The European Parliament
The European parliament (also referred as Europarl or the EP) is directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union (EU) . It’s responsible for making legislative actions across the entire EU and it’s described as the most powerful legislatives in the world .
Purpose:
The purpose of the European Parliament is to provide, its citizen followings :
1. Better agricultural policies, rural development and better food quality
2. Fair competitive environment for both service and manufacturing, consumer protection.
3. Better and safe transportation; and infrastructure
4. Education, Youth, sports and training development
5. Free movements of goods, services and people across the EU
6. Better economic and financial policies
7. Fundamental Human rights
8. Provide better public health
9. Better environment – Waste management, control air and pollution, civil protections
10. Justice, freedom and security
Composition of European Parliament:
The European Parliament is consists of 766 MEPs (Members of the European Parliament) . The European citizens vote directly for the MEPs and are elected for 5-year renewable terms. Voting for the MEPs takes place on a national basis and number of MEPs elected in each country based roughly on population size. Germany has the largest number of MEPs (99 seats), while Cyprus, Estonia, and Malta have the smallest (with 6 each). It has been seen that the turnout for EP elections has fallen significantly over the years .
The selected MEPs appoint the president of the European parliament and is responsible for overseeing the all the activities of parliament and its standing committees. The president servers two and half years term and his/her signature is required to ena...
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...of the major issues with EP is the operation cost of European Parliament. There is a high cost associated with MEPs and their staff travelling across the Europe for Plenary meetings in Strasbourg, parliamentary committees and political group meetings is in Brussels and for administrative related work in Luxembourg. This has led awareness about the significant amount of tax payers’ money is being wasted .
EP is also highly criticized for being a bureaucratic and its MEPs have recently found in involving scandals “cash-for-amendments”, “double payment of expenses to the staff members”, “cashed paid with receipts” etc. EP is tightly working on code of conduct regarding gift and hospitality to give to the MEPs .
All of the above issue must be resolved in order for EU to operate more efficiently. And EU is working on all the above issue to gain the trust of EU citizens.
The European Union has a common “government” called the Parliament. In the background essay it stated, “The role of the parliament is to debate and pass laws, make sure all EU institutions work democratically, and debate, and adopt the EU budget”. This means that the parliament has control over the laws, and controls the European Union budget. In Document B it mentions, “Whatever institution governs the trade of a nation or group of nations whether monarchy, dictator or parliament essentially rules that nation”. This means that the parliament has control over the European Union.
When analysts criticise the lack of democratic legitimacy in the EU they generally point to the mode of political representation and the nature of policy outputs. Only one branch of the EU is directly elected is the European Parliament. Though stronger than it once was, the EP remains is actually only one of four major actors in the EU policy-making process. The EP is a body without power or accountability, and easily dismissed just as a ‘talking shop’ (Colin Pilkington.) Only 75% of its amendments are accepted by the Commission and the Council of Ministers.
The system of government we have today was starting to developed centuries ago by the Athenians and Romans. Both governments were established with the intent to give power to the people, even though it did not always play out that way in society. The Athenian democracy and the Roman republic were two very different governments in practice, but also maintained similar characteristics in both systems of government.
Tiilikainen, T. 2011. The empowered European Parliament: Accommodation to the new functions provided by the Lisbon Treaty. The Finnish Institute of International Affairs.
The European Union (EU), since the initial foundation in 1952 as the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and throughout periods of development, has been considered one of the most advanced forms of regional integration. It, based on numerous treaties and resolutions, has strived to promote values such as peace, cooperation or democracy, and in 2012 was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for having “contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe” (Nobel Media AB, 2012). Despite its struggle for promoting democracy, the EU itself has long experienced scholarly criticisms that it suffers the democratic deficit, from which its democratic legitimacy is undermined by observable problems in political accountability and participation. As the importance of legitimacy in a democratically representative institution is hardly debatable, the criticism of whether and why the EU lacks democracy has been given a considerable gravity in academia.
The EU is a union of sovereign European states who share sovereignty based on treaty. The union also possesses competences in policy sectors with exclusive jurisdiction in the area of Economic and Monetary Union while others are shared with Member States (MS), the other powers belong to MS as derived from the conferral of powers art 5(2) TEU, 2(1) TFEU art.3 & 4 TFEU additionally other powers have been offered by the decisions of the European Court for direct effect on citizens
I will firstly look at each one individually and how it is organised then analyse its powers and responsibilities before comparing them and drawing up my conclusions. However I would like to note that there are many different interpretations and parameters of ‘powerful’ which make it difficult to answer the question. The EU was established in 1992 by the Maastricht Treaty. It comprises what are known as three ‘pillars’.
