Unlock Digital Signature Legitimacy for Support in European Union

How to eSign a document: digital signature legitimacy for Support in European Union

dear participants this lecture is recorded within the project of Jean Monet chair at rgsl and I will introduce this time the EU Democratic legitimacy in decision making and also address issues on how Civil Society is engaged in decision- making process of the EU other lectures you can also find within the project of the Jean Monet chair at rgsl let's get started first we need to understand that the um engagement of interest groups and Civil Society depends to largest extent on the level at which this activity is carried out EU is supernational Su generis political system that contains also supernational institutions so indifference to National level institutions like government courts National Parliament here we have a different spectrum of uh institutional uh cooperation but also the level at which decisions are made so countries partly by becoming members of the European Union also delegate part of their sovereignty to the supernational institutions and this happen happens through the uh ratification process after the accession agreement with the EU is signed so to one hand the government is agreeing on uh this process of Delegation of uh issues of of sovereignty but also people do this through the ratification process so that means that the interest group representation can be seen uh in two levels the first level would be the interest group activities or in other words we call it Lobby and in the EU Lobby is not considered to be something strange but rather it is an the um legitimacy U process where uh this is civil society Express their views and their opinions and their input so it can be done on the national level by influencing governments and then the governments would then represent the people's uh views on a supernational level uh it can be done through influencing National parliaments and then National parliaments bring uh the issue up uh to the um Union once it is uh discussed there but but interest representation can also happen directly on so on supernational level like from uh member states to the commission from member states to the European Parliament and uh also influencing uh uh different agencies uh or uh work in progress uh when the decision is made or the proposal is um is framed so during this lecture I will start by in explaining the supranational level uh of the decision making so at what stage the Civil Society can engage but then also we will look the overall picture and I will end by asking the question is there a paneuropean identity because also identity matters do people affiliate themselves with European level or they stay in their conviction rather on the national level and to start with um representation issue so how people feel themselves uh represented and how it's in political science uh this uh the the the the legitim legitimacy issues of uh direct or indirect representation of people um on on different levels on state level or on federal level so the European Union is neither Federation nor Confederation it is a SE generous political system where the elements of both of the Federation and Confederation coexist and possibly the founding fathers of um the union of the communities in 1949 they invisage that with time Europe may become a federation and then even in Rome treaty there was um um a phrase of ever closer Union Puttin so with the taking into account that uh it is a stepbystep process but with time Europe Europe uh the cooperation can reach the levels of federation so let's look closer into uh the differences why Federation uh why Confederation and what are the limits so um this lecture is about people about legitimacy and how people are represented and what are the mechanisms for their representation so first uh people in of federation are represented through two different channels first it is on level of states and then further on federal level through States or also from people direct to Federal level and this would be very much easy to explained by how for example the United States act so and it also explains uh election system or a parliamentary representation with two Chambers and so on so this uh two level uh representation in Federation uh whereas in Confederation people are first represented through States and then states are represented further uh to the higher level how can we find these elements in the in the European Union well we can partly recognize that there are elements of Confederation in the political system of the EU for example EU is not having one single Constitution which would be then the case of federation so legally in case of federation there has to be one legal system basis and one constitution in the member State though we have a own constitutions of the EU member states and then we have treaties on the level of the EU but this also means that EU is not Federation because it has an element of constitutions for each member State and not a single constitution for the union also that there is in legis ative system of the EU there is an inbuilt um inbuilt mechanism of two chamber uh system where Council and the European Parliament are equally engaged so that Council represents governments and governments are National interest and then European Parliament represents directly citizens and citizens interests we will speak about the interest representation in um forthcoming slides and also uh the fact that member states are having their national interests close to their heart close to their sovereignty um and we don't have an one single budget we don't have one single Army in the EU so uh the member states still keep the um High politics issues uh at closely at the level of um uh national state interest and it is also um seen with the distribution of competences in the treaties uh member states are free to uh leave the cooperation leave the EU and unlike Federation um and this has also happened with the brexit so that um a member State can withdraw uh where also not possible in in case of federation and that um the um national flags um and National symbols National anoms and all like