Other documents from the institutions

1.5.3.1. Commission communication

The vast majority of communications from the Commission (COM documents) are legislative proposals. The other most important COM documents are listed below.

White Papers, which contain a set of proposals for action by the Community in a particular field. They sometimes follow on from Green Papers, the purpose of which is to launch a consultation process at European level. If a White Paper is favourably received by the Council, it can lead, if appropriate, to an EU action programme in the field concerned.

Green Papers, which are intended to stimulate thinking and launch consultation at European level on a particular subject. The consultations resulting from a Green Paper can then lead to the publication of a White Paper that will propose a set of concrete measures for Community action.

1.5.3.2. Report from the European Court of Auditors

The annual report of the Court of Auditors presents the Court’s comments on the handling of the Community’s finances. It is forwarded to the Community institutions and published in the Official Journal. The report highlights the points where improvement would be possible, or indeed desirable. The institutions then reply to the Court of Auditors’ observations.

Case-law

Introduction

All the decisions handed down by bodies exercising judicial powers constitute case-law. The Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance of the European Communities are the judicial institutions of the European Union. It is the task of the Court to ensure that Community law is respected in the interpretation and implementation of the founding treaties. The Court is assisted in its work by advocates-general, who draw up opinions.

Judgments

The Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance hand down judgments, which are decisions that conclude a litigation procedure.

There is no appeal against judgments of the Court of Justice.

An appeal against a judgment of the Court of First Instance can be brought before the Court of Justice.

Opinions

The European Parliament, the Council, the Commission or a Member State can seek the opinion of the Court of Justice on whether an agreement between the Community and non-member countries or international organizations is compatible with the provisions of the EC Treaty. An agreement on which the Court of Justice has given a negative opinion can enter into force only under the conditions laid down in Article 48 of the Treaty on European Union (procedure for amending the treaties).

Orders

The Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance issue orders in a variety of instances, as laid down in the Rules of Procedure, which fall broadly into three groups:

1. instances during the investigation of a case (for example, acts ordering the preservation of evidence, or separating, joining or suspending cases);

2. instances where the Court takes a decision without considering the substance of the case (for example, in the event of manifest inadmissibility of the case or lack of jurisdiction);

3. instances where the Court takes a decision on the substance of the case; here, the orders are in fact simplified judgments that are used when the case is identical to others on which a judgment has already been handed down.

Orders can in principle be amended or revoked.

Submissions of the advocates-general

The advocates-general have the duty of assisting the Court in its work. They present in open court, acting with complete impartiality and independence, reasoned submissions on cases before the Court. In these submissions the advocate-general thus proposes a solution to the dispute, but the submissions do not bind the judges. They are an integral part of the oral procedure and are published together with the judgment in the Court Reports.

Parliamentary questions

Parliamentary questions represent a way for Members of Parliament to keep a check on the activities of the Commission and the Council. Each Member of Parliament can address to the Council and the Commission:

· written questions (requesting a written reply),

· oral questions (asked in the chamber) and

· questions during Question Time (the period reserved for questions in each part-session of Parliament).

These questions are a much-used means of keeping check. The written questions and the replies given are published in the Official Journal, C series. They are incorporated into EUR-Lex.

Legislative procedures

In contrast to the national systems, in which the will of the nation is expressed in Parliament, the European Union accords a major legislative role to the representatives of the Member States meeting in the Council. As the institutions have developed, the European Parliament has seen its powers increase: the Council now shares its legislative powers with Parliament for the adoption of general legal instruments of a binding nature (regulations and directives). The decision-making procedures comprise the consultation procedure, the cooperation procedure, the co-decision procedure and the assent procedure.

Assent procedure (Code AVC)

The assent procedure, which was introduced by the Single European Act, gives Parliament the possibility of expressing its approval or disapproval of certain Council instruments. There are certain matters on which the Council cannot legislate unless Parliament gives its consent by an absolute majority of its members. The assent procedure, which represents as it were a right of veto for Parliament, was originally intended to apply only to the conclusion of association agreements and the examination of applications to join the European Community. The areas in which the assent procedure applies at present are as follows:

· enhanced cooperation (Article 11(2)),

· specific tasks of the ECB (Article 105(6)),

· amending the Statute of the European System of Central Banks (Article 107(5)),

· Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund (Article 161),

· uniform procedure for elections (Article 190(4)),

· certain international agreements (Article 300(3)),

· violation of human rights (Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union),

· accession of new Member States (Article 49 of the Treaty on European Union).

Co-decision procedure (Code COD)

The co-decision procedure, which was introduced by the Treaty on European Union, was conceived as an extension of the cooperation procedure. However, while in the latter the Council can, acting unanimously, disregard the opinion of Parliament, in the co-decision procedure there is no such possibility: in the event of disagreement, a conciliation committee made up of representatives of the Council and of Parliament has to arrive at a text that is acceptable to the two institutions. The co-decision procedure now puts these two institutions on an equal footing in the legislative roles. Under this procedure, the Council cannot adopt a common position if the process of conciliation with Parliament fails. If no agreement is reached, the legislative process is liable to be broken off.

Co-decision has become by far the most important procedure in legislative practice.

It concerns the following areas:

· non-discrimination on grounds of nationality (Article 12),

· combating discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation (Article 13(2)),

· freedom of movement and of residence (Article 18(2)),

· free movement of workers (Article 40),

· social security for migrant workers (Article 42),

· right of establishment (Article 44(1), Article 46(2), Article 47(1) and (2)),

· visas, asylum, immigration and other policies relating to the free movement of persons (Article 67(4) and (5)),

· transport (Article 71(1), Article 80),

· the internal market (Article 95),

· employment (Article 129),

· customs cooperation (Article 135),

· social policy (Article 137(2)),

· equal opportunities and equal treatment (Article 141(3)),

· implementing decisions relating to the European Social Fund (Article 148),

· education (Article 149(4)),

· culture (except recommendations) (Article 151(5)),

· public health (Article 152(4)),

· consumer protection (Article 153(4)),

· trans-European networks (Article 156),

· industry (Article 157(3)),

· economic and social cohesion(Article 159),

· European Regional Development Fund (Article 162),

· research and technological development (Article 166(1), Article 172),

· vocational training (Article 150(4)),

· the environment (Article 175(1) and (3)),

· development cooperation (Article 179(1)),

· political parties at European level (Article 191),

· access to the institutions’ documents (Article 255(2)),

· fraud (Article 280),

· statistics (Article 285),

· establishing a supervisory body for data protection (Article 286).