Suchergebnisse

Published online: February 2012 ; This study, produced by Daniela Corona, Costanza Hermanin and Paolo Ponzano, offers a useful contribution to the current debate on the merits and the alleged limitations of the "Community Method", of which the Commission's monopoly over legislative initiative is such a crucial element. Based on data relating to what are termed "innovative" legislative proposals, it allows the reader to draw conclusions which I feel are equally applicable to the exercise of the power of initiative as a whole, and which confirm the analysis that I have drawn from my experience as a Member of the Commission. As this study argues, we need to distinguish three different kinds of issues if we are to effectively measure the way in which the Commission's exercise of the power of initiative has partly changed its nature: first, we have the "agenda setting", then the definition of the "terms of debate", and lastly the negotiations that lead to the finalisation of the texts.

This study was prepared by a research team of the European Union Democracy Observatory (EUDO) upon a request of the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists & Democrats in the European Parliament. The object of the study was described as follows in the commissioning contract: "How to maximise the influence of the European Parliament in light of the Lisbon Treaty, in order to implement the Social Agenda and get the citizens closer to the EU." The title of the study is a short rendering of that description. EUDO is an independent and interdisciplinary academic organization, fully integrated within the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (RSCAS) at the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence. Its declared goals are: to produce a permanent and periodic assessment of democratic practices within the EU; to serve as a forum to exchange ideas and good practices; and to be a resource for policy-makers, academics and EU citizen. To reach these goals, the EUDO platform consists of four components, the four EUDO observatories, one of which has, as its central theme of interest, institutional change and reform in the European Union. The EUDO Observatory on Institutional Change and Reforms recently organised, in February 2010, a workshop on the institutional implementation (la mise en oeuvre institutionnelle) of the Lisbon Treaty. The workshop was convened by Paolo Ponzano and Bruno de Witte and brought together practitioners of the EU institutions with a selected group of academics for a thorough discussion of the ongoing 'implementation' of the Lisbon Treaty.