Council System and European Union

Council System and European Union

Is the council system an effective forum or the representation of the interests of the EU member states? Discus by focusing on decision-making in the Council

European Union (EU) is made up of 27 countries in European that are joined together by their political and economic practices. It was formed back in 1993. From the population of all the countries, the total number of members of the union is 447 million people. Marketing in the countries is done as if in a single market. In this case, the primary aim of having the union formed was to ensure that all the members had free access to the movement of capital, goods, and services in the internal market (DINAN, 2010). The union was also formed to ensure that it has true common policies which could facilitate easy marketing. In the Schengen area, passport has been abolished since the countries have the freedom to interact freely at any time without anything hindering their activities. The formation of the union has been procedural since 1999. A monetary union was formed back in 1993 with only 19 members. Since 2002 members have been joining.

Yes, the council of the European Union is very effective. The most important body in decision-making is the council of the European Union, also called the council of ministers. The council was formed through treaties, which were the founder members of the EU back in the 1950s (DINAN, 2010). The council represents the members of the whole organization; hence it is the most important decision-making body in European Union. The decision-making process is called co-decision and is done by the parliament and the council of ministers. However, since both parties participate in the process, the council has more powers than the parliament.

In the negotiations and adoption of legislative acts, the council of ministers is important too. The council of the EU is essential in decision-making since it is responsible for making new legislation or adopting another instead. If the policies controlling the EU are not as the council wants them to be, the council has to implement others instead. The council corporates with the parliament to coordinate ordinary legislative procedures, called coo decision. Since they participate in the process, their contribution is usually a determinate decision-making process. The council again takes part in legislative procedure, which is part of decision making (Jersey, 2010). There are procedures such as the consent and consultation procedures in the decision-making process. Since only the council and the parliament of the EU take part in the decision-making procedure, in the two stages, the council contributes more than the EU parliament. In the consultation stage and consent procedure, the parliament has limited roles.

In decision-making, the EU parliament usually has limited roles to the council. The parliament must only see the laws drafted by the council are in accordance with principles such as subsidiary. This confirms that the council has more power in making the organization’s laws even than the parliament. The council of ministers is important in representing EU members states by coordinating all the all the policies which involve the member states.

There are several fields that the council that represents the member states’ interests well. These fields include economics, education field, and employment policy (Jersey, 2010). The council’s duty is to represent the member’s interest in fiscal policies and economics. The economic governance in the EU can only be strengthened by ensuring the economic interest of the members is well evaluated. Again, the council of ministers ensures that the budgetary policies of its members are well represented. Some countries may fail to be in a position to run their economic activities well. Since they are all under one economic organization, the council can represent their interests. The council again has access to each country’s budget for economic growth, its duty to ensure that the developing countries are supported by the other developed members of the EU.

The council represents the interest of its members in education, culture, and sports in the decision process well. Since all the council members as ministers represent all the EU member states, they present their people well. Some ministers in the council are the ministers of education and sports from their countries. Since they are already aware of the problems that their people from different departments might be facing, they represent them well and help arrive at core decisions (Laffan, 2021). Annually, there are plans that the EU makes concerning the departmental activities to be done. These members must ensure that all in decision-making represent their nations well. EU again sets policies that govern the education system in the nations.

All the EU nations have the same education system. Since the EU employs teachers for respective countries, the ministers must ensure their countries have enough teachers. The council again has to set the work plan and frameworks for the education commission. By this, the council makes decisions for its members in case the commission has anything to refer to the council. The council is responsible for electing commission heads in the respective nations’ education and sports ministries. The Council of ministers makes the nation’s decisions by making the employment policies for each nation’s ministers represent (Wurzel et al, 2019). The council must decide on the employment policies by ensuring that annual guidelines concerning its population are equally done. Some of the nations in the EU have problems with employment for their population due to financial constraints. Compared to the nations which are not members of the EU but are still European countries, they have few employees than EU members. This difference is brought about by how the council ministers represent their nations in the co-decision process.

It’s the duty of the council of ministers in the EU to recommend members’ employment depending on the employment situation in the countries. Some European countries are more developed than others. In such conditions, the ministers have to promote balance by allocating more funds for employment for the countries with few employees.

