EU commission right gone either way?

dlofnep

I've seen this posted a few times. Could somewhere find the source where it states that either way, member states' automatic right to an EU commissioner is removed regardless of the passing of the Lisbon Treaty?

Thanks.

sink

Yes the commission is due to be restructured in 2009 under the terms agreed in the Nice treaty. The commission must feel it is not ready and so the Lisbon treaty will just delay the restructuring for 5 years.

dlofnep

Does it categorically state that automatic rights will be removed in 2009? And if so, could you link me to something on it? Thanks.

sink

The ICG has decided to defer imposing a ceiling on the number of members of the
Commission.
With effect from 2005, the Commission will comprise one national per Member State. The
biggest Member States thus lose at that time the opportunity of proposing a second member of
the Commission, irrespective of how many Member States the European Union has at that
date.
As from the first Commission which will be appointed once the Union reaches 27 Member
States, there will be fewer Commissioners than there are Member States. The
Commissioners will be selected by a system of rotation that will be fair to all countries.
In concrete terms, once the accession treaty for the twenty-seventh Member State has been
signed, the Council will have to take a unanimous decision:
– on the exact number of Commissioners;
– on the arrangements for a fair system of rotation, bearing in mind that all Member States
will be treated on an equal footing and that each Commission must satisfactorily reflect the
different demographic and geographic characteristics of the Member States.

Source: European Commission
http://ec.europa.eu/comm/nice_treaty/summary_en.pdf

This is not the actual treaty itself as I could not find a copy of the treaty in a quick search. But this is a summary published by the commission itself.

dlofnep

Thanks sink. It isn't very specific about the amount of commissioners for rotation. I'll look into it and get back to you. Thanks again.

sink

It dosn't go into specifics I know but it does agree to restructure the commission for the next time the commission will be selected (2009). So since this has already been agreed to, if another treaty treaty is not passed they would have to restructure the commission under the terms of the Nice treaty anyway. The council already agreed to 18 commissioners on rotation so this would most likely happen in 2009 if Lisbon is not passed.

dlofnep

Thanks.

Scofflaw

dlofnep wrote: »

Does it categorically state that automatic rights will be removed in 2009? And if so, could you link me to something on it? Thanks.

The relevant bit of the current EU treaties is the Protocol on the enlargement of the European Union. It states, in respect of the Commission:

2. When the Union consists of 27 Member States, Article 213(1) of the Treaty establishing the European Community and Article 126(1) of the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community shall be replaced by the following:

‘1. The Members of the Commission shall be chosen on the grounds of their general competence and their independence shall be beyond doubt.

The number of Members of the Commission shall be less than the number of Member States. The Members of the Commission shall be chosen according to a rotation system based on the principle of equality, the implementing arrangements for which shall be adopted by the Council, acting unanimously.
The number of Members of the Commission shall be set by the Council, acting unanimously.’

This amendment shall apply as from the date on which the first Commission following the date of accession of the 27th Member State of the Union takes up its duties.

3. The Council, acting unanimously after signing the treaty of accession of the 27th Member State
of the Union, shall adopt:
— the number of Members of the Commission,
— the implementing arrangements for a rotation system based on the principle of equality containing all the criteria and rules necessary for determining the composition of successive colleges automatically on the basis of the following principles:
(a) Member States shall be treated on a strictly equal footing as regards determination of the sequence of, and the time spent by, their nationals as Members of the Commission; consequently, the difference between the total number of terms of office held by nationals of any given pair of Member States may never be more than one;
(b) subject to point (a), each successive college shall be so composed as to reflect satisfactorily the demographic and geographical range of all the Member States of the Union.

Bit of a mouthful, and sink's summary conveys the essence of it, but the Commission gets reduced to a rotating basis with a country's Commissioner only sitting part of the time.

Given that they managed to reduce that slightly complex specification down to the rotation in the Lisbon Treaty, they're unlikely to come up with a different solution if Lisbon isn't ratified.

Just to point out that Ireland remains entitled automatically to a Commissioner for the 2 out of 3 terms - our Commissioner isn't "optional" in any way. Same goes for the rest of the member states and their Commissioner.

Frankly, I think it's a pretty good deal. The other obvious options would be a system of senior and junior Commissioners (with the big countries automatically having senior ones, probably) or rotating and non-rotating Commissioners (again, most likely with the bigger countries having permanent Commissioners, and the rest of us rotating). This one keeps all the member countries on exactly the same footing.

cordially,
Scofflaw