EU: Broad economic policy guidelines V

What has been said about Article 121 TFEU? Here are some references for the eager reader.


United Kingdom

Professor Steve Peers covered the Treaty of Lisbon in a number of Statewatch Analyses. ‘EU Reform Treaty Analysis no. 3.4: Revised text of Part Three, Titles VII to XVII of the Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC): Other internal EC policies (Version 2, 24 October 2007) includes the current Title VII Economic and monetary policy.

Peers presented the numbering of Article 99 TFEU (ToL), to be renumbered Article 121 TFEU in the consolidated version, and highlighted the changes, with the following comment (page 6):

“The co-decision procedure is extended to this Article, in place of the ‘cooperation’ procedure (a halfway house between consultation and co-decision, which is to be abolished). The amendment to paragraph 4 gives the Commission a new power to address a warning to the Member State concerned, and the Member State which is the subject of a procedure may not vote.”


The analysis 3.4 and other useful Statewatch analyses are available through:

http://www.statewatch.org/euconstitution.htm


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The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) offers a convenient source of brief annotations on Lisbon Treaty amendments in ‘A comparative table of the current EC and EU treaties as amended by the Treaty of Lisbon’ (Command Paper 7311, published 21 January 2008). It offers the following comment on Article 121 TFEU, Article 99 TFEU (ToL) in the original Lisbon Treaty (page 12):

“Draws on Article 99 TEC. New power for Commission to issue a warning to Member States, and the Member State concerned is excluded from voting. Paragraph 6 QMV already applies, decision-making moves to co-decision.”



The FCO comparative table is available at:

http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/cm73/7311/7311.asp

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The UK House of Commons Library Research Paper 07/86 ‘The Treaty of Lisbon: amendments to the Treaty establishing the European Community’ (published 6 December 2007) discussed ‘H. Economic and Monetary Policy’ on pages 61 to 64.

Article 99 TFEU (ToL) was given the following explanation, on page 61:

“In amended Article 99 (Constitution Article III-179) the Commission may now “address a warning” to Member States if they are not following the broad economic guidelines. This is in addition to the Council being able to make recommendations to the Member State in question, a right which currently exists. The vote of the Member State being considered will not be counted in the Council and in the OLP to be used for mulitilateral surveillance rules a qualified majority will be defined under Article 205(3)(a) of the TFEU (at least 55% of the other voting Council members, representing Member States comprising at least 65% of the population of voting Council members).”


The Library Research Paper 07/86 is available at:

http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/rp2007/rp07-086.pdf

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The House of Lords European Union Committee report ‘The Treaty of Lisbon: an impact assessment, Volume I: Report’ (HL Paper 62-I, published 13 March 2008) is a valuable resource on the Treaty of Lisbon, but it mentioned economic policies only in passing.

The report is accessible at:

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200708/ldselect/ldeucom/62/62.pdf


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The next part will add some comments and materials.


Ralf Grahn