measure
iii. The effectiveness of the opt-ins
a. Will the opt-ins be effective in practice?
b. Not opting in and participating in negotiations
c. Can the UK opt in and then opt back out
again?
d. How the UK uses its opt-in
e. The opt-in decision and devolved administrations
f. The European West Lothian Question
Transitional arrangements
The terms of the Protocol
How the Protocol will work
i. Renegotiation of existing Title VI
measures
ii. Identifying "amendments" and
their effect
iii. The procedure on expiry of the transitional
period
Civil protection
CHAPTER 7: EU FOREIGN, DEFENCE AND DEVELOPMENT
POLICIES
External action of the EU
Changes to the structure of the Treaties
The Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP)
EU powers in CFSP matters
Decision-making and the maintenance of the
UK's independent foreign and defence policy
The role of the European Court of Justice
in CFSP
Data protection in relation to foreign affairs
Development cooperation and humanitarian
aid
Measures relating to consular protection
The institutional innovations
The changes introduced by the Lisbon
Treaty
The case for change
The High Representative's role in the Commission
An excessive workload?
Too much power?
The UN Security Council
The European External Action Service
The organisation and functioning of the Service
Holding the Service to account
Cooperation with Member States' missions
The Common Security and Defence Policy
The relationship between the CSDP and
NATO
Towards a common defence?
Mutual assistance in the case of armed aggression
The Solidarity Clause
Permanent Structured Cooperation in defence
Areas where the Lisbon Treaty codifies current
practice
CHAPTER 8: SOCIAL AFFAIRS
Employment and social affairs
Social security "emergency brake"
Competence
Social dialogue
Coordination and monitoring
The Charter of Fundamental Rights
Evidence
Social security "emergency brake"
Competence
Social dialogue
Coordination and monitoring
Conclusions
Education, vocational training and youth
Evidence
Vocational training
Education
Conclusions
Sport
Evidence
The special nature or "specificity"
of sport
The autonomy of sport
Funding for sport
Coherent sport policy and the role of sport
in society
Restrictions on Union action
Conclusions
Culture
Public health
Consumer protection
CHAPTER 9: FINANCE AND THE INTERNAL MARKET
Other expenditure
Trade policy
The Eurogroup
Other measures
Conclusion
Internal market and competition
Distorted competition?
Conclusions
Intellectual property
New legal base
QMV and language issues
Conclusions
Energy
New competences?
Solidarity
A political gesture?
Conclusions
Services of General Interest
SGEIs and Non-Economic SGIs
The Treaty and the Protocol
New competences?
Conclusions
Tourism
General conclusion
CHAPTER 10: ENVIRONMENT, AGRICULTURE AND
FISHERIES
Agriculture, fisheries and animal welfare
The application of the ordinary legislative
procedure (co-decision) to agriculture and fisheries.
The amended budgetary provisions
Exclusive competence for the conservation
of marine biological resources under the Common Fisheries Policy
Animal welfare
CHAPTER 11: NATIONAL PARLIAMENTS—THE
DEMOCRATIC CHALLENGE
Receipt of documents and time for scrutiny
Interparliamentary cooperation
Subsidiarity, proportionality and the yellow
and orange cards
Article 308
Devolution
European Court of Justice
Putting these provisions in context
Box 4: Our report on the yellow card of 2005—main
points
Evidence
Obligations on national parliaments
Receipt of documents
Yellow and orange cards
Proportionality
Eight weeks
European Court of Justice
Article 308
Consulting civil society, citizens' initiative
Conclusions
Obligations on national parliaments
Yellow and orange cards
Article 308
Impact on the procedures of this House
CHAPTER 12: SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS
APPENDIX 1: List of Members
APPENDIX 2: List of Witnesses
APPENDIX 3: Structure of the Treaties—A
rough guide to what goes where
APPENDIX 4: "Shall": The Drafting
of Article 12 TEU
APPENDIX 5: The UK's Position under the
New QMV Rules
APPENDIX 6: Glossary
APPENDIX 7: Minutes of Proceedings of
Sub-Committee C on Chapter 7 of the Report
NOTE: The Report of the Committee is published
in Volume I (HL Paper 62-I); the Evidence is published
in Volume II (HL Paper 62-I)
References in the text of the Report are as follows:
(Q) refers to a question in oral evidence
(p) refers to a page of written evidence
See paragraphs 1.14-1.15
MINUTES OF EVIDENCE AND WRITTEN EVIDENCE - VOLUME II (HL 62-II)
WRITTEN EVIDENCE
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To the Select Committee on the European Union
(Sub-Committee F)
WRITTEN EVIDENCE
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