The council of ministers in the EU ensures that it develops common security and foreign policy in the member states. Since the EU has abolished visa usage across its member, cases of insecurity may be high if there are no security policies. Instead, the council of ministers is mandated to ensure that its members have the same security policies. The primary policy that the council has set for its members is respect and diplomacy for international rules (Laffan, 2021). These policies promote conflict resolution and international understanding among the member states. The council must ensure that it preserves peace and security. All the policies ate achieved by the council by ensuring that the United Nations charter principles are well adhered to.

In addition, the council of ministers has the duty to make a decision in case one of the EU members is a victim of terrorism. The council invites the other countries to assist with all the power means they own. This is achieved per the United Nations charter in chapter 51. Its again the duty of the council of the EU to grow a common foreign for its member to promote trade, humanitarian aid, and defense to its members. The common foreign and security policy (CFSP) due to economic activities being done amongst the EU members, the council of ministers has ensured that they all have the same currency. This has reduced the charges required for currency exchange when crossing the border. This has highly promoted economic growth among the people in the common market.

The council of ministers was formed to represent the governments of each member state; thus, it has promoted good representation for its members. Even more important, the council of ministers acts as the point of union between the parliament and the commission. The commission is responsible for Europe interests, while the parliament represents the member states’ citizens (Laffan, 2021). The council represents the ministries from the member states to the European parliament (Geddes, 2022). In decision-making, the council ensures that its members benefit from all the implementations. The council has to ensure consistency, unity, and effectiveness in the actions of the EU. Without The council, the union may forget about some nations which are needier than others. Instead, the council must ensure and emphasize more on equity than equality. Equity involves sharing distributions according to one need, while equality shares in equal proportion. Council ensures that the neediest member states are a priority in case of insufficient distributions.

Consul of ministers in the European Union has the chance to make international agreements concerning both EU and non-EU members. At any point where the union members of the European nations have to agree with the nonunion members, it’s the council’s duty to represent the EU members in such conditions. The council may again give the commission the mandate to be involved in the agreement instead. Neither the commission nor the parliament can be involved in such agreements without being given the mandate by the council.

Regardless of the council giving the commission the mandate to be involved in international agreements, it’s still its responsibility to conclude and have a signature on the agreement or not even after the parliament has given its consent. This shows how the council is essential in such decision-making processes and how it has to be involved in the progress of its member state. By having the best agreements as per the council, it’s expected that the member states will not be uncomfortable with the agreement having been represented well. Such agreements include the GATT (the general agreement on tariff and trade) (Laffan, 2021). The council has to evaluate whether the agreements will benefit its member.

The GATT was agreed upon since its aim was hand in hand with the reason for the organization of the EU. GATT aimed at promoting trade dispute resolution and promoting economic growth. Due to the policies that the EU has set, such as abolishing visa usage among its members, GATT is important t promote peace during the trade. The EU is in a trade agreement with 77 countries as their partners and 45 applied networked. Some of the nations with which the EU has made a trade agreement include Indonesia, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Australia, China, and India, among others.

The council is primary in EU budget adoption co-decision. It’s the duty of the council and the parliament to prepare the national budget annually. By being involved in budget adoption, the council represents its members well since the primary aim of budget preparation is to implement all the members’ priorities. The budget is prepared in alignment with the principle of proportionality and subsidiary. Comparing the EU budget to other national and

Local budgets is more effective. From its effectiveness, EU members are better catered for than the non-EU members. Again, the council is involved in the multiannual financial framework budget too. This is a long-term budget set of long-term projects. This allows the members to present plans they have been unable to achieve at the national level. Before 2000, the EU used to fund agriculture only. Due to industrialization, the members have been able to get health, transport, and education field plans.

The council is very important in the decision-making process. In all the three main steps of decision-making in the EU, the council is highly involved, even more than the commission and the parliament (Maurer, 2018). The stages include the ordinary legislative procedure, the special legislative procedure, and the implementing and delegated acts. The council must examine e and evaluate the decisions made in council configuration. The council comprises members representing all the member states, and hence the decisions are made equally. The commission must draft a proposal to be termed as the decision made. The council and the parliament then examine and signs the agreement. If the proposal does not appear to represent all the union members, it’s then canceled (panke & gurol, 2018). Without the council, the commission should have passed decisions without involving all the member state representations. Confirmation of the proposal presented by the commission is called reading, which can be done up to three times before it’s either rejected or passed.

