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Example research essay topic: Treaty Of Rome Council Of Ministers - 1,088 words

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... it has a single currency, the Euro. Put of the EU member states only Britain, Sweden and Denmark are not in the EMU. The Maastricht Treaty (also known as the treaty of the European Union) was signed in 1993 and its impact was immensely important. It created the EU as we know it; the name was changed to the European Union, it amended the Treaty of Rome and it advanced the agenda set out under the Single European Act. The EU three-pillar structure was established.

The first pillar was there since the Treaty of Rome and deals with the economy, social rights and deals with how EU institutions are set up. The second pillar was established under the Maastricht Treaty and it concerns common foreign and security policy. The third pillar was also established in Maastricht and its responsibilities are justice and home affairs. The commission retained responsibility for the first pillar and the European Council gained responsibility for the second and third. This system of law is still in use. The treaty also set a timetable for the Euro.

Between the years 2002 and 2004 a seven hundred and eighty-four piece of legal legislation known as the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe (TCE) was written. In theory if passed it would bring together all past EU treaties and agreements, confirm the power and point of the EU, re-emphasises the concept of every citizen being an EU citizen (first stated in the Treaty of Maastricht), make human rights laws consistent and change the way decisions are made in the EU. It is a much-debated subject as many people have strong feelings about it. The Constitution would create two extremely high-profile posts; Foreign Minister and President.

The power these two positions hold would be immense; the Presidents term would be very long maximum six years. Interestingly critics say that the creation of the post of Foreign Minister would pave the way for a common foreign policy. This could be a problem for Britain, as it may mean that we could not pursue the same Middle Eastern policy that we do now potentially damaging our special relationship with the USA. The Qualified Majority Voting system is a voting mechanism in the Council of Ministers, which means proposals can be adopted without every member agreeing to it. While this seems unfair in practice, it is necessary for a democracy to work.

The system is Qualified because the amount of votes a member state has depends on its population size. The UK is in the top band of this and has 29 votes to use. This contrasts with Malta's 3. Supporters of the Constitution say that passing it would mean a fairer voting system (QMV), it would make the EU easier to run and that to leave the EU would be immensely expensive.

Critics say that; the treaty is extremely complex and cannot be understood by the average citizen of the EU, unelected officials would gain too much power and that, in contrast to the other camps views, the QMV would make things unfair. Personally if feel that what we (the UK) want from the EU and what the EU is actually about clearly need to be defined and established, but am sceptical about whether or not the European Constitution is the best way to do this. The history of the EU is a very complex and confusing one, but I feel it is necessary to understand if I am to form an opinion on the UKs membership. The European Union has a complex structure and how laws are passed is confusing. The European Constitution intends to change the structure but it has not been passed, so I aim to outline the basic structure as it stands. Legally there are three sections to EU law known as the three pillars of EU law.

The first pillar is the oldest and most important. It deals with law concerning economic and social rights and also the setting up of EU institutions. The second pillar concerns common foreign and security policy and the third pillar deals with justice and home affairs. There are four main institutions in the EU that are involved in law making: the European Commission (un-elected), the Council of the European Union which is sometimes known as the Council of Ministers (elected), the European Parliament (elected) and the European Council (elected). Their relation with each other is explained in fig 1. While it would appear that three out of four of these institutions are elected to do the job they do, this is not the case.

The European Commission is made up of Commissioners each from a member state. They are un-elected and, under the Treaty of Rome, should not represent the interests of their state. The commissioner from Britain is Peter Mandelson. The commission has immense power and this is often criticised. There are many commissioners for the UK the most famous of these is possibly Robert Kilroy-Silk.

The Council of the European Union is made up of ministers from the governments of the member states and it meets to discuss policy. In the UK the minister for the Europe Union is Geoff Hoon (as of 29 th July 2006) and he was, technically, elected, as he is an MP. He was elected as an MP by his constituents to represent their interests and the interests of the UK in the House of Commons and was appointed to his position by the Prime Minister. The European Parliament is elected but has very little power. Voters are extremely confused about the function of the Parliament and this has led to low turnouts at elections for it. In the 2004 European Parliament elections 38. 9 % turned out to vote on Thursday the 6 th of June, which contrasts with the 61. 36 % (2005) turnout at the UK general elections (it is worth noting that not many people vote in the UK anyway).

The European Council is made up of the Heads of State and Government, so essentially in the democratic world the President or Prime Minister, and the President of the Commission. It is slightly more democratic than the Council of the European Union in that you, the voter, know that if you vote for the labour party then you are voting for the leader to become Prime Minister and thus be on the council. The EU structure of law making can be explained quite simply in this diagram, taken from a Geofileonline Fact sheet. European Commission Makes Proposals


Free research essays on topics related to: european union, treaty of rome, council of ministers, prime minister, maastricht treaty

Research essay sample on Treaty Of Rome Council Of Ministers

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