Food Law

(compiled by Dr David Jukes)

The following text is taken from a Background Report prepared by the European Commission in March 1997. It provides a useful summary of the structure of the European Commission including a listing of the Commissioners and the Directorate Generals (DG)

The European Union and the European Community

• Austria
• Belgium
• Denmark
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Ireland
• Italy
• Luxembourg
• The Netherlands
• Portugal
• Spain
• Sweden
• The United Kingdom

Strictly speaking, the European Union, (and not the European Community) is the correct name for the grouping of fifteen member states, particularly in relation to the other countries and political groupings of the world. The grouping has been known as the European Union since the adoption of the Treaty on European Union. However, in practice, it is still common to refer to aspects of European policy which affect all Member States as Community policies, e.g. Community research policy and the Community budget.

The European Commission

• prepare proposals for legislation
• uphold the requirements of the Treaties, and
• manage and execute the EU policies and conduct the EU's international trade relationships.

Its work, including proposals, decisions and actions are monitored and checked by all of the other institutions except the European Investment Bank. Its democratic accountability has been strengthened by the requirement for the European Parliament to approve the Commission President and the other Commissioners before they can take office. The Parliament can also order the whole Commission to resign en bloc, although this extreme sanction has not so far been exercised.

The Commissioners

Each Member State has one Commissioner, except France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK which each has two.

Commissioners are required to be totally independent of their national governments, and to act in the interests of the European Union. They all take an oath to that effect on appointment. The term of office is five years, and the present Commission holds office from 1995 - 2000. Five of the current Commissioners are women; more than in any previous Commission. The Commission meets at least once a week to develop policies and adopt proposals for legislation which then enter the consultation process.

The Commissioners are each responsible for defined subject or policy areas, sometimes involving more than one of the 26 Directorates-General (DG's) into which the Commission's staff are divided. The present Commissioners and their areas of responsibility are:

President Jacques Santer (Luxembourg)
- Secretariat-General, Legal Service, Security Office, Forward Studies Unit, Inspectorate-General, Joint Interpreting and Conference Service, Spokesman's Service, Monetary matters (with Mr de Silguy), Common foreign and security policy (with Mr van den Broek), Institutional matters and the Intergovernmental Conference (with Mr Oreja)

Vice-President Sir Leon Brittan (UK)
- External relations with North America, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, Korea, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, Common commercial policy, relations with OECD and WTO

Vice-President Manuel Marin (Spain)
- External relations with Southern Mediterranean countries, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia (except Japan, China, Korea, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan), including development aid

Martin Bangemann (Germany)
- Industrial affairs, Information and telecommunications technologies

Karel Van Miert (Belgium)
- Competition

Hans van den Broek (The Netherlands)
- External relations with the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Mongolia, Turkey, Cyprus, Malta and other European countries, Common foreign and security policy and human rights (in agreement with the President), External missions

João de Deus Pinheiro (Portugal)
- External relations with African, Caribbean and Pacific countries and South Africa, Lomé Convention

Pádraig Flynn (Ireland)
- Employment and social affairs, Relations with the Economic and Social Committee

Marcelino Oreja (Spain)
- Relations with the European Parliament, Relations with the Member States (transparency, communication and information), Culture and audiovisual policy, Office for Official Publications, Institutional matters and preparations for the Intergovernmental Conference (in agreement with the President)

Anita Gradin (Sweden)
- Immigration, home affairs and justice, relations with the Ombudsman, Financial control, Fraud prevention

Edith Cresson (France)
- Science, research and development, Joint Research Centre, Human resources, education, training and youth

Ritt Bjerregaard (Denmark)
- Environment, nuclear safety

Monika Wulf-Mathies (Germany)
- Regional policies, Relations with the Committee of the Regions, Cohesion Fund (in agreement with Mr Kinnock and Mrs Bjerregaard)

Neil Kinnock (UK)
- Transport (including trans-European networks)

Mario Monti (Italy)
- Internal market, Financial services and financial integration, customs, taxation

Franz Fischler (Austria)
- Agriculture and rural development

Emma Bonino (Italy)
- Fisheries, Consumer policy, European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO)

Yves-Thibault de Silguy (France)
- Economic and financial affairs, Monetary matters (in agreement with the President), Credit and investments, Statistical Office

Erkki Liikanen (Finland)
- Budget, Personnel and administration, Translation and in-house computer services

Christos Papoutsis (Greece)
- Energy and Euratom Supply Agency, Small businesses, Tourism

The Working of the Commission

The Commission's role as "guardian of the Treaties" means that it is the responsibility of the Commission to ensure that the Member States are transposing EU legislation fully and correctly into national laws. The Commission is empowered to carry out investigations where it has reason to believe that the laws are not being observed, and legal proceedings may be taken against the national governments concerned; ultimately before the European Court of Justice. The Commission can also fine companies, organisations or individuals for infringing EU law, although appeals can be made to the Court of Justice. Some of the best-known prosecutions of this kind have concerned infringement of the EU competition rules, where the fines can be extremely high as they are calculated on the basis of the turnover of the company concerned. The Commission also has the power under the Treaties to approve or reject certain types of national state aid from government to industry.