elements we spoke about Constitution but also identity issue so how people feel and this is still uh very much on the level of member states and uh uh we will end this lecture by asking the question about European identity are people feeling more European or more National and this answers also the question that Anam and um and and flag was never um adopted in a treaty as official symbols they um they are uh used but they are not uh formulated as official symbols at the same time there are also elements of federation and uh for example the uh the fact that EU has different levels of um Administration it has local municipality level it has state level and then it has EU level um so like in Federation the all these levels of decision making and governance are in place uh the EU has a subsidiarity principle um and it is a principle of good good governance meaning that the decision should be taken on the most appropriate level so when decision can be taken on National level there is no need of the EU level uh to intervene saying that more efficient decisions are made on National level and this subsidiarity principle is also part of the treaties um like in Federation uh the European Parliament is directly elected so that there is direct representation so people uh every five years elect Parliament and this u m becomes directly elected to supernational level institution um and this is going beyond the Confederation and also to large extent supremacy of law so that the um the meaning that the EU laws are always more powerful compared to national law so EU law prevails um some words about principle of subsidiarity which is the Cornerstone um having explained that the founding fathers uh were Paving way for EU to become for the community to become Federation uh there have been inbuilt mechanisms in the treaties um also to preserve check and balances in these parts and one of these checks and balances has been principle of subsidiarity so uh the article said that under principle of subsidiarity increase in areas which do not fall within its exclusive competence then Union shall Act only if and in so far as the objectives of proposed actions cannot be sufficiently achieved by the member state so here we can see that EU comes in with added value to the member states actions and we can name like issues um environment we can name like climate change or even migration where issues are so horizontal that member states alone cannot deal with these also energy while energy can be that what is um what is good for a one member State possibly is not good for the whole Union uh so principle of subsidiarity has been this um um handbreak for the member states national interests uh in um um in in process of keeping uh still the uh process away from um European Union um facing the model of um federalism and here also subsidiarity to large extent ENT ensured by the national parliaments uh so National parliaments are those who are always scrutinizing government's positions and ensuring that uh the subsidiarity matters and there is a principle of yellow card where um National parliaments together as a group uh can react on principle of subsidiarity uh and then the commission has to reconsider the proposal or at least to react on the national parliaments join concern principle another important principle apart from subsidiarity is principle of conferral and Article Five defines that the EU can act only within the limits of competencies conferred upon it by the member states and the treaties so this means that EU is actually um penetrating into the um legal system uh but there is still um like onethird of of laws coming from National parliaments whereas about 60 67% of all um um Le um proposals uh are originating from the EU under this principle uh but then the principle is also implemented through three articles uh and these articles uh in the treaty article uh 2 to article six explain the um competences how this uh proportion of uh engagement of the EU is taking place so first competence is exclusive Union competence and this mean that if EU is acting under exclusive uh Union competence then actually EU has um the first um front seat in adopting a proposal and in driving uh the objective forward through EU legislation or other legal instruments um and then the member states are um being part of this process but the first prominent role lies with the EU and one can understand that issues like common commercial policy or trade um are in hands of uh the EU because it is the commission and the EU that acts on behalf of Union as single personality with the third countries and by that by this article also EU avoids that um individual member state would start carrying out their individual policies uh within trade so exclusive competence also clearly is the one uh that relates to economic monetary Union and Eurozone countries because this is under supervision of European Central Bank and the member states do not have um huge flexibility uh in implementing so the second level of competen is shared uh where uh the member states are free to legislate until till the EU starts legislating so partly it is done by member states but then once EU has started legislating in this specific field then it is the competence is is gliding over to the EU and uh all again here for quite obvious that internal Market is um very much shared competence because of um also harmonization of La so that the the um internal Market rules are are harmonized and do not create any barriers inside the markets um and here we have most of the issues that are corer one issue or common market issues uh agriculture transport energy um and environment cohesion policy and so on and and finally um we have competencies where the member states still preserve a lot of uh their own uh input uh and here it is um clearly also issues like uh health issues where member states uh frame and adopt um their health policy ing to differences in Health Systems uh culture is among them tourism education so the members States preserve their original individual education systems but there are principles how to compare uh the degrees the so-called bolognia process of diploma um certification