Who has power in the European Union?

Since the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1952, the European continent began its evolution from a multitude of small, distinct cultural and economic zones into the largest single marketplace in the entire world. Today, the European Union is composed of twenty seven member states, a large jump from the six that formed its foundation. There are seven institutions that collectively form the governing body that is the European Union: the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council of the European Union (also referred to as the Council of Ministers or the Council), the European Commission, the Court of Justice of the European Union (additionally referred to as the European Court of Justice), the European Central Bank, and the European Court of Auditors. Of these, only three hold the executive and legislative powers of the European Union.  The total power of the European Union is outsourced to several bodies to avoid any of the tyrannical nature that governed Europe in the centuries before. The Council of the European Union represents governments, the Parliament represents citizens and the Commission represents the European interest. However, not all roles are created equal. This essay will examine which positions within the European Union carry the most influence in the decision making process by analyzing how the institutions are composed, how politics work within the institutions, the relationships between the institutions, and how decisions are made.

The European Parliament is the only directly-elected body in the European Union. It is a legislative institution composed of seven hundred and five members that represent the member states with degressive proportionality. That is to say, members of the European Parliament from countries with smaller populations will represent far fewer citizens than members from more populous countries like Germany. The election of these members employs the method of a single transferable vote and first-past-the-post voting. There is also a party list proportional representation among the members. The European Parliament does not normally initiate legislation, but instead must amend and approve the legislature initiated by the European Commission. It is, however, the institution that initiates contact with the European Court of Auditors. It shares much authority with the Council of Ministers. The European Parliament is led by a single President and fourteen Vice Presidents. The President serves two and a half year terms, and the role typically falls between the two largest political parties in play at the time. The rest of the members, regardless of party association, are divided into twenty Committees that separately deal with the issues at hand in the European Union. 

The European Council collectively determines what those issues are. Composed of the heads of state of each member state, the European Council meets alongside the President of the European Parliament and the President of the European Commission. The heads of state are elected in their own national elections, but hold a heavy hand in European politics. The European Council approves members of the European Commission, which typically initiates legislation. The individual members of the European Council also determine the make-up of the Council of Ministers, which features a representational minister from every member state. The two Councils are the only institutions within the European Union that are explicitly intergovernmental, but the Council of Ministers is the only one of the two to have legislative powers.

The Council of the European Union has twenty seven members, one for each member state, and explicitly discusses the desires of their own heads of state. The ministers meet in configurations of ten, determined by the issue at hand and which representatives have said issue in their portfolios. The Commissioners with portfolios including the aforementioned area of policy can join the meeting and contribute their findings, but are not eligible to cast a vote. The Council is headed by its President, a six month rotating position among the member states. The presidency and its office holders are determined in groups of three, often with similar policy interests, so as to ensure the continuity of Council discussions amidst its often changing leader. The Council is also supported by the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union. As a sub-institution, the Council Secretariat and its employees hold a position of more permanence, and aid the Council in legal and political decisions through its own research. Effectively, the Council Secretariat serves as a balance of power within meeting chambers so as to avoid any possibility of aforementioned tyranny. However, the composition of the Council Secretariat is decided by a simple majority vote by Council members and the highest ranking position within the Council Secretariat, the Secretary General, is also determined by the Council. The issues at hand are covered by one of seven directorates-general, which is the subdivision of the Council Secretariat. Directorates-general are also the subdivisions used in the research and informational bodies used by both the European Parliament and the European Commission.

The European Commission is the executive branch of government in the European Union. The Commission has earned the nickname ‘Guardian of the Treaties’ because one of its primary responsibilities is ensuring the proper implementation and use of the treaties pertaining to the European Union. The Commission also proposes legislation and implements those decisions while managing the every day business of the European Union. The Commissioners are proposed by the Council, approved by the European Parliament, and officially appointed by the European Council. The institution as a whole operates under the same rules and regulations of a typical domestic cabinet government. There are twenty seven Commissioners in total, but upwards of thirty thousand civil servants are employed by the institution in its administrative body of directorates-general. The President of the Commission leads the discussion, and is suggested by the European Council and elected by the European Parliament. The Parliament also votes to approve the remainder of the Commission en bloc, which is to say they can only accept or reject the proposed group of Commissioners as a whole. Despite the fact that every member state has a representative in the Commission, the members of the institution must swear an oath of allegiance to the interests of Europe, not their native country. 