In cases where the member states are involved in the decision to be made, such as terror attacks, the council has the mandate to speed up the legislative procedure. By this, a decision is agreed upon without doing several readings or even without involving the parliament. This is important for emergency plans such as pandemics and terror attacks. Countries that are EU member states are likely to get more help compared to non-EU members. The council still has the chance to provide more support to nations in need of security. The council is in charge of all the security forces in the EU members (panke & gurol, 2018). At the reading stage in the decision-making process the council is involved in the three levels: working party, permanent representative committee, and council configuration. The presence in the levels indicates a member’s presentation in the EU. The council must select the best working party to be involved in the reading of the proposal.

The working party is given no time limit in discussing the proposal before assigning it to the permanent representative committee. At this level, the council ensures that the selected party represents all the member states by at least one member. This allows the participants to explain their motion and how they must be involved in EU plans. Giving each country a chance to participate in the working plan represents the member states equally. It’s then the permanent representative’s duty is to solve all the differences that the working party has not achieved.

Ideological differences among the members bring about differences, and the representative has to solve all the problems involving member states to promote peace and security. Council configuration is highly important in decision-making. The members are all involved in proposing an item. In council configuration, members are free to make implementations that may need to be done even after the item is published (panke & gurol, 2018). Though the changes are instead saved on their own, this shows that the members of the state in the council have the freedom of expression. The ideological freedom makes the member states feel well represented in the activities of the European Union in general. From the decision-making process, the represented nations present their plans that they would like to be considered either during the national or multiannual budgets.

Conclusion

           EU was founded in 1993 and its members have been increasing unpredictably up to 27 members. The total population of the EU is 447 million people. In this case, the primary aim of having the union formed was to ensure that all the members had free access to the movement of capital, goods, and services in the internal market. In conclusion, the council of ministers in the European Union is an effective forum and represents the interests of its member states, especially in decision-making. Some of the duties the council is given in the EU make it critical in decision-making in the union. The council represents its member states by adopting and negotiating EU laws. The laws promote equality and equality among the members, making them of essence and benefit to them.

The council is involved in presenting the members’ policies. The council implements policies in fields such as education, economics, sports, and employment. The council then represents its members well in the activities. It’s the council’s duty to represent its member in developing its security and common foreign policies representing secure and insecure countries in activities such as terror attacks. The council represents its members in international agreements such as trade agreements. During EU budget adoption, the council is involved in presenting the plans that each of its members has involving both annual and multiannual budgets (DAlfonso, 2021). The council is involved in decision-making on whether to reject or pass a proposal involving its members. All the members from each state is then expected or actively represent their nations well.

References

D’Alfonso, A. (2021). Own resources of the European Union. Reforming the EU’s Financing System, European Parliament. https://euagenda.eu/upload/publications/eprs_bri-2018-630265_en.pdf.pdf

DINAN. (2010). ever closer union: An introduction to European integration by Desmond Dinan. Retrieved July 29, 2022, from https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/51675.Ever_Closer_Union

Geddes, A. (2022). The European Union. Controlling immigration: A global perspective. https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=pKdYEAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT481&dq=council+of+ministers+in+european+union&ots=jK5HI6FG-g&sig=2QUQJ2-mxwQwQQowu1BFnKlro2k&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

Jersey, S. of. (2010). Government of Jersey. gov.je. Retrieved July 29, 2022, from https://www.gov.je/government/howgovernmentworks/councilministers/Pages/index.aspx

Laffan, B. (2021, April 23). How the EU27 came to be. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies. Retrieved July 29, 2022, from https://www.academia.edu/47586602/How_the_EU27_Came_to_Be

Maurer, A., & Wessels, W. (2018). The European Union matters: structuring self-made offers and demands. In fifteen into one? (pp. 29-66). Manchester University Press. https://www.manchesteropenhive.com/view/9781526137364/9781526137364.00010.xml

Panke & gurol. (2018). Small states as agenda-setters? The council presidencies of Malta and … Retrieved July 29, 2022, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326554752_Small_States_as_Agenda-setters_The_Council_Presidencies_of_Malta_and_Estonia_Small_States_as_Agenda-Setters

Wurzel, R. K., Liefferink, D., & Di Lullo, M. (2019). The European Council, the Council and the Member States: changing environmental leadership dynamics in the European Union. Environmental Politics, 28(2), 248-270. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09644016.2019.1549783?casa_token=eU0Befues2IAAAAA%3AA5Nxu-mydZwKDze8g0Wd04AfihhfOIKGhdwToV0RHQDTWaJd49m9CX6QerfdHlFUt1Teyehtyo7nBJKQ