The third main function of the Commission is as an administrator for the EU. It has varied management roles, of which one is managing the EU budget [The budget for 1997 (agreed end of December) is Ecu 82.365 billion. 1 Ecu = £0.732974 at 12 February 1996]. This includes overseeing the funding for agriculture, the largest area of expenditure, through the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF), and for aiding development in less advantaged areas through the Structural Funds.

The Commission can adopt its own Directives and Regulations, which normally add details to the principles set by Council legislation. For example, Commission Regulations often concern specific arrangements for specific crops under the agricultural policy. The Commission can also take emergency legal steps to protect the EU market from dumping of goods from third countries; and it also has the power to approve (or reject) proposed mergers between companies or acquisitions, if these would result in a large or dominant company leading to market distortions.

The Commission is divided into 26 DGs; they are numbered by Roman numbers I-XXIV, - DG I has three major divisions known as I, IA and IB. The DGs are listed below, together with their areas of responsibility and also the ancillary services of the Commission.

Directorates-General:

• DG I External relations: commercial policy and relations with North America, the Far East, Australia and New Zealand
• DG IA External relations: Europe and the Newly Independent States, Common foreign and security policy and External missions
• DG IB External relations: Southern Mediterranean, Middle and Near East, Latin America, South and South-East Asia and North-South cooperation
• DG II Economic and financial affairs
• DG III Industry
• DG IV Competition
• DG V Employment, industrial relations and social affairs
• DG VI Agriculture
• DG VII Transport
• DG VIII Development
• DG IX Personnel and administration
• DG X Information, communication, culture and audiovisual
• DG XI Environment, nuclear safety and civil protection
• DG XII Science, research and development
• DG XIII Telecommunications, information market and exploitation of research
• DG XIV Fisheries
• DG XV Internal market and financial services
• DG XVI Regional policies and cohesion
• DG XVII Energy
• DG XVIII Credit and investments
• DG XIX Budgets
• DG XX Financial control
• DG XXI Customs and indirect taxation
• DG XXII Education, training and youth
• DG XXIII Enterprise policy, distributive trades, tourism and cooperatives
• DG XXIV Consumer policy

Ancillary services

• Secretariat-General (registry, internal administration, relations with other EU institutions)
• Legal Service
• Spokesman's Service (information for the media)
• Joint interpreting and conference service
• Statistical Office
• Translation Service
• European Community Humanitarian Office
• Euratom Supply Agency
• Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.

The Other EU Institutions

• The Council
  The Council is the body of representatives of the governments of Member States which makes the final decisions on adoption of EU legislation and policies, which it does by unanimity or qualified majority voting, depending on the subject, mostly the latter. Each Council meeting concentrates on a particular subject area and its members are the national ministers responsible for that subject; e.g. economics and finance, agriculture, general affairs (which is attended by foreign affairs ministers). The European Council is a special forum of heads of state or government of the Member States, plus the President of the Commission, held twice a year to set the main political priorities.

• The European Parliament
  The Parliament is the democratically-elected EU institution, representing its 370 million EU citizens. It exerts its influence directly in the adoption of legislation through the consultation procedure (requiring an opinion from Parliament), the cooperation procedure (in which Parliament gives the proposal two readings) and in the co-decision procedure. This last procedure dates from the Treaty on European Union and shares decision-making responsibility equally between the Council and Parliament. Parliament's agreement is also required for international agreements like the accession of new Member States. Individual citizens can petition Parliament or ask for help with grievances from the European Ombudsman, who is appointed by Parliament.

• The Economic and Social Committee
  This committee is a consultative body which offers opinions on legislative proposals. Its members are drawn from all Member States and represent employers, trades unions and other interest groups.

• The European Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance
  The Court of Justice based in Luxembourg provides the judicial interpretation of EU law. It ensures the same interpretation of the law by all member states, all EU institutions, organisations and individuals. The Court of First Instance deals with actions brought by individuals and companies against decisions of the EU institutions. The Court of Justice hears cases brought by the Commission against Member States or other EU institutions, and also makes preliminary rulings on points of EU law when requested by courts or tribunals in the member states.

• The European Court of Auditors
  The Court of Auditors is responsible for ensuring that the EU budget is used according to its rules and for the correct purposes.

• The European Investment Bank
  The European Investment Bank, also based in Luxembourg is the financing institution of the EU, and provides loans for projects which favour European interests. It also finances aspects of EU relations with third countries, including development aid.

• The Committee of the Regions
  This was created by the Treaty on European Union, and fulfils its requirement to ensure that the representatives of local and regional authorities are consulted on subjects that affect them directly, e.g. transport, education, and land-use. It is regarded as an effective means of guarding the principle of subsidiarity.