and so that the students can start their education in one EU country and then um by recognition of diplomas can continue in another so education systems are uh nation state driven but they are U also um aligned across the member states um ensuring the principle of free movement of persons um here students this uh graph explains how the uh legal acts are adopted and uh we will uh then come closer to uh why it is important for uh the subject of this lecture of uh civil society and and uh legitimacy uh European legitimacy because as we have discussed H 67% of legislative acts are adopted on European level so we are to some extent finding ourselves on the super National level of decision making where the member states give input they participate and but these act that are adopted on EU level become binding for them on the national level so here by adopting these legislative um proposals we see engagement of um member states only on the level of U national interests in the council uh because the commission is framing the proposal and sending this uh legislative proposal to two legislators to the council and to the European Parliament and as discussed European Parliament being directly elected a supernational institution commission again supernational institution and Council intergovernmental with 27 member states representing the national interests so in case of Civil Society um engaging in this so they can either uh Target the member states govern government when they bring the position to the legislative table or they can go directly to the European Parliament as co-legislator or to the commission once the proposal is framed and then um we will also speak about the uh legitimacy legitimacy issues in terms of how much people feel engaged in this and what um are the triggers of legitimacy inbuilt in this decisionmaking uh procedure um ing to article 289 so what article says is that uh there is a legal acts are jointly adopted by the European Parliament and the council but the proposal the initiative is coming from the commission this works like following the commission is drafting the legal proposal and then this goes for decision making and decision making is done by the legislators Council and the European Parliament and this is called Ordinary legislative procedure as previously seen in article 289 and once adopted then the commission becomes an EU law Monitor and the delegations of the commission of member states would then follow how member states are transposing EU law in the national law National legislation in case member states fail to transpose national law then the European uh court of justice is engaging so this is uh the the principle of uh legislative work uh legislative proposal and decision making and I want now to bring you uh closer to uh Power relations so discussion on how uh the um institutions who are engaged in decision making interact uh between themselves and whose interests are represented to understand legitimacy issues we need to understand who is behind whose interests are represented so let's start the commission is representing General interests of the union and when the very idea of community uh working together originated among five founding member states in 1949 n uh the principle was to create uh the European community at that time it was European coal and Steel Community where one Authority would represent joint interests of all the member states so for this reason like historically this has developed that the high Authority in the 50s but later that was in the treaties called the commission is representing interests of all the engaged Partners all engaged member states of the union and sometimes it's very difficult uh to distinguish what is a general interest uh is there a one interest so the commission has always to balance because in northern Europe possibly um er the um you know Olive growing would not be as interesting as in southern part of Europe or Fisheries are most interesting for country that are around the uh the respective sea whereas the preserving of stock of fish is interesting for Europe as such and energy issues becoming quite challenging in finding what the general interest of the Union is so the next the EU Council and the EU council is representing interests of the member states because Council consists of 27 member states each with their own National interest and as explained in the beginning the member states upon joining the EU had delegated part of their sovereignty but they are sovereign individual member states with their constitutions with their elected parliaments with their like the the governments and uh governments being accountable to their National parliaments for uh the interest they are representing so sometimes uh the interests by governments representing in represented in Council are very diverging and the challenge in Council is to find uh the Unified conclusion either on unanimity decision or by qualified majority decision but to agree upon uh one position the European Parliament is representing interests of ideological groups because European Parliament consists of different um ideologies ideologies groups and uh consequently European Parliament is representing people's interests not the state interests but people's interests so all people who support liberal trade uh would most likely support EP group uh or or liberal group in in um in the uh in the Parliament and those who are um Keen for climate change may see to what Pol IAL group they align and then this is pan European it's not a member State based represented but this is paneuropean so people from Malta and and people from Estonia supporting the same ideology would be represented through uh the European Parliament and finally European Council represents again government's interests but to extend that the governments um are here in European Council represented on the highest political level these are heads of states and the role of European Council is rather political European Council is not legislating but European Council is agreeing on Future Vision of the EU it is agreeing on uh Budget on enlargement on external crisis or external uh foreign policy uh so the European