Posts

At Europe’s Highest Level:A More Effective European Council

Author : Finnish Business and Policy Forum (EVA)

David Harrison

The European Council is the senior political authority of the European Union, and has a duty to provide impetus and political guidance for its development. But it is not as effective a body as it could be. Making the European Council work effectively is one of Europe’s main pieces of unfinished business. All the other EU institutions have been refined or modified over time, and the main ones (the Commission, the Court etc) are now half a century old. It is paradoxical that at the highest political level it has been most difficult to organise matters – although there is no lack of goodwill and few fundamental disagreements among Europe’s leaders.
In 2002 certain reforms were agreed, including a proposed new President of the European Coun¬cil. This idea figures in the EU Reform Treaty, due to enter into force in 2009. To improve Europe’s collective political leadership some simple further steps could be taken, building on the 2002 reforms.

Suggestions put forward in this Analysis are:
– To provide more continuity between summit meetings;
– To delegate specialist tasks to committees of the European Council;
– To make European Council conclusions shorter and more readable; and
– To create new channels for Europe’s leaders to communicate ideas about the development of Europe to the general public.
All such steps could be taken by minor adjustments to the existing European Council internal rules of procedure. Other ideas may well be possible. The European Council is a relatively young European institution, and has unexploited potential both to mobilise Europe’s resources and to reconnect public opinion with the major international issues facing Europe.

Click here to read the full analysis

You need to be logged in to rate and comment on articles.
Click the log in or register button in the top right corner of this page.

Average rating:

Report inappropriate content

Back to ArticleList