European Council blogging (24032011)

Ahead of the European Council on economic governance, growth and jobs, on 24 and 25 March 2011, I have written a number of posts on my blogs, Grahnlaw (EN), Grahnblawg (SV), Eurooppaoikeus (FI) and Grahnlaw Suomi Finland (EN, FI, SV).

Here are the four previous collections of blog entries.

Energy and employment dominated the batch on Grahnlaw: Baker's dozen of Grahnlaw & Co. on EU affairs (8 March 2011)

Growth reforms in line with the Europe 2020 strategy (EU2020) were at the centre of the following roundup on Grahnblawg: EU-ekonomi: Tillväxt och sysselsättning på Grahnlaw & Co (12 March 2011)

With the surrounding text in Finnish, but the blog post headlines in the original languages, the next collection of posts was presented Eurooppaoikeus, under the headline: EU2020 (16032011).

The EU2020 strategy, the European Semester, the pact for the euro and the positions of Sweden and Finland were among the themes of the blog entries collected on Grahnlaw Suomi Finland: Blogging ahead of European Council (22032011).


Latest posts

Since the collections, some individual blog posts have been published.

Eurooppaoikeus: Talousuudistukset Eurooppa-neuvostoon (23 March 2011)

Eurooppaoikeus: Uudistajat kannustavat Eurooppa-neuvostoa (23 March 2011)

Grahnlaw Suomi Finland: Ruotsi ei osallistu euroa koskevaan sopimukseen (23 March 2011)

Grahnlaw Suomi Finland: Tanska osallistuu euroa koskevaan sopimukseen (23 March 2011)

Grahnlaw Suomi Finland: Unkari ei osallistu euroa koskevaan sopimukseen (23 March 2011)


Openness and closeness

This blog post took a look at the advance materials available from the European Council (in Finnish, but select the language you prefer or use Google translation):

Grahnlaw Suomi Finland: Eurooppa-neuvosto 24. ja 25. maaliskuuta 2011: Avoimuus ja läheisyys? (24 March 2011)


The previous post

Grahnlaw: EU Tripartite Social Summit (24 March 2011)


***

Far from all issues of economic policy at the European Council spring meeting have been covered by the blog posts, but compare them with the advance information we have from the EU institutions: the preparatory General Affairs Council (GAC) and the European Council itself.



Ralf Grahn

EU General Affairs Council: Feeding the cuckoos?

Have you ever followed the hectic life of small birds, unwittingly having become foster parents for a gluttonous young cuckoo?

Hectic and unrewarding, the life of these unsung heroes.

How about having two of these rapacious strangers, instead of only one, as in nature?

Why do I think about the thankless task of these desperate and overworked foster parents, when I turn to the visible output from the General Affairs Council of the European Union?


More than foreign affairs

Although the European Union is much, much more than foreign affairs, the coordinating General Affairs Council (GAC) is still dominated by foreign ministers, for whom it is a sideshow.

At the same time, the foreign ministers face the enormous challenge to shape the European Union into an effictive and influential actor in world affairs, in all fields of external action. Enough of a challenge to keep the foreign ministers busy for a decade or more, I would think, even if they concentrated on this main job.


GAC role

Currently the GAC does not fulfil the expectations created by the Lisbon Treaty, which gave it a permanent and important treaty based position.

The GAC was entrusted with the vital role to coordinate Council work (other configurations). It is also the task of the General Affairs Council to prepare and to ensure the follow-up of the European Council.

The bulk of real EU powers and resources concerns about two dozen policy areas of internal action, so the challenge looks daunting enough, but consistency has been left to the foreign policy divas, as a diversion.

In addition, the spring European Council is supposed to be the crowning moment for economic governance and economic reforms for growth and employment, guiding the work towards Europe 2020 (EU2020) goals.


Treaty aims vs delivery

The principles of as much openess as possible and as much closeness to the citizen as possible are laid down in Article 1 of the Treaty on European Union.

The enhanced role and tasks of the GAC were established by Article 16(6) TEU.

Article 16(6) TEU finally separated the GAC from its then dominant Siamese twin, the Foreign Affairs Council (FAC).

In the name of openness and closeness, the GAC could and should become an important stage in public discourse just ahead of the European Council (as well as after), but what has happened?