Council is highest political format of decision- making but very intergovernmental again national interests are um are the ones that sometimes are also limiting the high ambitious uh highly ambitious um agreements because uh in European Council the decision is made by consensus by unanimity by one country vetoing the uh whole European Council cannot agree so after having mapped different interest representation in institutions uh we already can identify the channels of Civil Society how Civil Society could be best represented and obviously from this graph already you would see that the the most obvious direct representation would be in the European Parliament so legitimacy of interests by people are expressed through the European Parliament where people's people are in represented uh and then in government it would be uh represented through the governments to the EU level and uh in the Commission in very indirect way because the Commissioners are appointed by government ments but then voted by European Parliament um and um so most supranational in this picture would be then the Commission in um the Treaty of functioning of European Union we have an article that lists the um institutions the formal institutions of the EU and we have discussed the um representation uh at what level each institution through people is represented but as explained uh the most obvious direct representation of Civil Society um that also ensures legitimacy of decision-making process in the EU is through the European Parliament so here um it also saying that actually we can uh trace this through treaty because European Parliament is official institution so therefore the legitimacy is inbuilt in a treaty and the European Parliament has two um locations two seats uh the main seat of European Parliament is in stasbor and also um the uh the working place um in Brussels so in stasbor the parliament goes for plenaries and and otherwise the committee work is carried out in Brussels and here you see also on the slide the um the the main hall of the um stasbor uh building uh where 750 parliamentarians are seated and represent political groups so ideologies political groups of the Union as explained uh the article also um said that the European Parliament is directly elected citizens are directly represented at Union level in the European Parliament so this ensures because European Parliament is official Institution of the EU and citizens are directly represented in this institution so this ensures legitimacy of decision making um we will discuss uh the issue about activity or turnout of the uh population every five years when the parliament is elected directly elected by citizens and in the union the European parli election is carried out through the member states so each member states is during the interval of dates organizing its um uh the European Parliament elections the next elections will be 2024 and uh uh the question will be how high the activity of um Society will be in participating in lectures and um we will get there in next slides but uh just to explain that in some countries uh the um participation in elections is compulsory it is of course an issue of discussion should Democratic rights uh be compulsory um also including actually uh countries in the EU where um election is compulsory like in um just one example in Belgium but um it also um on on other hand the um election um participating election is not only a right but also a responsibility on expressing um active engagement and participating in um Democratic process um and these thoughts um are why I'm taking up an issue of a mandatory participation is because if we see the the Dynamics in um turnout how active uh European citizens have been in participating in European Parliament elections so we we see a trend that it started the first elections of European Parliament were held in 1979 and about 63% of uh people were participating and then five years later the uh the turnout F under 60% and again five years later even lower and again five years later um already approaching 55% and in 1999 was only half of population were using their right to represent in direct election process the European Parliament that is legislating the EU law that becomes binding in in the member states and the trend has followed down to decrease by 20 uh 2004 uh until 2014 this was only 40% of population that went to elections of the European Parliament and this became an warning signal because on one hand representation in European Parliament election ensures the legit legitimacy of uh decision making because people are involved this is a channel of involvement whereas people themselves actually did not recognize this right right and didn't uh go to um to vote the for Parliament and um a large campaign of information uh was launched after 2014 elections and this turned the trend and in 2019 the last elections of the European Parliament uh was already um a better result um about 48% of turnout of the European Parliament elections so now let's break down this to the the uh level of different member states and see how the Figures were across the member states so we are speaking about recent European Parliament elections in Europe and um as we see the highest turnout was in the countries where the um uh the uh voting is mandatory but uh then um also um like countries uh in Denmark in Germany Spain Austria Greece Sweden it was Beyond 50% um but in uh Eastern European countries Slovenia Czech Republic Slovakia it was under 30% uh so here is still work to do and to turn this trend uh and possibly a discuss disc um is necessary on what exactly um the reason of low participation in these countries was um to analyze these Trends and to work on this matter for the upcoming elections 2024 because European Parliament is an formal institution deciding on EU laws as a co-legislator and people are are directly represented through this institution so there is a format uh where just people don't use their rights to be represented and it's not enough before elections to encourage people to go to vote so there has to be feeling that people feel Affiliated uh with the European instit utions and with the solutions