The EU Commission gets the approval of the member states for its proposals, but not the approval of the EU Parliament.
(Photo: dpa)
Ursula von der Leyen’s letter was not well received. The President of the Commission of the European Union recently offered to better inform members of the European Parliament about decisions in the energy crisis.
The Commission wants to “deepen the dialogue” with a “contact group” made up of parliamentarians. The deputies felt betrayed. After all, they were elected to make political decisions and not to be informed about political decisions.
So far, however, the people’s representatives have had little influence in overcoming the energy crisis. The EU Commission gets the approval of the member states for its proposals, but not the approval of the EU Parliament. The EU is outdoing itself geopolitically on issues such as commodities, sanctions against Russia and energy, and Parliament is only on the sidelines.
That’s not how it’s meant to be. In the EU, laws are actually made by two equal legislators: the Parliament and the Council. The members of parliament are elected every five years in the European elections. The governments of the member states are represented in the Council by their ministers or state secretaries.
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It can sometimes take years for these two centers of power to agree on a new law. That’s why there is a shortcut in times of crisis: If necessary, the Council can also decide on its own.
This is currently happening all the time, for example when it comes to saving gas, buying gas together or skimming off excess profits from energy companies. Virtually all of the EU’s crisis response relies on a procedure that leaves Parliament out of the loop, set out in Article 122 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
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The longer this situation lasts, the less willing the MPs are to accept it. The European Parliament recently celebrated its 70th birthday and was appropriately hailed as a historically unique institution. Never before have peoples handed over such a large part of their sovereignty to a common parliament.
But its members currently see this achievement as endangered. Manfred Weber (CSU), head of the largest parliamentary group in Parliament, said, for example: “We should not continue with legislative proposals based on Article 122. It sounds technical, but it is very important democratically.”
Christoph Herwartz, correspondent in the Handelsblatt office in Brussels, analyzes trends and conflicts, regulatory projects and strategic concepts from the inner workings of the EU. Because anyone interested in business needs to know what’s going on in Brussels. You can reach him at [email protected]
As long as there is a need for urgency on issues that are important for the EU, Parliament will hardly get through its concerns. At the moment, however, the Council is showing little time pressure with some laws. For example, the law on joint gas procurement was recently postponed by several weeks, although it had already been negotiated. The reason: some states blocked a decision to force progress on another issue.
The supply situation, which is much more relaxed compared to the summer, allows for such political maneuvers. The delay does not worsen the crisis. If that is the case, however, the central argument for continuing not to involve Parliament in crisis management is also missing.
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