BEUC/X/039/2002
10 October, 2002
Contact : Jim Murray
Email : [email protected]
Lang : EN
The European Consumers’ Organisation
The European Union Decision Making Procedure
and how to influence it
BEUC Seminar for Consumers' Organisations
From Accession Countries
10th October 2002
Bureau Européen des Unions de Consommateurs, Avenue de Tervueren 36, bte 4, B-1040 Bruxelles
Tel: +32(0)27 43 15 90, Fax: +32(0)27 40 28 02, [email protected], http://www.beuc.org
Europäischer Verbraucherverband
Europese Consumentenorganisatie
Organización Europea de Consumidores
Organização Europeia de Consumidores
Organizzazione Europea dei Consumatori
Neytendasamtök Evrópu
Európai Fogyasztók Szervezete
Evropska potrošniška organizacija
Den Europeiske Forbrukerorganisasjonen
Euroopan Kuluttajaliitto
Europejska Organizacja Konsumencka
Eυρωлαïkή Opyάνωση Kαταναλωτών
Den Europæiske Forbrugerorganisation
Den Europeiska Konsumentorganisationen
How to influence the
European Union’s
Decision Making Procedure
BEUC Seminar
10th of October 2002
PART ONE
The EU institutions,
and how to influence them
Timeline
Negotiations begin with all
the applicant countries
(except Turkey)
1997
1998
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Estonia
Hungary
Poland
Slovenia
1999
Bulgaria
Latvia
Lithuania
Malta
Romania
Slovakia
Treaty of Nice,
December 2000
2000
2001
EP elections,
June 2004
2002
2003
2003:
Target date
for the first
accessions
2004
2005
The European Institutions
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE
proposes, manages, regulates
represents economic and
social groups
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
comments, amends
COUNCIL OF MINISTERS
decides
MEMBER STATES
implement
COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS
represents local governments
EUROPEAN COURT
adjudicates
The Brussels’ scene
Industry
Trade
Organisations
Media
Non Governmental
Organisations
European
Commission
European
Parliament
Member States
Representations
Council of Ministers
50,000 influencers and largest press corps in the world
The decision making process
How to influence the process:
European Commission
§
§
§
§
§
First stage in any campaign
Regular consultation of BEUC, as the
representative of European Consumers
Members may be able to influence
Commissioners of the same nationality
BEUC member expertise and concrete cases
may sway Commission thinking
Identification of our potential allies
within the different services
How to influence the process:
Council of Ministers
§
§
§
§
Members lobby with national ministries
BEUC lobbies Permanent
Representations based in Brussels
BEUC/ member co-ordination is
essential
Memorandum to the Presidency with
BEUC priorities
How to influence the process:
The Council - Current Allocation of Votes
Weighting of votes for Member States
France
Germany
Italy
United Kingdom
Spain
Netherlands
Portugal
10
10
10
10
8
5
5
Belgium
Greece
Austria
Sweden
Denmark
Finland
Ireland
Luxembourg
(Qualified Majority requires 62 out of 87/ Blocking Minority is 26 votes )
5
5
4
4
3
3
3
2
How to influence the process:
The Council - future allocation of votes
Weighting of votes for Member States and Candidate Countries:
France
Germany
Italy
United Kingdom
Poland
Spain
Romania
Netherlands
Portugal
Belgium
Greece
Czech Republic
Hungary
Austria
29
29
29
29
27
27
14
13
12
12
12
12
12
10
Bulgaria
Sweden
Denmark
Finland
Ireland
Lithuania
Slovakia
Luxembourg
Cyprus
Estonia
Latvia
Slovenia
Malta
10
10
7
7
7
7
7
4
4
4
4
4
3
How to influence the process:
the European Parliament
§
Maintain good contacts with MEPs and key
committees
§
Make our views understood by relevant
committee and appointed rapporteur
§
Consumer Forum Intergroup
How to influence the process:
The European Parliament
§
§
§
§
§
§
Most impact during first reading
Rapporteurs and coordinators are key
European perspective, but also
National perspective can dominate
Meetings at national level and in
Brussels
At the final stages: very political and
very national
Why involve the media
§
§
§
§
Brussels has one of the largest Press Corps in
the World
Ministers, Commissioners, MEPs may be
swayed by articles in influential press
BEUC issues press releases before important
votes in EP, Council or mid-week
Commissioners meeting to try to sway votes
Co-ordinated press activity with members to
sway national Ministers and MEPs
How we work
¦
¦
¦
¦
Keep informed, through informal contacts
and official information
Secure agreement between our members
Prepare consumer case based on member
expertise and data
Agree and plan co-ordinated political and
media strategies
How we must work
Expertise
Research
Facts
Develop personal
relationships
Not just documents
Input of our
members, for
maximum
impact
Creative
communication
Use the
European &
national press
PART TWO:
How to prepare yourself
How to prepare yourself
§
§
§
§
Ensure your staff learns now how the EU
functions and will function
Meet members of the Brussels-based
accession country missions
Meet with national political parties and
likely candidates to become MEPs
Meet with likely candidate
Commissioners
Sources of information
§
§
§
§
§
§
www.beuc.org
www.europa.eu.int/comm/consumers
www.europa.eu.int/eur-lex
www.europarl.eu.int/addresses/institutions/websites
www.euractiv.com
Commission and European Parliament offices in your
country
Background Information
I
About BEUC
BEUC Structure
The General Assembly is composed of 34 Members
from 24 European countries, from EU, Accession Countries
and EEA. The GA determines general BEUC policy &
priorities
The Executive includes our members from Denmark, Italy,
France, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain and United Kingdom.