Make your own assessment of how the aims and potential have come to fruition. Reflect on the gap between expectations, potential and delivery:

3079th Council meeting General Affairs; Brussels, 21 March 2011 (Council document 7932/11)


Concrete conclusions

Instead of reasoned proposals and supporting materials, we get these inane ”conclusions”, with regard to the issues on the agenda of the European Council:

The Council took stock of the humanitarian situation in Libya and neighbouring countries.

The Council took stock of the EU's response to the humanitarian crisis in Japan.

The Council examined draft conclusions for the European Council meeting to be held on 24 and 25 March.

This is parody, pure and simple.

The rest of the text concerning economic policy is in essence an agenda, since it presents only the issues to be dealt with at the European Council (page 8-9).

The only redeeming feature would have been the report from the presidency on progress in implementation of the European Semester submitted to the European Council (doc. 7745/11), if the link in the original had actually worked.

If the GAC actually said something worthwhile, its tasks would be a bit more rewarding than feeding the cuckoos.


European Semester: implementation

Going back, the document reference is useful, though. If we substitute the broken link by Council search, we find the presidency report in 22 official EU languages, including English:

Implementation of the European Semester - Synthesis report; Brussels, 16 March 2011 (document 7745/11; 21 pages)



Ralf Grahn



P.S. The web pages of the Hungarian presidency of the Council of the European Union are one of the important sources of day to day information about EU events, including ones less visible than formal Council meetings.

Eurozone crisis: Roundup of preparatory documents on Eur-Lex

In Eurozone crisis: Roundup of official information (OJEU), 19 May 2010, we searched for the eurozone rescue decisions published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) by today.

Only the €60 billion European financial stabilisation mechanism and two supporting decisions by the European Central Bank had been published in OJEU, leaving question marks with regard to openness (transparency), closeness, democracy and the rule of law.

Do we fare any better if we look for the proposals where they should be, on Eur-Lex under preparatory acts?

Here are the proposals and preparatory documents we hope to find in full, or at least properly documented: the €110 billion (including IMF) support package for Greece, Greek austerity and reform measures, the €60 billion European financial stabilisation mechanism, the €440 billion Special Purpose Vehicle, additional IMF participation, national commitments, fiscal and economic reform promises from Spain and Portugal, measures towards greater fiscal prudence, proposals for stricter economic governance and additional ECB decisions.



Eur-Lex roundup



How is this roller coaster month of May reflected by preparatory documents on Eur-Lex?


COM documents


No relevant COM documents were found.



SEC documents


Among SEC documents we find the following, published in 21 languages (but not in English), so I arbitrarily chose to link to the French version:



Recommandation en vue d'une DÉCISION DU CONSEIL adressée à la Grèce en vue de renforcer et d'approfondir la surveillance budgétaire et mettant la Grèce en demeure de prendre des mesures pour procéder à la réduction du déficit jugée nécessaire pour remédier à la situation de déficit excessif ; Bruxelles, le 4.5.2010 ; SEC(2010) 560 final (12 pages)



The proposed Council Decision, based on Article 126(9) TFEU and Article 136 TFEU, sets out revised measures for eurozone member Greece to take for deficit reduction, because the economic growth prospects have worsened and the chances to deficit reduction targets have deteriorated. The attainment date is postponed by two years, to 2014, but the requirements for Greek measures to restore credibility are tightened. The proposal details a real austerity package.



Convergence report


A number of documents relevant to the larger picture of budgetary discipline have been published. The following covers progress towards euro introduction:






Commission staff working document (Brussels, 12.5.2010; SEC(2010) 598 final; 197 pages) accompanying the Commission’s Convergence Report 2010; COM(2010) 238 final [the latter not posted among COM documents on Eur-Lex]


The periodic Convergence Report is based on Article 140(1) TFEU, and it concerns the progress made by member states with a derogation towards achieving economic and monetary union (EMU).


Denmark and the United Kingdom have opted out and 16 EU member states have introduced the euro currency, so the 2010 convergence assessment covers Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Sweden.



Budget discipline


Part of the same larger framework, but regarding individual member states are a number of Commission reports:



Luxembourg Report prepared in accordance with Article 126(3) of the Treaty; Brussels, 12.5.2010; SEC(2010) 588 final (9 pages)


The Commission deals with the application of the Stability and Growth Pact in the current crisis situation, the first step in the excessive deficit procedure with regard to Luxembourg, when the government deficit exceeds the reference value of 3 per cent.

