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December 17, 2010
First of all, there will be a lot of single issue politics, connected to lifestyle/hobby groups like hunting, bird watching or music downloading. A million signatures to abolish copyrights will be no match for them. There will be also a lot of emotionally loaded political questions. Banning nukes, GMO agriculture products or bailing out Assange?… » read more
April 23, 2008
We need to increase the powers of the Committee of Regions. In the first place, the CoR should have the Right of Appeal to de ECJ. This means revoking all or part of Art. 263 TFEU. In the second place, as the CoR only plays a consultative role with respect to the Commission and the… » read more
The current treatment given to the provision of economic services of general interest is too decentralised. It must be the EU who legislates the provision of these services. In addition, and if necessary, the EU will override the powers, and the opposition, of the Member States in issues of general interest to all EU citizens.… » read more
We must return to the system advocated in the Draft Constitution whereby, based on the General Orientations of the European Council regarding CFSP, the Council of Ministers needs either a qualified majority to pass decisions (Art. III-295 Draft Constitution) or total unanimity, with or without “constructive abstention”. To return to the requirement of unanimity for… » read more
April 22, 2008
The EMI must demand that Enhanced Cooperation in the areas of CFSP and CDSP is authorised, in the same way as in other areas, that is to say by qualified majority in the Council and not, as was demanded in Art. III-419.2 in the Draft Constitution and is repeated in Art. 329.2 of the TFEU,… » read more
The findings –that is to say the “Decisions” which are still called “Orientations”- of the European Council and the Resolutions of the European Parliament must be checked for their legality in the same terms as the other institutions. The restriction that they can only be appealed against when they are “intended to produce legal effects… » read more
The appointment of the President of the Commission must be done through procedures which are eminently democratic and rooted in the citizens’ desires. The EMI proposes that in the procedure of proposing a candidate to the EU Parliament, an advance is made with respect to the improvements already contained both the Draft Treaty and the… » read more
The EMI proposes that the President of the European Council (who occupies this position for two years) does not exercise the limited powers of representation in the areas of Foreign Affairs and Security, as described in the Lisbon Treaty. The President should be the leading representative of the EU in these areas and should be… » read more
The EMI is frontally opposed to the norm according to which neither the European Central Bank, nor a national central bank, nor any member of their decision-making bodies shall seek or take instructions from Union institutions, bodies, offices or agencies, from any government of a Member State or from any other body. The Union institutions,… » read more
We are pleased to note that Lisbon Treaty has adopted in Art. 11.2 TEU one of the most positive innovations of the Draft Constitution (Art. I-47). That is to say, the principle of participatory democracy, and the right of one million citizens to submit any appropriate proposal on matters where they consider that a legal… » read more
We cannot carry on with the situation whereby the different Member States by means of the COREPER interfere in the execution of EU law, as is permitted in Art. 240.1 TFEU. The COREPER must have a merely consultative function whose aim is to bring about the optimum execution of the law, taking into account the… » read more
The range of inquiries to be carried out by the Ombudsman, which are detailed in Art. 228 TFEU, must be extended to include the public administrations in all the Member States. The current situation, whereby the Ombudsman’s field of action is limited to the EU institutions, is not satisfactory. The differences between the public administrations… » read more
The EU Foreign Office should not be formed merely by those designated by the EU Council and Commission, as the Lisbon Treaty establishes. This leaves the rest of the members of the EU Foreign Office to come from each Member State. It is vital that the EU has a diplomatic service which is large, coordinated… » read more
Bring forward to 2009 the reduction in the number of Commissioners. As long as a number of Commissioners is the same as the number of Member States, the inevitable interpretation is that each Commissioner is the representative of his/her particular Member State. In addition, since the new system adopts a more democratic process for electing… » read more
Bring forward double majority decision-making in the Council to 2009, to coincide with the new European Parliament,. This measure replaces the postponement till 2014 established in the Lisbon Treaty, art. 16.4 TEU. However, the exception known as the Ioannina Compromise could be maintained until 2014. All the foregoing entails the derogation of art. 16.5 TEU… » read more
April 15, 2008
The EU currently suffers from a problem that must be solved if we want its institutions to be fully democratic. We refer to the balance of power between the Member States (as represented by the European Council) and the Citizens (as represented by the European Parliament). If we aspire to true European citizenship, if we… » read more
April 14, 2008
2009 will mark 30 years since the first elections for the European Parliament and new elections for this institution, 20 years since the fall of communism and the beginning of the reintegration process of the long-neglected eastern part of our continent in the European project, and, hopefully, the entering into force of the Lisbon Treaty,… » read more
April 12, 2008
I suggest a “Youth Parliment”of EU where the talented and young leaders belonging to every walk of life should be represented. It is obvious that they are the future leaders, movers and shakers of the EU, so their grooming should be started at early age. It will enable EU to reach the heights of development,… » read more
April 11, 2008
The role of national parliaments is linked with the role which are national preferences of each Member State. The only way to force a processed decision-making invoving national parliaments is to be truly pro-europe… This post was submitted by Francesca Donfrancesco. Original post by Francesca Donfrancesco
April 9, 2008
European Union Citizen Centre “Strasbourg or Brussels” As previously mentioned on this site the European Union’s parliament is based both in Brussels and Strasbourg. To avoid working costs of the European Parliament it would be wise to have the parliament in one location. An Idea proposed once by an Italian EU affairs journalist is to… » read more
