The European Parliament and the UK Parliament - Essay Example

The European Parliament and the UK Parliament The European Parliament and the UK Parliament Introduction The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Britain and Northern Ireland (herein refered to as the UK Parliament) is the United Kingdom’s British overseas territories’ and British Crown dependencies’ supreme legislative organ. It exercises ultimate power and legislative supremacy over other political institutions within the UK as well as its territories. Located in London’s Palace of Westminster, it is headed by the Sovereign of the UK. Made up of an upper and lower house, the House of Lords and House of Commons respectively, the UK Parliament is bicameral in nature (Van der Laan 2009, p. 93). On the other hand, the European Union Parliament (herein refered to as the EU Parliament), is the only body of the EU that is directly elected. Its key role is representing the citizens of member states of the European Union. It consists of 751 MEPs (Members of the European Parliament) elected once in every five years from the 28 member states. It also has eight political groups and 22 committees (Van der Laan 2009, p. 93). Although the two parliaments mainly legislate within their jurisdictions and check the work of their governments, they are not exactly comparable. With particular attention to their ability to hold the Executive to account, their powers, structure and composition, this paper will critically discuss the role and function of the EU and UK Parliaments. Development of the EU and UK Parliaments The foundations of the European Parliament, Council of Ministers, Commission and European Court of Justice were laid by the Coal and Steel Treaty, which is still the underlying institutional architecture of the present-day EU. The developing of the EU can be traced back to the 1951 Treaty of Paris and continuing through 1957 Treaty of Rome; 1967 merger of EEC, EURATOM and ECSC to form the European community; the 1987 Single European Act; the 1992 Treaty of the EU; the 1997 Treaty of Amsterdam; the 2001 and 2003 treaties of Nice; and finally the 2007 and 2009 treaties of Lisbon (Hix, Noury & Roland 2007, p. 83). With eight political groups, the seats of the EU Parliament are allocated basing on an adjusted population, with the highest being Germany at 99 and the lowest Malta at five. With the power to scrutinise the executive arm of government, the EU Parliament is able to initiate its resignation and approves budgets. On the other hand, the UK Government can be traced back to 1066King William defeated King Harold at the Hastings battle. Later, in 1265, Simon de Montfort Parliament, which consisted of Town Burgesses, Bishops, Knights of Shire, Abbots and Peers held meetings in Westminster Hall (Wasson 2009, p. 98). In 1295, summoned a model of the first representative parliament. It consisted of two Knights from each county, two citizens from each city and two Burgesses from every borough. The Commons deliberated apart in 1341 and in 1962, a statute was established and provided that Parliament must subscribe to lay taxation. In 1401, the Commons claimed the right to grant supply only following remedying of grievances. Six years later, it was acknowledged by King Henry IV that taxes should originate from the Commons. In 1414 King Henry V ordered that nothing will be enacted to the Petition of the Commons if it was in contradiction of their asking. These granted both the Lords and Commons full equality on legislation (Brown & Tanner 2008, p. 1235). More recently, after the Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949, the House of Lords has had much less power than the House of Commons. Overview of EU Parliament The EU Parliament is made up of only one chamber and is the EU’s directly elected parliamentary body that is responsible for the legislative function of the EU in conjunction with European Commission and European Council. Since 1979, the EU Parliament has been elected directly by universal suffrage after every five years. The 751 MEPs represent the world’s largest transnational democratic electorate as well as the second largest democratic electorate (Rittberger 2009, p. 69). Geographically, the representation covers 28 EU member states, including the UK. Although the power to make law is equally distributed officially between the EU Parliament and Council, it is worth mentioning that there are various differences from national legislatures. The EU Parliament possesses legislative authority that both the European Commission and European Council do not have and scrutinises other EU institutions but, however, it lacks the formal legislative initiative that most of the EU member states’ parliaments have. It passes laws proposed by the European Commission on EU issues, which are either reserved or devolved matters, and the laws are examined by the EU Parliament’s committees, The Council of Ministers and EU Parliament itself (Toonstra & Meseth 2012, p. 210). Ideally, this means that even though the EU Parliament has power to reject or amend legislation, it will require a bill to be drafted by the Commission for it to propose legislation. Although individual parliaments of the member states legislate to enact EU law at the national level, the MEPs will have the final say on what laws will do. Essentially, the EU Parliament will scrutinise draft legislations and other documents of the EU and hold the government to account on policies concerning the EU as well as negotiating the positions of EU institutions (Toonstra & Meseth 2012, p. 214). Overview of UK Parliament This follows the bicameral model and is made up of the House of Lords, House of Commons and the Sovereign. Geographically, it represents England, North Ireland, Wales and Scotland and scrutinises the UK Government (Wasson 2009, p. 101). The 1,495 seats include 650 MPs (Members of Parliament) and 845 Lords Temporal and Spiritual (Kelly 2010, p. 12). Its leadership structure has the Monarch at the top (who is currently Queen Elizabeth II), followed by the Lord Speaker and then Speaker of the House of Commons. An individual cannot be a member of both the House of Lords and House of Commons and, further, members of the House of Lords are barred legally from participating in the voting of House of Commons members (Wasson 2009, p. 100). While MPs are elected every five years through the first past the post method, members of the House of Lords are not elected. Rather, Her Majesty the Queen appoints them following the Prime Minister’s advice. Further, they are also partly hereditary and partly life peers and they include the Law Lords and Bishops. This is in contrast to the EU Parliament which has the responsibility of approving the appointment of the Commission’s President