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On 3rd June, 2003, the Council of the European Union adopted Directive 2003/49/EC on the common tax rules for payments of interest and royalties made between associated companies in different member states — the so-called Interest and Royalties Directive (IRD). This paper describes how implementation of the IRD should, in numerous cases, allow relief from withholding tax on financial (interest) flows between related companies. This may be of particular interest to treasurers implementing and managing complex multi-country financing structures and cashpooling schemes. The paper will analyse the scope and features of the Directive and its implementation status in 27 EU member states. As a matter of illustration, the paper will describe the transposition of the Directive in Belgium. The paper also analyses extension of the scope of the Directive to Switzerland, by way of the EU-Swiss ‘Bilateral II Agreement’. The purpose of this paper is not so much to give an in-depth analysis of specific tax and legal principles underlying the Directive but to provide the reader with a critical overview of how the various member states have implemented the Directive and thus allow flows of intercompany interest free from withholding tax. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union adopted on 9 March 2011 the Directive on the application of patients' rights in cross-border healthcare. This Directive emerged as a result of the Court of Justice's jurisprudence on social security coverage of healthcare obtained outside the Member State where the patient has social security protection. The aim of this paper is to investigate the Directive and determine whether it will add (once transposed into national legal systems) to the current set of patient entitlements and make it easier for patients to obtain socially covered healthcare outside the state of social protection, and to discuss the Directive's application in Croatia once the country joins the EU. The paper analyses the Patient Mobility Directive by focusing on the issue of whether the Directive actually contributes to patient mobility in the EU and also its relationship with national social security legislation, especially in Croatia. The paper argues that the Patient Mobility Directive's impact on the actual movement of patients across borders might prove to be counterproductive in some areas, due to its limiting certain entitlements to access socially covered healthcare abroad. On the other hand, the Directive will also add to some patients' entitlements in accessing healthcare abroad and improve (from the patients' point of view) certain aspects of the overall framework for obtaining cross-border healthcare. Therefore, the Directive's impact in terms of facilitating patients' ability to obtain socially covered healthcare outside the Member State of social protection remains ambivalent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of voting patterns in the Council of the European Union (EU) have increased since voting records in this institution have become more readily available. This paper builds on earlier work and explores coalition-formation and voting in the Council of the EU for the EU-15 (i.e., between 1995 and 2004), by analyzing cleavage patterns based on voting records for this institution. Focusing on the pre-enlargement phase, the paper provides new insights into earlier member state voting behavior in the Council on the basis of a range of independent variables, including governments' absolute and relative positions on the left-right policy dimension, pro-integration sentiments among domestic publics, governments' positions as either net beneficiaries or net payers into the EU budget and finally, number of votes in the Council. In methodological terms, we treat vote decisions as panel data and report adjusted standard errors for country-based clusters, using ordered probit regression to explain the propensity of EU member states to vote 'yes', abstain from voting, or vote 'no' in the Council. The ordered probit analysis used to explore the potential relevance of these dimensions provides insights that at times confirm, but also partially contradict, earlier findings on this topic. We notably find strong evidence for a North-South cleavage pre-enlargement, a significant role for the Presidency and moderate evidence for the relevance of public opinion and government left-right positioning in Council voting behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to reveal the institutional interests of the Council of Ministers, the European Parliament and the Commission in the comitology system. This is done by an investigation of the 2006 comitology reform, which introduced the regulatory procedure with scrutiny. This reform was the result of developments in four areas: the Lamfalussy reform in the area of financial regulation; the controversial use of comitology in the area of GMOs, food safety and the environment; the failed Constitutional Treaty; and the amending of the 1999 comitology decision. The analysis shows that the reform was the result of a two-dimensional constitutional struggle. The first dimension concerns the relative supervisory position of the two legislative actors, the Council and the European Parliament. The second dimension concerns the relationship between the legislative and the executive branch of the EU system. In theoretical terms, the analysis demonstrates an example of T.M. Moe's 'politics of structural choice'. The paper ends by drawing lessons for the negotiations on the new comitology system following the Lisbon Treaty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on the European Parliament have largely overlooked the impact of the inter-institutional context on its internal organisation. This