South/East dialogue, European Integration, Development and Democracy
Josè Antonio Jauregui – Summer School 2006 – University of Malta
Interno - Esterno di Alfredo Santoro
Tratto dalla collezione ”Giardini Mediterranei” Estasi del Colore
Profesor José Antonio Jáuregui Oroquieta, un ciudadano navarro, 'orgulloso de serlo', de especial relevancia en el ámbito cultural e intelectual y una de las personas que formaron el núcleo inicial que puso en marcha la Universidad de Navarra.
‘Gothic cathedrals are there, marking out the cultural and mental territory of Europeans. A Gothic cathedral appears as a cultural synthesis of Grecorroman elements – doric, ionic, and corinthian — and of Jewish elements –t he psalms — which are adapted to Grecorroman molds (the psalms are not sung in Hebrew but rather in the language of Rome, which is in part a variation of Greek culture). Gothic cathedrals do not delimit the cultural or mental territory of the Chinese. The Gothic style is a synthesis of Jewish and Grecorroman elements that contributes to the definition of our “common cultural heritage.”
Professor José Antonio Jáuregui docet
Thanks to:
European Commission
Representation of the European Commission in Malta
CIDE Roma
Rappresentanza della Commissione Europea a Milano
European Unit, University of Malta
Faculty of Laws, University of Malta
Faculty of Arts, University of Malta
“I Mediterranei South/East dialogue” is supported by the European Commission through its Directorate General for Education and Culture – Socrates Programme: Erasmus Thematic Networks
PRESENTATION
The update course of the “I Mediterranei” programme is a moment for dialogue and reflection between agents of development and the scientific world.
This initiative, inserted in the “I Mediterranei” programme, is an annual appointment in the context of the Community network which provides the contents of a European knowledge and opens a dialogue between different peoples to realise a high education scientific and cooperation network.
The aim of these study days is to give a presentation to agents of development of the most significant contents of the “I Mediterranei” programme and to specify the challenges through which the European Union has ensured peace, encouraged development and guaranteed human rights.
The update course also aims to support partnerships and cooperation through South/East dialogue.
Distinguished JM professors, officials of the European Union and experts in law, economics, community policy and cooperation permits participants to embark on a journey which allows them to gain a thorough knowledge of European integration with the Mediterranean region and the Central-Eastern European countries.
The course takes the form of lectures in the classroom, debates, group-work and the presentation of final documents with the assistance of a tutor.
The course is designed so as to maximise the benefits of continuous dialogue between teachers and participants.
The presentation of the subject of the lectures is followed by a precise explanation of all its aspects. In the subsequent debate every participant is required to make his/her own contribution. Each day of study concludes with group-work and the presentation of a final document: analysis, reflections and proposals. A tutor is on hand to support students during the different stages of the course. The method adopted permits active participation and an acquisition of knowledge, which day by day is assimilated and enriched in stimulating ways by the participants, who are involved methodologically.
This publication is the result of the activities of the Erasmus Network “I Mediterranei South/East Dialogue” and the Summer School is a pilot project that has permitted all of us to launch a Master’s on: "Management and promotion of quality of life in EU" and a Degree course on: “European Integration: Tourism, Environment and Quality of life”.
The future work will be concentrated on developing other Masters and academic activities involving other J.M. professors, young people and agents of development, in accordance with the European process of integration.
Co-ordinator Director Scientific Direction
Prof. Ian Refalo Dott. Joseph Mifsud Prof. Pasquale Saccà
SUMMARY
1. The Institutions of the European Union
2. On the Constitution and the future of Europe
3. Quality of life, protection of the environment, tourism and health – Ecotourism and sustainable development
4. Small States in EU integration and democratization: the regional dynamics of Europe and the Mediterranean Area.
5. Comparison of Public Law, analysis of the Legislation in force in the fields of tourism, environment and quality of life
6. Economia degli scambi internazionali e cooperazione internazionale
7. Regional Policy
8. European Council summits to understand the history and the future of the EU and the role of Europe in the international context.
