Suchergebnisse

This article argues that the European Commission is an unelected legislator. Although the Commission is rarely defined de jure as a legislative body within the EU's system of governance, it does serve as a de facto legislator in three important respects. First, the Commission's role as an agenda-setter & policy formulator gives it a great deal of influence over legislative outcomes. Second, it performs an important regulatory role. While this includes the direct implementation of European legislation in a small number of policy areas, such as competition policy, it also results from the delegation of important executive functions from the EU Council to the Commission. Thus, the Commission is responsible for much of the specific content of legislative acts, with the Council & Parliament deciding on the general framework. Third, the Commission also performs an informal function as policy-maker, epitomized by the expanding Commission preference for the use of soft law & other non-binding measures. While there is some debate as to whether soft law really is "law", the political (if not the legal) effects of such measures are potentially enormous. Adapted from the source document.