as well as approving the Commission itself (Lodge 2011, p. 314). The EU Parliament can also dismiss the Commission through a two-thirds majority censure vote. For any bill to be made law, it must get Royal Assent. On the other hand, a Prime minister chosen by the Monarch will form a government comprising of members of the two Houses of the UK Parliament. The laws passed by the UK Parliament are proposed by the UK Government, MPs, members of the House of Lords, some individuals and private companies. Essentially, 80% of the proposals are from the government. House of Lords committees and House of Lords Committees examine the laws before they are forwarded for Royal Assent and both Houses will bear the final say on the laws will do. While both the EU and UK Parliaments scrutinise draft legislation under their jurisdictions, the EU Parliament also has the role and authority of altering UK law so that it mirrors the EU’s agreed treaties and legislation. However, while the EU Parliament has such powers, applying EU legislation in the UK will actually require that the UK Parliament first passes new legislation or amend the existing one to enable such application (Lodge 2011, p. 310). It is provided by the Scrutiny Reserve Resolutions that government ministers must not agree in the European Council or the Council of Ministers to proposals that have not been subjected to parliamentary scrutiny. However, if they feel compelled to agree to such proposals before they are scrutinised, they must give supporting reasons. Therefore, EU documents alongside an Explanatory Memorandum prepared by appropriate government departments are received by the UK Parliament (Smith 2000, p. 74). They are then considered in The House of Lords and House of Commons by the relevant Scrutiny Committees. The European Scrutiny Committee in the Commons will consider all EU documents received and report their opinion on the political and legal significance of each. It may also be decided by the committee that further scrutiny is not necessary, or it may also be requested that additional information be provided by the government. Further, it may also recommend some documents for deliberation in either the Commons chamber or European Legislation Committee. On their part, the Lords Committee will examine EU legislation proposals through its EU Select Committee with coordination with the committee of Commons (Toonstra & Meseth 2012, p. 214). Although the Lords only examine few EU documents as compared to the Commons, they conduct meticulous reviews on topics that they select basing on their degree of significance. They then report their reviews either for recommending a debate or simply providing information. Unlike the EU Parliament that must seek Royal Assent in order to make bill into law, the EU Parliament can reject a position of the Council by an absolute majority. In Europe, the EU Parliament has the power to reject or amend legislation, although it will require a bill to be drafted by the Commission for it to propose legislation (Wood & Yesilada 2007, p. 18). On the other hand, the House of Lords debates and votes on all but money bills. Unlike in the EU where legislative powers are equally distributed between the EU Parliament and Council, the House of Lords is only able to delay a bill by voting against it for a period not exceeding two parliamentary sessions within a year. Here, the key difference between the EU and UK Parliaments is that after such delay, the bill can be forced through by the House of Commons without consent of the House of Lords, as is provided by the Parliament Act. In Britain, the Executive, Prime Minister, the Cabinet, Ministers and civil service, is accountable to the Parliament, which consists of the legislature and Court. The House of Lords, House of Commons and the Sovereign legislate for the UK but with the exception of the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. While some of the legislative authority is devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly, the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly, employment, equal opportunities, social security, foreign affairs, defence and monetary and economic policy are UK matters. However, in the absence of legal restraints that may be imposed through a written constitution, the UK Parliament is at liberty to legislate as it wishes provided it fulfills the obligations of being an EU member state (May 2004, p. 119). So long as EU legislation directives are observed, the UK Parliament can alter or make law as well as nullifying or turning into law established conventions. Ideally, its working is based on established conventions and common law. On the other hand, regulations of the EU legislation have general applications, are binding and become effective in all member states immediately they are passed. While directives are also binding in terms of the objectives and results achieved, implementation will depend on whether or not individual member states pass legislation at national levels. Decisions by the EU legislation are also binding on the individual states and institutions to which they address. However, opinions and recommendations are not legally binding (Schulz 2013, p. 119). Conclusion It can be concluded that although the EU and UK Parliaments are both legislative bodies, they are characteristically different in terms of their structures, composition and how they legislate. While the EU Parliament shares equal legislative powers with the Council, the UK Parliament’s House of Commons was granted more legislative powers by the Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949. While the UK Parliament has its own legislative powers, the EU Parliament has the power to alter UK law in order for them to mirror the agreed EU treaties and legislation. Further, the bills debated in the UK Parliament are proposed by both Houses, the Government as well as private citizens and organisations while in the EU Parliament, they only proposed by the European Commission. Finally, in their composition and structure, UK Parliament MPs are elected through the first past the post system and Peers are appointed by the Queen. On the other hand, EU Parliament MEPs are elected basing on the proportional representation model. References Brown, K & Tanner, R 2008, The history of the Scottish Parliament, Oxford University Press, New York. Hix, S, Noury, A & Roland, S 2007, Democratic politics in the European Parliament, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Kelly, R 2010, The Parliament Acts (SN/PO/675), House of Commons Library, London. May, E 2004, Erskine May: Parliamentary practice, Lexis Nexis, UK. Lodge, J 2011, The 2009 elections to the European Parliament, Macmillan, London. 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