Council or Commission, who embodies the “government” of the European Union?

Analysis. If it will remain for a long time like an unfortunate episode in the history of the Community institutions, the recent affair of the “Sofagate”, implicating the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, deprived of a seat at the time. of a visit to the Turkish president, overshadowed a substantive issue. A question which conditions the future of a political project always in search of coherence: but who then embodies the “government” of the European Union?

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In 2012, the Nobel Committee, deciding to honor the Union for its role in favor of peace and democracy, itself seemed to have no answer. To avoid any missteps, he therefore sent a letter to the EU delegation in Oslo. It is up to the latter to decide whether it would be advisable to first inform José Manuel Barroso, then in post at the Commission, or Herman Van Rompuy, his counterpart in the Council. See Martin Schulz, then head of Parliament. On December 12, the King of Norway politely received the three laureates to present them with the prize …

“Loyal cooperation”

The Union Treaty does not help understanding. Its article 13 provides that the institutions of Europe are, in order, the Parliament, followed by the Council, the Commission, the Court of Justice, etc. With regard to the sharing of roles, he simply specifies that “Each institution acts within the limits of the powers conferred on it in the treaties”. The key being perhaps that the said institutions are invited to develop “Loyal cooperation”.

The complex architecture of the Union therefore forces the two institutions to work together. A Council acting without the Commission would stick to political debates a little more disconnected from reality. A Commission without political support would be just as much, reduced to formulating ideas and proposals which would be deprived of any translation.

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“Unusual object”, as defined by Laurent Pech, professor of European law at Middlesex University in London, the Union combines supranational institutions – the Commission and the Parliament – and other intergovernmental institutions – the Council, namely the States, and the European Council, made up of heads of state and government. Constrained to coexistence, they are not however immune to personal quarrels.

Ursula von der Leyen, the first woman president of the Commission, exercises this function without having been head of government, and therefore a member of the European Council. Before her, only Jacques Delors was in the same case. He had to get rid of the cumbersome tutelage of François Mitterrand who saw him above all as one of his former ministers.

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