on European uh level so what if I go to elect would it CH would it change uh my situation as a citizen and for this reason uh there was an inquiry made before last elections 2019 asking uh people to name their concerns so what are they worried about about and uh this was a a survey that was made across all the uh member States before European Parliament elections to understand also how European Parliament should campaign um on on what issues the European Parliament should work more once elected so what are Expectations by European citizens and here if we just see or overall Slide the pictures on it so we see that we have a huge problem and it is about 2019 we are speaking we have a large um majority of people who are concerned about migration and the further down to South the the stronger this concern so you see here in Greece in Spain um a huge uh concern of the incoming migration and definitely this is an issue where EU can jointly become um in engaged and and and um and respond to these concerns to a larger extent than on National level only uh the second uh prominent color in this graph is um light blue and this is explaining also concerns about economy and growth so welfare in other words people are concerned about the their welfare about the economic situation and again EU can do a lot through working on internal Market issues a harmonization on digital single Market on service market so again this is a field where EU can um can respond to the people concerns and finally green color on this graph shows the uh concerns about climate change and it is also seen that climate uh concern is mainly in the countries of a high GDP per capita so we're actually with high welfare standards and these countries are more engaged people are engaged in climate issues compared to other part of of of Europe so by looking at this and other issues like social protection or even terrorism threats or youth unemployment also an a typical issue that was um specifically concerned for southern European States before last European elections so if we would ask these questions today um then definitely uh external Borders or uh security or terrorism would be possibly higher on on agenda H but what I want to show with this slide is that we can answer the threats or concerns by by people on the European level but it is also important to address these issues uh through the communication uh and not only before elections but throughout the legislative uh uh process so to communicate to communicate Europe in order to engage people but also educate so why not have a a just a course on on on European Union in in the in the high school so next slide before 2019 elections um we have seen um a rise of populism so in some countries so nation state Centric trend of nation state first uh was put in place and these countries these political parties um were mainly using um agenda of um anti- migration about radicalism against Islam and also partly uh with the with the um agenda of um emphasizing the um economic crisis as a a consequence of poor records so populistic parties mainly were driving these three um issues uh for their uh pre-election campaign campaigns whereas the pro-european parties mainly were countering nationalism so number one actually countering these populistic parties and voicing issues like climate change uh on economic issue they were quite similar in their expression and and also um issues like U internal Market um economic weal um um and and and so but also external relations with the EU so the consequence of differences in uh national uh political Arena was also reflected in the election results of the European Parliament uh 2019 and the consequence was that quite a large number of populistic parties were elected uh and became part of European Parliament some of them even being against EU so EU skeptic parties became um elected um MPS in the European Parliament we will discuss it bit later all together there are 750 members and um there's also inbuilt mechanism to balance the large and small countries a direct representation that the largest country is uh having a limit of 96 seats in the European Parliament and the smallest uh of six members so there is not possible that a like country like Malta would get lower than six members in the parliament and um the um um number of MEPS is um related to the size of population so when the population is changing then the country can either lose or add uh members on the um at the European Parliament but there something happened uh during this legislative periods from 2019 to the next elections and this was brexit and uh after brexit the um UK leaving the UK has actually left 73 seats in the European Parliament weekend and uh the decision was to distribute these seats so that 27 of these vacant seats would go um to the uh to balance the number of MPS in uh the next elections including ltia that will get with next elections one additional seat but uh 46 of these vacant seats were left uh for the potential future enlargements by that also signaling that in future uh the um enlargement is welcome because in case of enlargement the limit of 750 seats in the parliament uh unless we open the Lisbon treaty that the maximum seats is 750 and this graph shows also uh the changes in um after brexit that some of the countries have additionally got uh uh the seats um directly after brexit but as said now uh there is another adjustment before before next elections in 2024 uh the current uh president of the European Parliament is EP member maltes Roberta metsola um and she was elected in 2022 and um also she will lead the parliament until the elections of 2024 next year uh when after election the new the the new European Parliament and will be designated and it has to be also pointed out that both High positions European Parliament but also uh the president of uh the commission and the uh president of the European Council and high representative of the deal of uh nominating these high positions is always Balan uh taking into account the geographic balance a political background I mean ideologically background from European Parliament uh also gender um and and also the whether the country