DECISION-MAKING IN THE COMMUNITY: THE COMMISSION-COUNCIL DIALOGUE

In: Government & opposition: an international journal of comparative politics, Band 2, Heft 3, S. 391-397

Abstract

Underlying the complexity of the EEC's instit'al pattern there is a new principle, tried out in ECSC & modified & extended in EEC-the dialogue between an independent pol'al body whose assigned task is to work for & defend the interests of the Community as a whole, & a body in which nat'l interests are formally represented & defended before a decision is taken. The Commission-Council dialogue is the only entirely original aspect of the Community system. As the volume of work before the Council grows it is possible that 2 important pol'al constitutional issues may be raised-the delegation of powers & the greater use of majority voting. In any future extension of the Community system into the fields of foreign policy or defense, other problems about the working of the Commission-Council dialogue will arise; experience so far would suggest that solutions will not prove impossible to find. IPSA.