EU: What is a parliament?
01 September 1994
In a speech at Leiden University on 7 September John Major set out the UK government's view of the role of the European Parliament (EP). Parliaments, he said, "take time to mature", the EP is a "fledgling institution". The EP, in his view:
"sees itself as the future democratic focus for the Union. But this is a flawed ambition, because the European Union is an association of states, deriving its basic democratic legitimacy through national parliaments. That should remain the case. People will continue to see national parliaments as their democratic focus. It is national parliamentary democracy that confers legitimacy on the European Council."
"The European Parliament is not the answer to the democratic deficit, as the pitiably low turn-out in this year's European elections so vividly illustrated. The upshot, sadly, has been an unrepresentative and rather incoherent range of parties in the new European Parliament, in which fringe, protest and opposition groups are over-represented."
This argument begs many questions. What is a "fledgling" parliament (a term usually applied to "parliaments" in totalitarian countries)? The EP was founded in 1957 and has been a democratically elected body since June 1979, some 15 years. The future powers of the EP will be a major issue in the 1996 intergovernmental conference.
Consulting parliament
At the General Affairs Council of the EU on 20 July the German Presidency presented draft guidelines for "consulting" the European Parliament in the fields of: defence and security (Title V of the Maastricht Treaty) and justice and home affairs (Title VI). German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel said the majority position of the Council was that there should be "a gentleman's agreement, guidelines or a code of conduct... but not a formal interinstitutional agreement". This runs contrary to the provision of Article K6 of the Maastricht Treaty which says the EP must be "consulted" on "principle aspects" of justice, immigration and policing policies (see Statewatch, vol 4 no 4).
The guidelines propose that the EP should be informed when action plans have been adopted, and that the Presidency (which changes every six months) should gather the views of the parliament on initiatives. This falls well short of the EP being consulted on major issues which would require draft proposals being formally submitted on which the EP could express a view in advance of a final decision. The guidelines also differ between defence and security issues and "third pillar" ones (Title VI: immigration, justice and policing). On defence and security issues there is to be a three-monthly colloquium with the parliament's committee and the Secretary General of the Council (or relevant senior official) in attendance to answer questions - but not at the Civil Liberties and Internal Affairs Committee of the EP which covers Title VI matters.
Speech by PM John Major at Leiden University, 7.9.94 Downing Street press release; Agence Europe, 21.7.94.<