is a founding member or has joined the EU um uh 2004 uh enlargement or so so there's we are awaiting 2020 for a a quite a considerable change um in the um not only Parliament but also the European uh Union High positions once elected MPS from the member states are aligning with the political iCal groups political parties of the European Parliament and here in the list of the political groups um we see uh currently that the leading group is European people's party though they lost with um in comparison to previous elections but they are still the largest um largest group uh so winner in in comparison to a previous election was actually uh the um renew Europe that increased their participation in the European Parliament with 39% compared to the previous um and this possibly was also on the cost of the drop of outcome for um socialists and Democrats so the largest two parties currently political groups are EP uh social socialists and Democrats followed by renew Europe the previous name of your renew Europe being Al day and then followed H by greens and European free Alliance and uh then uh rightwing populist and then Conservative Party conservatives and reformist uh here after brexit the number of MPS in thisp group has um um diminished but finally I want to also attract your attention to uh the these two other nonattached so these are parliamentarians who are elected at their National U member states but they have had difficulties to find alignment with any of the political groups uh in the European Parliament and what I already explained that um a large number last elections uh was Euros skeptic populist parties that entered so 42 parliamentarians actually um are representing Europe uh of freedom and direct democracy that is are countering uh to some extent the very idea of uh deeper integration and this is how the current European Parliament uh political groups are distributed as so uh 750 seats and president so 751 together and Epp being the largest followed by STD and and and then renew Europe and once there is a vote um um because e um European Parliament is a co- legislator and once passing the issues in plenary and for vote um they are um they need to have um um the simple majority outcome on the supporting so it means that um definitely the Coalition building in the parliament is is part of of the um how to say political um influence and this is way how the people um support for these political groups are translated into the decisions through the influence of the political groups on the outcome of the um voting on the legislative act each parliamentarian is at the same time also part of of one of the Committees so when the legislative process is carried out then these committees are adopting um amendments on um each uh legal act Let It Be regulation or directive and uh work the basic work is carried out in the Committees so once we will get back to civil society and interest group engagement we will see that this slide becomes very interesting because this is a channel through which the Civil Society lobbyists and interest groups can influence decision- making by targeting the parliamentarians within respective committees in order to influence or to uh promote their interest on specific dossier and as an example I have taken one member of the European Parliament here um a lavian member of European Parliament Sandra Kal who has been all elected from um National lvan Party new unity and uh aligned with the European Parliament political uh group Epp EP group and her portfolio consists not only from of course a political alignment within this EUR European Parliament political group but also that she is sitting in committees uh uh the Committee of on Foreign Affairs a special committee on uh uh foreign interference in all Democratic processes including disinformation um delegation to the EU Ukraine parliamentary Association committee and um um also being um member in other supporting work of other committees so this is the to understand for you also how then the Civil Society can be engaged through um addressing issues uh through parliaments or through committees or through political channels in the European Parliament there has been um Trend um in European Parliament election outcome that in the '90s uh the um majority group that was elected in the European Parliament was socialist um ideological uh group and it is for the reason that it also reflected the Socialist Party um U movements in U in the member states at that time so the most uh political parties governing and getting being elected during um 80s late 80s um were the Social Democratic parties but this trend has turned and since elections of uh 1999 uh the EP group is taking the lead and this trend has now been in place um and um although EP had a bit of decline during uh the recent elections the still EP is um a leading political group and here we have to see how this trend will continue in the upcoming elections uh 2024 how can Civil Society be engag aged through the parliament so only on the issue that are on the table of the parliament so where where Parliament has power uh to uh to express uh and influence the outcome uh Express their interest and influence uh the outcome so this would be through a legislative process that we have discussed um um extensively during the lecture but also on budgetary issues so the parliament has the power to adopt annual budget um and also Parliament is engaged in adopting multi-annual um um Financial framework Parliament being directly elected has also the um supervisory role um with regard to appointing uh the commission so it is Parliament that elects commission president so they can uh reject but they can also elect so the power of parliament here um is indeed balancing towards um more power to this um uh legitimately uh represented through people um institution by saying that once Parliament has power it's also through people who are represented in the uh European Parliament that has right to appoint and elect the commission president and all Commissioners have to undergo um quite um extensive hearings on um taking their uh their office so before commissioner gets elected um and after being