There are several EU bodies which in practice contribute to the development and implementation of environmental legislation, but only five of them are formally designated by the Treaty as ‘Community institutions’. These are the

The Commission formally (and exclusively) initiates proposals for legislation, sometimes after they have been developed in a network of advisory committees and working groups. Such proposals are formally adopted by the college of 25 Commissioners who formally constitute ‘the Commission’. Commissioners (formally they are called ‘Members of the Commission’) - one from each Member State - are appointed for five-year (renewable) terms by the Member States collectively, with the approval of the European Parliament. The Commission services (ie the staff employed by the Commission) are divided into a number of Directorates-General. Environmental proposals are drawn up by about 500 Commission officials in the Directorate-General for the Environment (DG Environment).

Under the Lisbon Treaty, the one Commissioner per Member State arrangement will stay in place until 2014. After this date, the number of Commission members will be restricted to two-thirds of the number of Member States, chosen by rotation. The College of Commissioners will include the ’High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy’. This new function will merge the existing two posts of Secretary General of the Council/High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy and Commissioner in charge of External Relations. The High Representative will furthermore assume a new position of Vice-President of the Commission and the chairmanship of meetings of the EU’s Foreign Affairs Council (instead of the six-monthly rotating general Presidency of the Council).

The European Parliament is made up of 732 members (MEPs) directly elected every five years within the same four day period by the electorates of the 25 Member States. MEPs sit according to political group, and not by nationality. Figure 2.5.1 gives a breakdown of the composition of the Parliament following the June 2004 elections. The Parliament gives its opinion on and proposes amendments to legislative proposals after the details have been examined in one of the Parliament’s 20 committees. Environmental proposals are examined by the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety. The influence of the Parliament on EU legislation has grown progressively, beginning with the Single European Act (SEA). Following the Amsterdam Treaty the use of the co-decision procedure as the standard procedure for agreeing environmental legislation has extended MEPs’ powers, so that the Council no longer has the final say on those legislative proposals to which it applies (see section 2.6). In such cases, what were formerly ‘Council Directives’ are now called ‘Directives of the European Parliament and Council’ to reflect the two institutions’ shared legislative authority. The Lisbon Treaty will extend the powers of the European Parliament further, by making it co-legislator jointly with the Council, on most legislative and all budgetary functions. Although there are some exceptions, co-decision will become the norm, extended in particular in relation to agriculture, fisheries, external trade, cohesion and transport policy and the EU budget.

The Council of the European Union consists of the relevant ministers from the national governments of Member States, according to the subject matter under discussion. There are nine such Council ‘configurations’, one of them dealing with the environment. However, under the Lisbon Treaty this could change. The text provides for a General Affairs Council and a separate Foreign Affairs Council (splitting the existing General Affairs and External Relations Council, GAERC) and allows for the list of other Council formations to be adopted in a decision by qualified majority voting (see below). There would therefore be no guarantee that a separate Environment Council would continue to exist. Environment ministers meet formally in the Council usually four times a year and informally usually two times a year. Preparatory work for Council meetings is undertaken by the Member States’ ambassadors to the EU, meeting in the Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER), and in numerous technical working parties.

The Council takes decisions either by unanimity, or by qualified majority vote (QMV), depending on the legal basis of the proposal. Under QMV Member States’ votes are weighted roughly according to the size of their populations. QMV has become the standard procedure for environmental measures, with the requirement for unanimity retained only for provisions primarily of a fiscal nature; town and country planning; land-use (with the exception of waste management); the quantitative management of water resources; and measures significantly affecting a Member State’s choice between different energy sources and the structure of its energy supply.

A qualified majority is currently 232 votes out of a possible 321 – about 72% (see Table 2.5.2). Therefore, any decision may be blocked by three large Member States, plus one smaller one. Votes making up the qualified majority must be cast by a simple majority of Member States (ie 13 of 25). The addition of a population threshold – the majority of Member States must represent at least 62% of the Union’s total population – is a new requirement, although it is triggered only after a Member State explicitly invokes it.