The Executive agrees how to implement the general policy
BEUC Secretariat
§ Director and Deputy
§
§
§
§
§
§
Administration and Finance
Legal Department
Economics Department
Food Department
Health, Environment and Safety Department
Communications
Our Publications
§
§
§
§
§
Memorandum, our priorities
BEUC in brief, our positions
BEUC brochure, our mission
Annual report, our activities
www.beuc.org, our future
Our 40th Anniversary
1962 - 2002:
40 years working
for consumers
in Europe
II
The EU institutions,
before and after enlargement
The European Commission,
before enlargement
§
§
§
§
College of 20 Commissioners, and their
cabinets
France, Germany, Italy, UK, Spain have two
Commissioners each
The other Member States have one
Commissioner
Consumers are represented by Commissioner
Byrne
The European Commission,
before enlargement
§
DG Sanco (Health and Consumers Affairs)
§
Very open and transparent
§
College meets every Wednesday
§
Commission Press Briefing every day at midday
The European Commission,
after enlargement
§
From 2005 the College of Commissioners will
be limited to one member per Member State
§
Another ceiling on the number of
Commissioners will be imposed once the
Union has 27 Member States
§
Nationality of Commissioners will be
determined by a fair system of rotation
The European Commission,
after enlargement
Much remains undecided for the moment
§
An elected Commission President?
§
Increased powers of the President?
§
President will be able to to decide allocation
of portfolios, to reassign responsibilities
and to demand a Commissioners’ resignation
The Council of Ministers,
before enlargement
§
§
§
§
§
§
The institution that ultimately decides
6-Month Rotating Presidencies setting the
agenda
Represented in Brussels by Permanent
representations
Preparatory work in working groups
Very intransparent working procedures
Intransparent working procedures
The Council of Ministers,
after enlargement
Again, much remains undecided
§
§
§
§
No longer a rotating Presidency?
No longer setting the agenda?
Reduced number of cases in which Member
States can impose their veto
Increased use of Qualified majority voting
The Council of Ministers,
after enlargement
§
§
§
§
§
Change in the weighting of votes from 1
January 2005
Weighting dependent on size of population
Qualified majority must represent 62% of the
total population of the Union
Qualified majority threshold to be reviewed after
each new accession
Lobbying the larger Council likely to be much
more difficult
The European Parliament,
before enlargement
§
§
§
§
First ever Parliament with EPP as the largest
political group
Greens and Liberals can shift the balance of
the vote
Shares co-decision power with the Council
Very intransparent procedures: for example
informal trialogue with Council during first
reading
The European Parliament,
before enlargement
Members of the EP, by party
PPE-DE
32
2216
45
PSE
234
50
ELDR
GUE-NGL
Verts-ALE
52
UEN
EDD
175
NI
PPE-DE: Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats) and European
Democrats
PSE: Group of the Party of European Socialists
ELDR: Group of the European Liberal, Democrat and Reform Party
GUE/NGL: Confederal Group of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left
Verts/ALE: Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
UEN: Union for Europe of the Nations Group
EDD: Group for a Europe of Democracies and Diversities
NI: Non-attached
The European Parliament,
before enlargement
Number of seats, by country
87
87
99
87
9
15
16
16
21
64
22 25
25
25
31
Total: 626 Members
Germany
France
Italy
UK
Spain
Netherlands
Greece
Portugal
Belgium
Sweden
Austria
Finland
Denmark
Ireland
Luxembourg
The European Parliament,
after enlargement
§
§
§
§
§
A maximum of 732 MEPs
Increased qualified majority voting in Council,
will generate more co-decision procedures
German, French, Italian, Spanish and UK
delegations will remain dominant
Poland and Romania will have very large
delegations
Varying & new coalitions will be possible
The European Parliament, after enlargement
Germany
Number of seats by country
France
Italy
United Kingdom
Spain
Poland
72
Romania
72
72
Netherlands
Belgium
Greece
50
Portugal
99
Hungary
50
5
6
66
7
8
12
12
13
13
Czech Republic
Sw eden
Austria
33
25
22
13
17
22
17
18
20
20
22
Bulgaria
Denmark
Finland
Slovakia
Ireland
Lithuania
Latvia
Slovenia
Cyprus
Estonia
Luxembourg
Total: 732 Members
Malta
Allocation of seats in the EP
Now
Decided in Nice
German Federal Republic
France
Italy
United Kingdom
Spain
Poland
Romania
Netherlands
Belgium
Greece
Portugal
Hungary
Czech Republic
Sweden
Austria
Bulgaria
Denmark
Finland
Slovakia
Ireland
Lithuania
Latvia
Slovenia
Cyprus
Estonia
Luxembourg
Malta
99
87
87
87
64
31
25
25
25
22
21
16
16
15
6
-
99
72
72
72
50
50
33
25
22
22
22
20
20
18
17
17
13
13
13
12
12
8
7
6
6
6
5
Total
626
732
Dominant national delegations
60
SPD - D
Labour - UK
CDU/CSU - D
Conservatives - UK
LD - UK
VVD/D'66 - NL
Les Verts - FR
Grüne - D
50
40
30
20
10
0
1999-2004
2004-2009
The eight core consumers’ rights