...re “open” than the most national parliaments from members-states. This happens because citizens have easy access via EU web site in the archives of the EU policy-making.
The legislative Branch is a powerful part of our governmental system. One of the strengths of it is that it has powers that no other branch has. The legislative branch, including both the House of Representatives and the Senate, is given extensive powers by the Constitution. The legislative branch is the only branch that can create laws or change existing laws. In addition to creating and changing laws, the legislative branch has an array of powers such as: the power to declare war, confirm or reject many Presidential appointments, impeach a federal official, to include the president or a justice of the Supreme Court, create annual federal budgets and direct how federal monies are spent, and extensive investigative powers. Essentially, one of the legislatives branches’ greater powers to creating and changing laws do not yield there; additionally, if the President vetoes a bill, they may override his veto by passing a bill again in each chamber as long as the chambers can get at least a two-third voting in favor of the bill. An example would if the President wants to create a program and/or a system, he will have to go through Congress for approval of the
An issue that has remained debatable since the Jackson litigation was what ought to be the ultimate controlling factor in the British constitution: parliamentary sovereignty or the rule of law. This essay sets out to consider the reputedly irreconcilable tension between the two fundamental constitutional principles by analysing the extensive obiter dicta in Jackson and relating it to judicial review which upholds the rule of law. The contention of this essay is that despite the courts' deferential attitude towards the sovereignty of the laws of Parliament, the rule of law may potentially gain dominance and surpass parliamentary sovereignty to become the ultimate controlling factor in the British constitution.
Before democracy, Athens was a city-state no different than any other. A few powerful, aristocratic families controlled all governing power. Most of the population held little or no role in the political life of the city. Athenians changed this, and created a system where participation was encouraged and opinions were valued. While some other Greek cities were also setting up democracies, none were as stable or well documented as that of Athens. The reason for why the Athenians moved toward a democratic society instead of an oligarchy or monarchy is still debated by historians. However, one common belief is that it rose due to a rapid population growth in their lower class, which may have caused them to have more power in the government compared to other Greek poleis during the Lyric Age. This time period took place between 800 and 500 B.C.; it represents a very vibrant, evolutionary stage in Greek history. The rise of the lower class in Athens probably did help spark ideas of democracy, yet the significant contributions of the political leadership of Solon, Cleisthenes, and Pericles can undisputedly be credited for the primary development of Athenian democracy. In 594 B.C., the first major political and economic reformer Solon came into power. The next reformer was Cleisthenes; he lived from 570 to 508 B.C. The final, and most revolutionary of the three was Pericles. Pericles is responsible for the last and most glorious stage of Athens. By expanding its power and building patriotic pride, he forever changed the system of democracy.
The European Union stands on the threshold of unparalleled change over the coming years. The next waves of enlargement will be unprecedented in nature and continental in scale. This process has gained so much political momentum that it is now irreversible.
Direct democracy means forms of direct participation of citizens in democratic decision making in contrast to indirect or representative democracy, based on the sovereignty of the people. This can happen in the form of an assembly democracy or by initiative and referendum with ballot voting, with direct voting on issues instead of for candidates or parties. Sometimes the term is also used for electing representatives in a direct vote as opposed to indirect elections (by voting for an electing body, electoral college, etc.), as well as for recalling elected officeholders. Direct democracy may be understood as a full-scale system of political institutions, but in modern times, it means most often specific decision-making institutions in the broader
Influences Polish MEPs' Perceptions of Poland's place in Europe’, Perspectives on European Politics and Society, vol.11, no.4, pp.358-375.
Today in the present world, most countries have the core object of governance in the “public good provisioning ” leitmotif. According to the main principles ; accountability, participation and transparency, from the governance ecology interaction between the State, Civil Society and Market –place, within the global-village environment, (Higgot and Ougaard 2002; Stiglitz 2003; Woods 2006) “Governance Deteriorate the Economical Progress of the Developing Countries”(Box 15.4 Kaufmann, Kray, and Mastruzzi, 2008 p 291 Governance Matter Vll: some leading findings). In my opinion governance on itself without parametric recognition is doomed to fail, instead of reflecting to new mechanisms of responsibility to steer and guide the social and economical issues, which I will try to clarify in the upcoming body breakdown. Governance is supported as structure through institutions, as process through instruments and as agenda through elements of good governance, generating the capacity to improve significant development and positive impact of economic growth and to cut back destitution. Despite of the fact that developing countries can come in line with the quality of governance by accepting it as a crucial determinant of developmental performance, it didn’t came into effect. The underlying fact of weak and poor governance was identified as a result, for not effectuating the measureme...