Under the Lisbon Treaty, QMV will be extended to around fifty new areas, but with different degrees of QMV. Unanimity is preserved for all taxation matters (including green taxes) and foreign and security policy. In a number of sensitive areas – such as Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) and social security – an ‘emergency brake’ is established enabling any Member State to appeal to the European Council thereby suspending the co-decision procedure. However, the UK and Ireland have negotiated an opt-out from all JHA policies.

What constitutes QMV would change to a ‘double majority’ system – with proposals requiring the support of at least 55 per cent of the Member States (comprising at least 15 of them) and representing at least 65 per cent of the Union’s population to be passed. A blocking minority will have to include at least the minimum number of Council members representing more than 35 per cent of the population of the participating Member States, plus one member.However, double majority voting will only be applied from 2014, with a transition period from 2014 to 2017. During this transition period, two more restrictions will be in place. First, when a decision is to be adopted by qualified majority, any Member State may request that it be taken in accordance with the current QMV rules. Second, if Member States representing at least 75 per cent of the population or 75 per cent of the Member States necessary to constitute a blocking minority, oppose the adoption of an act by qualified majority, the Council Presidency must continue to search for a satisfactory solution to answer their preoccupations; in other words, they should seek to reach a consensus within the Council.

The Presidency or chairmanship of the Council rotates between Member States every six months, handing over in January and July. It is the responsibility of the Presidency (in consultation with the Commission) to chair and set the agenda for Council meetings and meetings of other Council working groups. The rotation of Presidencies has been set until 2018 (see Figure 2.5.3):

This system would change, however, with the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. The chair of all Council configurations, except for that of Foreign Affairs, would continue to rotate but in groups of three Member States for an eighteen month period. This is to ensure greater continuity between Presidencies, and would formalise the existing process of producing Council Multi-Annual Strategic Plans. A new post of President of the European Council will also be introduced to drive forward the work of the European Council and ensure greater clarity and continuity.

The European Council brings together the Heads of State or Government of the Member States and the President of the Commission at least twice a year, to define the Community’s overall strategy and to provide impetus to its development. Meetings of the European Council are convened by the Member State holding the Presidency. As said, this will change if the Lisbon Treaty enters into force and a President for the European Council is appointed for a term of two and a half years.

The Court of Justice is composed of 25 independent Judges and eight Advocates General appointed jointly by the Member States for a renewable term of six years. It rules on any cases brought before it concerning the application or interpretation of Community law, ie the Treaties and any legislative acts adopted pursuant to them.

There is also a Court of First Instance, composed of 25 Judges, not assisted by Advocates General, which has jurisdiction to rule on certain cases, subject to a right of appeal to the Court of Justice on points of law.

The Court of Auditors audits income and past and current expenditure by the Community. Based in Luxembourg, it is in practice almost the only body issuing informed and accessible reviews and evaluations of expenditure programmes. The Court is small and its reviews, while thorough, are narrowly focused, but since the process of auditing can include investigations of value for money, the Court can also comment of the implementation and effectiveness of policies. The Commission has an obligation to respond in writing to the Court’s findings.

Apart from these formal EU ‘institutions’, the Treaty also establishes an Economic and Social Committee composed of representatives of social and economic stakeholders, and a Committee of the Regions whose members are drawn from the Member States’ elected local and regional representatives. Both have certain rights to be consulted, but their status is advisory only.

Other relevant bodies, not explicitly required by the Treaty, have been established specifically to contribute to the development of the Community’s environmental policy. The European Environment Agency (EEA) and its associated network, the European Information and Observation Network (EIONET), is responsible for the collection and dissemination of reliable and comparable data on the state of the environment, and on environmental trends and scenarios; contributing to the development of Member States’ reporting obligations; and analysing Member States reports (see section 11.4). The fifth Environmental Action Programme established additionally three informal bodies, each chaired by the Commission. These are the Environmental Policy Review Group (EPRG), comprising senior officials from Member States’ Environment Ministries, who meet regularly to discuss strategic aspects of Community environmental policy; IMPEL (EU Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law), which brings together representatives of Member States’ pollution inspectorates to discuss aspects of implementation and enforcement; and a Stakeholder/Consultative Forum (since dissolved).