9. New Community Regulations in the Field of Competition
10. Union economique et monetaire: principes et problemes
11. From Association to Accession of the Slovak Republic to the EU
12. Malta’s experience of European Integration: Public Procurement
13. Malta relations prior to joining the EU
- Prof Guido de Marco President Emeritus of Malta
14. The role of Italy in the European / Mediterranean Integration
- Ambasciatore d’Italia Dott. Paolo Andrea Trabalza
15. The Tuning project in EU and Mediterranean Region
16. Multimedia Lectures
· The role of the European Research in the contest of the industrial mutations
see: http://www.imediterranei.eu/pdf//Andreta.ppt
· Cohesion policy and structural funds in the European Union see: http://www.imediterranei.eu/pdf//Mancini.ppt
· The Common Fisheries Policy Origins, evolution and state of play see: http://www.imediterranei.eu/pdf//THE%20COMMON%20FISHERIES%20POLICY.ppt
· The role of Culture in the European Integration History, archaeology, culture and cultural heritage, traditions and languages see: http://www.imediterranei.eu/pdf//presentacionmalta2006.ppt
· SMEs in the economic globalisation: the role of micro credit to develop partnership and international trade of SMEs. see: http://www.imediterranei.eu/pdf//d_Andrea.ppt
· The European Single Market see: http://www.imediterranei.eu/pdf//Abad.ppt
17. Final Dissertations made by the Students:
- SMES in the economic globalization: the role of micro-credit to develop partnership and international trade of SME
- The Lisbon Strategy
- The Internal Market
- The Singles Market (http://projects.um.edu.mt/imediterranei/download/summer06/plenaria/Group_4.ppt )
- The Euro and Democracy
18. Conclusions
CHAPTER I
THE INSTITUTIONS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
PAOLO PONZANO
Direttore Segretariato Generale
Commissione Europea
1. INTRODUCTION
The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe signed on the 29th October 2004 by the Heads of State or Government has consolidated and at the same time modified the institutional system created by the Treaties of Rome of 1957.
Consolidated, because the community method created by the founding fathers of the European Communities (in particular by Jean Monnet) was not only maintained but also extended to new sectors of activity of the European Union (mostly, to the sector of judicial and interior affairs).
Modified, because the new Treaty has introduced new institutional figures amongst which the “semi-permanent” president of the European Council and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, these not being provided for in the present Treaties, and has also modified the relation among the existing Institutions.
The community method specifies the original decision process which is applied to the legislative acts of the European Union, through the act of independent and permanent institutions. This is based on the interplay between the so-called institutional triangle of the Union: the European Commission, guarantor of the general European interest, holds the exclusive right of legislative initiative; the Council of Ministers, guarantor of the national interests, adopts the decisions generally at qualified majority voting; the European Parliament, representative of the European peoples, has the power of co-decision with the Council or, at least, intervenes in the legislative process through consultation. Such a system is completed by jurisdictional control exercised by the Court of Justice, guarantor of the rule of law.
The strength of the community method resides in its principal characteristics: the transparency of the decision process, the synthesis of the sectoral interests, the impartial treatment of all the Member States, the respect for the rule of law, the effectiveness in the taking of a decision. However, such elements are not found then in the intergovernmental method, in which the Member States decide by consensus, without making use of the initiative of an independent body and without the participation of the European Parliament. The current chapter proposes to describe briefly the composition and the functions of the Institutions of the European Union which result from the new constitutional Treaty, highlighting the innovations brought about by the latter in respect to the Treaties currently in force.[1]
It is not the aim of the chapter to focus excessively on the juridical description of the existing functions, already present in numerous existing works, but it is more concerned in accentuating the innovations brought about by the constitutional Treaty in the light of the confirmed and consolidated practice in the course of the process of European integration. The text will examine successively the role, the composition and the specific functions of the three main European Institutions (the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers) to which the European Council should be added in so far as it is a new Institution created by the Constitutional Treaty. No mention is made to the functions of other Institutions (the Central European Bank and the Court of Auditors) or advisory bodies (the Committee of the Regions and the Economic and Social Committee) in so far as the constitutional Treaty has not introduced substantial innovations in the composition and function of these bodies.
2. THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION
2.1. THE PRESENT SITUATION
The current paragraph aims to recall briefly the present composition and functions of the European Commission, nevertheless leaving a more complete description of such to successive paragraphs which will illustrate the innovations introduced by the constitutional Treaty. However, one must not forget the underlying principle of the creation of the European Commission by the ‘founding fathers’ of the European Institutional system.[2]
The European Commission (initially called High Authority in the instituting Treaty of the Coal and Steel Community) was conceived by Jean Monnet as an independent institution of the national governments – even if appointed by the latter – with the task of identifying and promoting the general European interest (as opposed to the Member States responsible, in principle, for the defence of the national interests). For this reason, notwithstanding the evolution produced by the Treaties of Rome until today, the same Commission considers itself as the independent and collegial promoter of the general European interest rather than the creator of a political plan. The role and the functions of the Commission are determined in Article 211 and the ones following it of the Treaty of the European Community.
2.1.1. THE COMPOSITION
Up until the Nice Treaty, the Commission was composed of at least one citizen of each Member State, however with no more than two Commissioners being citizens of the same State. In practice, the most populated Member States have availed themselves of two Commissioners until the Nice Treaty, which has then laid down the principle that a Commission be composed of only one citizen of each Member State up until the moment in which the Union will have 27 Member States. When such a number is reached, the Commission will be composed, for the first time, of a number of Commissioners inferior to the number of the Member States, on the basis of an equal rotational system.[3]
2.1.2. THE FUNCTIONS
The functions of the Commission are numbered in Article 211 EC. This ensures the application of the provisions of the Treaty, formulates recommendations and advice, disposes of an autonomous power of decision and participates in the formation of the acts of the Council and of the European Parliament, and exercises the executive competences conferred on it by the Council. Nevertheless, the list in Article 211 is not exhaustive and omits, for example, the function of internal and external representation of the Community provided for in other provisions of the Treaty. Consequently, a more precise and complete enumeration of the functions of the Commission is the following:
(a) the Commission has a “quasi monopoly” in the right of legislative initiative. This right implies that a legislative act, except for exceptions expressly provided for in the Treaty, can be only adopted on proposal by the Commission. The reasons for such “exclusivity” of the right of initiative and its role in the legislative process are made clear later on (see paragraph 2.2.2.1);
(b) the Commission has an important executive power, even though not exclusive. In fact, although the execution of Community norms belongs to the Member States, the normal practice of the legislative acts of the European Union provides
For the further adoption of implementation measures on a European level. In these cases, the executive acts of a European law are adopted, as a rule, by the Commission, except when the Council decides to reserve the executive power (on application of Article 202);
(c) the Commission has the function of negotiating international agreements with third countries and international organizations and thus, indirectly, it has the role of representing the European Community in external relations, at least regarding issues of Community competence (see also 2.2.2.3);
(d) the Commission has a general function of control of the provisions of the Treaty and of the acts adopted in the application of the latter, (a function also described as “guardian of the Treaty”).[4] In virtue of such a power, the Commission may resort to the Court of Justice on any violation of the Treaty or on a Community act of a Member State (Article 226) and it may also ask the Court to impose on the State a pecuniary sanction (see Article 228). A particular case of general control which belongs to the Commission is the specific power which it has to make applicable the Treaty’s provisions on competition (prohibition of collusive acts between undertakings against freedom of competition, control of concentrations etc.);
(e) the Commission lastly has a general power of executing the budget of the Union (see Article 274) and of managing the financial programmes decided by the Union (in virtue of the specific acts adopted by the Council and by the European Parliament). Such a function of executing the budget of the Union explains the fact why the Commission is subjected to an annual discharge procedure (in other words, of dispensing responsibility) on the part of the European Parliament, prior to the recommendation of the Council (see Article 276).