The Powers and Competencies of the European Council and European Commission

European Commission (EC) and European Council (EC) are two dissimilar and yet harmonizing bodies founded and created with the mutual objective of creating and supporting a united and wealthy Europe (Cini, 2016 4). Both of the European bodies are characterized by certain sets of roles and purposes. There are certain sub-bodies and institutions that operate under certain proposals and applications not just for a more improved economic surrounding but for the general prevalence of democratic standards and values and supremacy of human privileges. Both entities are related despite their differences since EC is a bigger section of the larger EU. While both bodies play complementary and yet different roles the European commission proposes and implements legislation while European commission is involved in setting guidelines for European Union.

The European Council has the power to offer union with the necessary motion for its growth and defines its broad political directions and main concerns in accordance to article 15 (1) TEU (Azoulai, 2014, p.50). It also has the power to decide through the qualified majority on the formation of the council as well as the calendar of rotating presidencies. There are thus two national political institutions that are charged with the role of governing the European Union that is the European council and the European Commission (Schutze, 2015, p.305). In contrast, the European Union is more of an international organization which has a far greater disintegration of political power among the different institutions. Thus unlike the national political institutions such as the European Council and commission, the European Union is defined by the nonexistence of government or a concerted locus of the executive powers.

However, both the commission and the council lack a clear separation of powers. Therefore, both the commission and the European council embrace both the legislative as well as executive powers (Toemmel, 2014, p.86). The European council is perceived as a cultural institution that is centrally focused on developing and spreading awareness on human rights to all of its members. They thus are therefore influential in ensuring that human rights and democracy are adhered to. However, the European commission is the main executive body of the EU. Therefore, n most cases, the commission have the right to propose EU legislation and at times even negotiate international agreements and represent the EU in global organizations. The European Union is on the other hand more of a political institution that acts as a body of unifying a nation in the bigger global market.

It focuses more on the implementation process of the economic policies. Thus it advocates for an outstanding economic performance that will enhance the elevation of the status of the whole union and not pull it down (Thomson, 2006, p.391). European commission is influential in forming a monopoly on the initiative of the EU law establishment according to article 17 (2). It comes up with proposed acts that are to be adopted by decision making bodies such as the council and parliament (Schutze, 2015, p.350). On the other hand, the European Council is a suitable forum in which some of these views may be aired and presents a suitable environment where the smaller nations will not be marginalized as in the parliament where they have few MEPs.

European commission institution makes conscious decisions about whether they are to be bound in their interactions by the informal institutional rules or rather follow the constitutional paths as prescribed by the treaty. The powers and responsibilities of the institutions under EU are laid down in the Treaties which are the basis of everything that the EU carries out. They also form the basis of rules and procedures that the European council among other institutions must follow. These treaties are agreed upon by presidents and the prime ministers of all the European Union member states and ratified by the parliaments. Both the European Union and the council are on the upper house while the parliament would form the lower house of the parliament.

The council is close to the European Union and it has the power of execution which formally lies within the council of the European Union (Kruger, 2016, n.p). The European commission competences are set out in the EU treaties which offer the center for any actions that the union institution undertakes. Thus the European Commission can only act within the restriction of the competences bestowed on it by the treaties and where these treaties do not give competences on the EU they stay with the member state. According to Kruger Heiko, the Lisbon treaty in the year 2007, gave energy policy a wider legal basis through the introduction of the article 194 into the TFEU (Kruger, 2016, n.p).

This prerequisite laid down the objectives and parallel competencies of EU energy policy, despite the list of competences which is not exhaustive. For that reason, the common energy policy is expected to guarantee the functioning of the energy market and enhance security of supply. It will also serve in the promotion of renewable energy, network interconnectedness and efficient energy supply. Though the article 194 failed to widen the energy competences that could already be indirect from the other treaty prerequisites, it emphasized ambitions to reinforce joint action between the European commissions. These initiatives therefore have led to increased EU activities in energy policy sector in the recent years (Maltby, 2013, p.435). In contrast, the European Council is assembled at least twice in after six months. Generally, it decides by consensus.

One of the many issues that the council deals with includes that of the energy policy while the relevance of energy issues varies from one meeting to the other (Maltby, 2013, p.435). Initially regarded as the European community, the EU is an authoritative body that assists the entire membership in becoming economically stable (Cini, 2016 4). The body was created after the Second World War with the objective of preventing an additional war amid its members. It additionally enhances the economic health in the entire Europe and not particularly on the members. With its attendance, economic regulations within the continent have become more incorporated which has, in turn, changed Europe into a more developed and enhanced today. Since it has many responsibilities and roles, its obligations are being situated to the minor bodies where the EC is one of them.

The European commission, on the other hand, operates as an executive branch that can propose legislation that serves as the wellness of the whole continent. This one is also particularly accountable for the normal operation of the union. Since it performs the executive role, the body can thus protect and endorse the proposed entities. One of the primary responsibility of the body is to draft different proposals that are helpful in creating a more effective legislation procedure to become more smooth and efficient (Nugent, 2006 21). It is also focused on deciding whether the members should follow the legislation. The EC is a more extensive international political entity as compared to the EC which is just one of the EU’s many affiliates (Puetter, 2014 18). The EC serves the executive role and is awarded the administrative responsibilities as provided the general capability to propose legislation.

Among all these responsibilities the council also has the obligation of running the daily activities of EU (Puetter, 2014 17). The EC and EC are characterized by some fundamental standards, human privileges, democracy, and law but they are different bodies that serve different and yet complementary purposes. By centering on the core values of these bodies the EC bring together different administrations across Europe and over to agreeing to the set minimum legal standards in an extensive area. This is then followed by the monitoring of how well each nation applies the values that they have required to adhere to. It does this by offering technical support often operating collaboratively with EU to assist all the nations in achieving the goals and becoming better in terms of compliance and growth (Puetter, 2014).

The EU regards to some European standards as the primary components of its in-depth partisan and economic collaboration procedures (Richardson and Mazey, 2015 8). It normally shapes upon the EC when creating up more lawful tools and agreements which are applicable to all the members. Further, the EC normally refers to the EC values and supervisory of work in all its operations with the neighboring nations most of which are EC states members. The Lisbon treaty enhanced the general focus of EU actions in many ways where the EC is characterized by essential expertise and experience (Hartlapp, Metz, and Rauh, 2013 426). In general, this has resulted in increased cooperation on issues such as human trafficking fights, sexual exploitation, and so on.

This has opened more opportunities for EU itself to participating in issues related to human freedom as this is one of the agreements that EC has made so far (Richardson and Mazey, 2015 8). European Commission is a political unification and economic union that is made of twenty-seven nations that are situated in Europe. EC has implemented several laws and regulations which get to be tolerated by all the members in regard to economic system (Mahony, 2010 1). On the other hand, EC is a different European integrated corporation with close to forty-seven European member’s nations. The council is involved in emphasizing certain democratic as well as human privileges to the EU.

Cultural integration and shared legitimate values are also some differences that are exhibited by the global corporation through the depression upon the prevalence of human privileges awareness in all the member nations. In other words, EC and EC are two distinct independent corporations being projected towards the cooperation of the entire Europe and its resulting advancement (Mahony, 2010 1). Both of the bodies come with respective regulations and this makes sure that the laws are being applied in a more convincing strategy.

References

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European Council seen as winner under Lisbon Treaty. Retrieved from https://euobserver.com/institutional/30142Maltby, T., 2013.

European Union energy policy integration: A case of European Commission policy entrepreneurship and increasing supranationalism. Energy policy, 55, pp.435-444.

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