***




Cyprus Report prepared in accordance with Article 126(3) of the Treaty; Brussels, 12.5.2010; SEC(2010) 590 final






Denmark Report prepared in accordance with Article 126(3) of the Treaty; Brussels, 12.5.2010;
SEC(2010) 585 final






Finland Report prepared in accordance with Article 126(3) of the Treaty; Brussels, 12.5.2010;
SEC(2010) 589 final







Bulgaria Report prepared in accordance with Article 126(3) of the Treaty; Brussels, 12.5.2010;
SEC(2010) 587 final




Recommendation for a COUNCIL OPINION on the updated stability programme of Cyprus, 2009-2013; Brussels, 12.5.2010; SEC(2010) 595 final



Summing up

No COM documents directly relevant to the eurozone rescue were posted on Eur-Lex under preparatory documents.

The only SEC document published on Eur-Lex under preparatory documents, which was directly linked to the salvage operation was the proposal for Greek budgetary measures.

The publishing efforts have been unsystematic and people who want to access documents are in for a search from dispersed sources.

The staff working paper accompanying the Convergence Report 2010 (itself absent) and the reports on individual countries form part of the larger task of restoring fiscal probity and budget discipline in the European Union.

How about transparency, closeness, democracy and the rule of law?




Ralf Grahn

EU Council’s new Rules of Procedure

In a European Union, “in which decisions are taken as openly as possible and as closely as possible to the citizen”, the real issues at stake and the diplomatic negotiations between the capitals remain opaque and seriously under-reported by national media.

In anticipation of the Lisbon Treaty, and enshrined by it, the Council has opened its doors for public presentations of major policy initiatives and the beginning and the end of the legislative process, available through video on the Council’s audiovisual web page.

In addition, member states with more open traditions of government can do a lot to open up the Council, at least when they hold the presidency.



Despite my critique of the European Council’s near absence of tolerable standards of governance, with regard to openness, representative democracy and closeness to EU citizens, the ongoing Swedish EU Council presidency has generally set the benchmark for the coming trio: Spain, Belgium and Hungary. In my humble view, Sweden showed a more open attitude, produced better pre-meeting information and introduced a versatile use of new technological means, including social media interaction, than previous presidencies.


New Council Rules of Procedure


The Lisbon Treaty has required amendments, which have led to a new edition of the Council’s Rules of Procedure.

We humans seem to be highly susceptible to personality contests and the immediacy of great political controversies. Even in more serious literature, “boring” documents, such as the Rules of Procedure, tend to get scant notice, even if they form the basis for hundreds of decisions, conclusions and policy positions annually.

In other words, the new Rules of Procedure are among the most important pieces of secondary legislation in the European Union, at least for those who study or work with EU institutional law or EU politics.

One more step to implement the Lisbon Treaty: The Council’s new Rules of Procedure have now been officially published.




COUNCIL DECISION of 1 December 2009 adopting the Council's Rules of Procedure
(2009/937/EU), published OJEU 11.12.2009 L 325/35


The contents are divided into 28 Articles and six Annexes.

I suggest that readers assess the provisions against the principles of:

• openness
• representative democracy
• closeness to citizens



Ralf Grahn



P.S. Read, comment and discuss our future on the 494 euroblogs aggregated on multilingual Bloggingportal.eu, our common European “village well” for facts, opinion and gossip.

After dinner European Council 10 December 2009

More work through the night to agree on the European Union’s climate measures was the message conveyed by the late press conference of Swedish prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt and Commission president José Manuel Barroso after the European Council dinner Thursday evening. The press conference video is available on the web site of the Swedish Council presidency as well.

On the video streaming page, I saw two promising links:

• List of reference documents submitted to the European Council
• Latest press releases

Joy was clearly premature.

The only reference document listed for this European Council meeting, the first under the Lisbon Treaty and the new Rules of Procedure, was the annotated draft agenda dated 9 November 2009.

The latest press release was the one informing us that president Herman Van Rompuy would take part in the dinner (dated 9 December 2009).


In other words, EU citizens are not supposed to know what goes in, or what goes on.

At the end, vague conclusions are offered, but the Council formations, like wholly owned subsidiaries, start taking exact decisions based on the often minute guidelines, directions and priorities received.

The citizens are out of the loop.

The European Council is now a formal institution in a union of 500 million people, but despite the Lisbon Treaty principles of openness, representative democracy and closeness to citizens, its standards of governance fall short of the most obscure municipal board in my country.



Ralf Grahn



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