appointed from the government the each commissioner has to undergo uh the um hearing or or to be asked and and scrutinized by the respective European Parliament committee and also the European Parliament um has control over the work done by the presidency by um asking questions by uh being informed by the progress um and uh to to that extent um my point here is that Parliament has in comparison to other supernational institutions a quite important power um where also the people are directly uh represented there are three types of procedures how Parliament is engaging in legislative process most interesting here is the one that is ordinary legislative procedure article 289 where where Parliament is co legislating together with uh the council and Parliament has three readings so Council and Parliament has to agree uh H if they don't agree on first reading then the second reading and finally conciliation committee um so there are time limits but also the extensive work on because Parliament had um veto the decision by um providing first um their amendments on the text of directive or regulation but then if Parliament disagrees at the end then the council is not allowed to proceed alone so the parliament has a very strong and a a very credible power uh with legislative uh procedure and special legislative procedure rather relates to um the adoption of international agreements or enlargement or another um issues where the uh Parliament decides by consent procedure this mean that they have no right of amendment but they H can veto the proposal and quite wague a consultation procedure their Parliament has advisory role but with 200 uh 2009 changes in uh Lisbon Le Lisbon um treaty uh more and more power has been concentrated in hands of the European Parliament both in legislative and in consent procedure so we have covered one channel of legit uh legitimacy so the engagement by people in um outcome of the European Union legislative process and this has been through um direct election in the European Parliament and then the role European Parliament is playing in this um output where the people's voice is expressed H through the power the European Parliament has through the treaties but the Lisbon treaty has also um open up another channel of direct Civil Society engagement and it is socalled Citizens initiative so we know from previous slides that the commission has power of initiative so the proposals are uh drafted by the commission and then passed to the legislators here we have a mechanism that ensures that the commission has to listen to European citizens that in case of 1 million citizens who are Nationals of the member states in case they would encourage 1 million citizens to together encourage a commission to come up with a proposal um in any of the fields that are under the treaties then the commission has to respond either come up with this proposal or give a reason opinion why they would think it is either not a competence or H that there are any other conditions why commission is refraining for doing it but at least there is a direct uh link between citizens will and supranational institution commission this initiative was first launched in um 2012 and since then uh there have been numerous citizens initiatives in place and uh the um signing up for uh the um citizenship um proposals are through the um member State driven um data platforms uh also with um data protection rules so that actually citizens sign up uh through the member states uh provided platforms and then this adds up adds to the uh to the voice of of the union and there always is an um um either an NGO or initiator of the citizens initiative uh that coordinates uh this action another channel of Civil Society representation in different interest groups um as explained that interest representation or lobbying is considered to be normal and even in the case of uh the commission um desirable um channel of input of interests of European citizens um and these can be business groups these can be um Civil Society groups different NOS different movements confederations um of different interests so the institutions are open to input from interest groups but in the remaining slides we will discuss the channels of influence how these in channels are reaching institutions and how open institutions are for Lobby what kind of interest groups these can be lobbyists lobbyists of uh well thematic interests like environmental Lobby or trade Union lobby these can be a pressure groups that are um acting on behalf of of a concrete topic or accountable group that wants to reach out uh most often the interest groups represent different business Societies or um industrialist interests or Pharmacy interest and these can be also confederations so business Europe um or um environmental organizations umbrella groups that are already Consolidated smaller groups in larger organizations um Civil Society non-governmental so all these groups uh are uh can be framed as as interest groups or lobbyists in the EU interest representation there are good reasons to Lobby um EU institutions because as explained the commission is coming up with the uh proposal for legislative act uh commission is also drafting different kind of strategies and future um Vision on priorities where uh of European level engagement and for this reason input from public and from interest groups is uh very desirable um the European Parliament however is a format where already by treaty Logics the European Parliament is expected to represent people uh by being uh directly elected so this is a logic of a Lobby um both in the Commission in and in the parliament I leave out here Lobby to the National governments because it is another route where lobbyists can work uh by expressing views to National parliaments to the governments and then governments by participating in Council work would then uh represent citizens and lobbyists through their positions in legislative work but my interest here is to focus on EU level level Lobby on supranational institutions so it is already part of the treaty basis because good governance principle in the treaty article 11 states that the EU institutions shall remain open