Outside of the European Parliament, the European Commission, the Council of the European Union, and the European Council, the only institutions with decision making authority are the European Court of Auditors and the European Court of Justice. However, due to the nature of these institutions, they do not have the power to initiate legislation but the latter has the power to annul legislation should it be presented with the opportunity. The European Court of Justice is considered to be the most powerful model of an international court that is realistically possible. It deals in matters of European Union law and avoids issues concerning disputes over national law. The court is above these matters and its decisions are directly implemented. The court is home to twenty seven judges and eleven Advocates-general. The judges are appointed by the heads of each member state, but must be approved unanimously by the other member states. The judges themselves elect from their number a representative to serve as the President of the European Court of Justice for a renewable term of three years. He or she, although there have been no female Presidents of the European Court of Justice as of yet, has the ability to preside over deliberations and hearings, as well as perform the administrative tasks that keep the Court running smoothly. The President of the European Court of Justice also assigns cases to the chambers for investigation.

The institutions of the European Union employ thousands of citizens from every represented country. While the governing bodies at hand do strive to create the most equality driven legislation possible, it should be noted that the member states are not entirely of equal population, size, or income. The budget of the entire Union consists of just one percent of the gross national income of each member state. Effectively, the wealthiest countries within the Union, such as Denmark and Germany, contribute more to the budget than they receive in benefits, while some of the poorest countries, like Lithuania and Estonia, receive far more in benefits than they are able to contribute. During the United Kingdom’s time as the now defunct twenty eighth member state, one of its most famous prime ministers arranged for the wealthiest countries to be given some of their money back to shorten this gap. In 2019, Denmark effectively contributed a net total less than half of a single percent of its gross national income. While Denmark accounts for only a small percentage of the total population of the European Union, it benefits from legislation that supports the small and wealthy countries of western Europe. It could be argued that the individuals with the most power in the European Union come from these countries, because in reality, the ones with money are often the ones with power, regardless of the democratic and egalitarian nature of the institutions. 

France alone for other reasons could be considered to be the most powerful country in the European Union. It has military and nuclear resources that most European nations simply do not have. The European Union collectively works to fund a defense team, but France seems to be the standalone country that could provide this on its own. From a military perspective, France is the most powerful. However, military threats do not ring loudly in a Union built to prevent them. In the early days of the Union, France famously abstained from negotiations across the institutions until their one demand was granted: the power to veto a piece of legislation for the sake of national interest. This obviously comes with exceptions, but would not exist at all if it were not for the French government’s complete unwillingness to move forward without it. Although France may come to mind as the most powerful individual nation within the European Union for its adamance, it is not necessarily the singular nation that has the final opinion in the decision making process.

No single country does. If power is defined as influence, no one country nor individual in the Union holds the ultimate power. The citizens of the Union as a collective do not even have that power. Although citizens elect the members of the European Parliament and of their own national governments, it is the heads of the elected governments of the wealthiest countries in the Union whose opinions are most solicited and whose requests are most fulfilled. The heads of state have direct influence over the European Council and the Council of the European Union, as well as indirect influence over the European Court of Justice, European Commission, and the European Court of Auditors. Indirect influence in this context means that the heads of state play some role in determining the composition and actions of these groups, or are assisted in such matters by the domestic governments behind them.

It can be concluded that the individuals with the most power in the European Union are the heads of government from each member state. Of these, the heads of state that represent the wealthiest and most populous member states are the most powerful. As this essay has shown, the welfare of European citizens and the income of the Union are the most prominent issues and values considered in the decision making process. While the European Parliament is directly elected by national election and must agree to any proposed legislature within the Union, the other two bodies involved in the process, the Council of Ministers and the European Commission, are directly and indirectly controlled by the heads of state.             

Bibliography

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Craig, P. and De Búrca, G., 2003. EU Law: Text, Cases And Materials. New York: Oxford University Press, p.182.

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European Commission - European Commission. 2010. Press Corner. [online] Available at: <https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_10_487> [Accessed 19 April 2020].