Introduction:
According to Article 13 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) there are seven institutions of the EU. These include the European Parliament, the European Council, the European Commission, the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Central Bank and the Court of Auditors. Each of these institutions engage with the various sources of EU law in different ways. The primary aim of the discussion in this paper is to identify and explain each of these institutions and to further consider how each institution interacts with the sources of EU law.
(a) The European Parliament:
The significance of the Parliament is found in Article 14(2) of the TFEU and it encompasses the directly democratically elected institution of the EU that represents all of the 500 million plus citizens of the EU Member States. Any citizen of the EU can stand for election to the Parliament and each Parliament is elected for a five year term where MEPs tend to organize themselves by reference to ideology as opposed to national party groupings such as socialists, democrats or liberals. (Adams, 2014: 28-29). In the context of its interaction with the sources of law, the Parliament can be regarded as having an important function in the EU. Specifically, there are three key interactions between EU sources of law and the Parliament. Firstly, the Parliament possess a legislative function which is governed by Article 294 of the TFEU. (Craig and de Burca, 2015: 53-55). However, it should be noted that the legislative function can be regarded as being complex as the Parliament and the Council have to agree a common text for any proposed legislation which means it can be a challenge to get this agreement. Secondly, the Parliament also exercises a budgetary role which is outlined in Article 313 of the TFEU as allowing the Parliament the power to approve or reject the EU’s budget in addition to allowing to push for its own priorities to be recognised in the budget. (Craig and de Burca, 2015: 54-56). Thirdly, the Parliament also exercises a number of important supervisory functions. Specifically, it has to approve a new Commission and President, its work is to supervise the workings of the Commission by direct questioning the Commission, it can question the Council on its exercise of powers and Articles 263 and 265 allows it to bring procedures against other institutions. Therefore, the Parliament operates as the EU institution that is democratically elected and plays an important legislative, budgetary and supervisory role within the EU. The interaction with primary sources of law is that all of the Parliament’s powers and the scope of these powers are all contained within these sources. As a result, the Parliament would not exist and it would not any powers to act within the EU.
(a) The Council of the EU:
The Council is composed of Ministers from national Member States and it is directly related to each area of competence. (Woods and Watson. 2014: 25-26). For example, if the issue under discussion was a financial matter, then the Council would be composed of Ministers from each Member State with responsibility for domestic finance. Each Member State will hold responsibility for the Presidency on a rotated basis every six months. Articles 16 and 236 of the TFEU allows each Presidency in the Member States to set its own agenda to pursue its own interests. The interaction of the Council with the sources of EU law can be regarded as being important as the Council exercises both executive and legislative powers. (Woods and Watson: 26-27). The role of EU law for the Council can be considered as being particularly important as it provides the basis in which decisions can be taken in the absence of unanimity. However, it should be noted that the Council is not accountable in EU law but rather is accountable to national Parliaments.
(b) The European Council:
The European Council is composed of the Heads of Government from each Member State. Article 15(1) of the TFEU expressly recognises its role as being about providing the political direction for the EU. (Turner and Storey, 2014: 39-40).
(c) The Commission:
The previous institutions are primarily interested in protecting the interests of the citizens and the national Parliaments, however, the Commission is primarily about protecting the interests of the EU. As a result, the Commission is not about advancing the interests of any one State or citizen rights but merely to protect the interests of the EU. (Solanke, 2015: 45-46). According to Article 17 of the TFEU, the Commission members are to be appointed on merit and who are able to serve the interests of the EU over that of the interests of their national Parliament. The Commission is led by a President who provides the political guidance for all Commissioners. In respect of the interaction between the Commission and the sources of EU law, the Commission occupies three important functions including an executive, legislative and supervisory function. (Solanke, 2015: 47-48). Firstly, the Commission can be regarded as being the executive of the EU where Article 17 of the TFEU tasks responsibility to the Commission to ensure that EU law is implemented properly. Additionally, Article 314 TFEU places the responsibility on the Commission to draft the EU budget and Article 317 places the responsibility on the Commission to also enforce the agreed budget. Finally, Article 218 of the TFEU places responsibility on the Commission to negotiate and conclude any agreements with third party countries. Secondly, the Commission also has an important legislative function where Articles 292 and 293 of the TFEU allows the Commission to initiate legislation. Finally, the Commission plays an important supervisory function within the EU by Article 258 of the TFEU allowing the Commission to take action to enforce EU law. If such an action is found in favour of the Commission, Article 260 of the TFEU allows the Commission to take action to remedy the breach of EU law. Further, Articles 263 and 260 of the TFEU provides the Commission with powers to investigate and supervise the actions of other EU institutions.
(d) The Court of Justice of the EU:
Article 19 of the TFEU provides the responsibility on the Court of Justice, the General Court and any specialized Courts to have exclusive authority to interpret EU laws. This means that the Court at the European level is the most supreme authority to interpret EU law and effectively sits above domestic Member State courts. (Fosters, 2014:55-56). In the context of the Court’s interaction with EU sources of law, Articles 258 – 260 of the TFEU provide the Court with the authority to determine whether Member State conduct is in breach of EU law. Additionally, Articles 263-266 and 268 of the TFEU allows the Court to review legislation adopted by any EU institution so as to review its lawfulness. Finally, Article 267 of the TFEU allows the Court to make preliminary rules on issues from national courts so that national courts are effectively able to ask the CJEU to make a preliminary ruling on an issue being addressed by the domestic courts.
(e) The Court of Auditors:
Although the Court of Auditors is described as being a ‘court’ it is not really a court but rather it only adopts the same structures as a court. The Court of Auditors are composed of one member from every Member State who are engaged in auditing in their national Member State. Each member of the Court of Auditors is appointed for six years and is headed by a President that is elected by the members every three years. The role of the Court of Auditors is to engage in an auditing of all fiscal matters so that the spending and revenue intake by the EU is properly audited. (Chalmers and Davies, 2014: 103). Articles 285-287 of the TFEU to undertake annual auditing so as to publish its report each November which is approved by a majority vote amongst the 28 members. However, it is important to note that the Court of Auditors has no power to deal with any inadequacies it may find during the course of auditing. These inadequacies can only be passed along to the appropriate authorities to take action.
(f) The European Central Bank:
The ECB is composed of three distinctive decision bodies including the General Council, the Governing Council and the Executive Board. Each of these bodies occupy an important function in respect of financial regulation in the EU. The General Council is an advisory body, the executive board undertakes the day to day running of the ECB while the Governing Council is composed of the Executive Board in addition to the individual bank governors of those banks located in the Eurozone countries. (Chalmers and Davies, 2014: 59-60).
Conclusion:
The primary aim of the discussion in this paper was to conduct an assessment of the role of each EU institution in addition to considering its interaction with the sources of EU law. The discussion above demonstrated that the sources of EU law can be considered an important basis for the identification of the power exercised by each of the various institutions. Therefore, without the sources of EU power these institutions would not exist and furthermore they would have no authority to act within the EU.
References:
Adams, A., (2014) Law for Business Students, London: Pearson Education.
Chalmers, D. and Davies, European Union Law: Text and Materials, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Craig, P. and de Burca, G., (2015) EU Law: Text, Cases and Materials, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Fosters, N., (2014) EU Law Directions, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Turner, C. and Storey, T., (2014) Unlocking EU Law, London: Routledge Publishing.
Solanke, I., (2015) EU Law, London: Longman Publishing.
Woods, L. and Watson, P., (2014) Steiner and Woods EU Law, Oxford: Oxford University Press.