for U input and be transparent have a regular dialogue with representative associations and Civil Society and also article 113 stipulates that the European commission shall carry out broad consultations with parties concerned in order to ensure that Union's actions are coherent and transparent so for the first the there is a principle of openness as part of good governance and for the second actually institutions need this input because uh the um this U by consultation process uh the institutions can use this opinion in um in in um working on actions that are adequate and and coherent for this reason in political science we are speaking about um two types of legitimacy it is input legitimacy and output legitimacy so to what extent people and interests of different groups are represented and input legitimacy relates to um to the functioning of the institutions um how the members are elected and selected what the procedures are how the decisions are made and exerc exercised and what is responsiveness to the citizens concerns so we were speaking in the previous slides about a lot of concerns that we saw the people are so how how institutions listen to these concerns so here we are speaking about the lobbyist the accommodation of lobbyist interests um their expertise their advice into the policy making so input from Lobby groups into the decision making whereas output legitimacy would rather refer to um to the um Public Access and to the relevance and quality of Institutions performance this would then also be related to the effectiveness and policy outcomes for uh Society for uh for people so their Lobby means that the lobbyist would incorporate standards that aimed at enhancing the effectiveness and coherence of EU policies so EU needs both input legitimacy and output legitimacy uh to make the the cycle of Engagement of um of uh people complete how did institutions managed to deal with input and output legitimacy um so we will speak about the commission and the European Parliament and there are some differences so for the commission commission has an strategic interest in accommodating in different views because of commission providing a proposal The commission's Proposal needs to be realistic and how to make it realistic they have to measure uh the possible impact or forecast the possible in impact of uh this new legislative act by already sensing the concerns of public um interest organizations so therefore consultations for commission is in commission's interest the more input the better for the commission whereas the European Parliament perceives Lobby bit problematic uh for the reason that there is already differences in political views and uh that the lobbyists would Target one of political groups um and there would by doing so uh would in increase imbalance but also that in fact European parliamentarians are politicians and Lobby on politicians is more problematic than um input for executive power so therefore the lobby lobby in the European Parliament has been always registered um and uh the um Lobby groups uh have been not restricted but at least um registered upon their arrival um including uh working on Code of Conduct of uh representation and access to the um European uh par Parliament building so the regulation of this process started uh already in 1996 and then and there was 2005 so called transparency initiative um that was reforming the regulation on lobbyists and finally in 2012 a new code of conduct with regard to U members of the parliament uh was laid um where there was restrictions on um how to what extent uh lobbyists could um actually Target politicians and um and also restricting uh politicians themselves in accepting also these um Lobby um including Lobby gifts finally I will end this lecture by explaining um and voting some words on um Civil Society uh as a a paneuropean phenomena is civil society in European Union pan European other words in other words to what extent citizens of European Union feel affiliated with their country with a member state or affiliated with Europe do they feel as Europeans this also is very relevant when we discuss European leg legitimacy because for European legit legitimacy um the identity is also playing quite an important role it also could answer the question of uh turnout in European Parliament elections why people are hesitant in voting for European Parliament in some countries where they just don't affiliate themselves with the European Union and answer to this is also seen in the inquiry made by Era barometer asking citizens of Europe to what extent they feel citizens of EU and from all participating the only 27% definitely felt as European citizens so onethird of Europeans that were participating in inquiry were saying that they feel European and 40% of them said that they to some extent feel um as European citizens and on question on how attached to Europe they feel 9% were feeling very attached to EU and only 36% thly attached to the EU and here POS possibly we see also that the problem of legitimacy in the European project is not in treaty or decision making mechanism or balance of power of Institutions but rather in communication or in affiliation of people in their daily life with the output from the EU given that 67% of legislative acts in our daily life so laws that we use in our daily life that we rely on in our daily life originate from Europe and we have kind of legitimacy Gap here on one side people don't feel Affiliated and attach on other side Europe is influencing our daily life and Europe is also European Union is a place where the problems that can't be dealt on National level are soled on supernational level and Europeans have expectations for that that Europe will do it as explained in the survey before the European Parliament elections so I hope that this lecture has um also um encourage some thoughts in um Rising questions about European legitimacy about people's engagement in the European project the extent to which Europe influen our daily life and also the way how we are putting expectations for Europe in particular with the upcoming European Parliament elections thank you for attention and follow our justl lectures