paper argues that the stronger legislative powers of the Parliament vis-a-vis the Council of Ministers under the co-decision than under the consultation procedure affect the intra-parliamentary allocation of different types of legislative report. The analysis of the period 2004-07 shows that legislators from the centre-right party group coalition and loyal party group members are privileged in the allocation of co-decision reports. In contrast, legislators with outlying special interests and experts are given systematic access to drafting only consultation reports. The higher competition for co-decision versus consultation reports left unchecked by the formal EP rules has thus been exploited by party group leaders to promote group cohesion and coalition-building, producing clear winners and losers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the European Parliament, different coalitions form from one vote to the next. To understand the process of coalition formation it is necessary to consider the inter-institutional context in which decisions are made. This paper develops hypotheses regarding how changes in the relations between the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers affect coalition formation in the European Parliament. The hypotheses are tested using roll-call data from the fifth parliamentary term. In line with expectations, it is found that coalition patterns are more consistent in relation to final decisions under the co-decision procedure (when both institutions come to an agreement) than they are under the consultation procedure. Furthermore, the closer relations between the institutions have increased the importance of the median party group on the left-right dimension in coalition formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

So much has been written—and vigorously contested—about ‘organised crime’ (OC) that the impending fall of this familiar icon may come as a shock, both to its detractors and to those who take it for granted. Yet that moment may be upon us, for reasons that this paper will explore, as the European Union shifts the vocabulary within which policies on police cooperation are articulated. A pivot of this change is the EU Council Decision on Europol, first debated by the Council in late 2006 and anticipated as applying from 2010 onwards. This will shift the scope of Europol’s work from ‘organised crime’ (attributing qualities to criminality) to ‘serious crime’ (concern with impacts and harms falling on individual and collective victims); will transfer financing of Europol to the Community budget; and so will initiate parliamentary scrutiny. These issues in security governance are explored from ‘northern’, ‘southern’ and ‘eastern’ European perspectives and in the contexts of ongoing enlargement and democratisation of the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2004 and 2007 the European Union faced the biggest rounds of enlargement to date. It is not difficult to imagine that enlargement affected the way the European Union and its institutions function and that the effects of enlargement are especially noticeable in the Council of the EU and its preparatory bodies. Many researchers expected procedures, especially in the Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper), to become more formalized and 'intergovernmental' in nature and decision-making to become more complicated. However, enlargement contributed to institutional change in quite another way: it strengthened the influence of supranational and 'quasi-supranational' actors within the committee, such as the Commission, the presidency and the General Secretariat, and it made decision-making in many cases considerably easier. This paper analyses these processes and seeks to answer the question: Which mechanisms contributed to the process of 'informal supranationalization' that helped to prevent considerable losses in efficiency and functionality in Coreper? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An analysis of three major aspects has been carried out that may apply to any of the successive voting systems used for the European Union Council of Ministers, from the first one established in the Treaty of Rome in 1958 to the current one established in Lisbon. We mainly consider the voting systems designed for the enlarged European Union adopted in the Athens summit, held in April 2003 but this analysis can be applied to any other system. First, it is shown that the dimension of these voting systems does not, in general, reduce. Next, the egalitarian effects of superposing two or three weighted majority games (often by introducing additional consensus) are considered. Finally, the decisiveness of these voting systems is evaluated and compared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the 1st of November 2013, the codecision procedure will celebrate its 20th anniversary. In 2013, the European Year of Citizens, the celebration of the procedure which consolidated the democratic legitimacy of the European institutions and which, since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, has become the ordinary legislative procedure could not be overlooked. In this context, the paper tries to highlight the main stages in the development of the procedure and to assess its performance over the years by selecting some quantitative and qualitative indicators. With an overall average percentage of 89% completed files, 10% lapsed or withdrawn files and only 0,5% rejected files, the codecision procedure has functioned very well. From one legislature to another, the decisional time has been constantly reduced with subsequent consistent gains in terms of efficiency. Neither the modifications of the treaties, nor the enlargements hindered its proper functioning. Even more, the procedure has been better connected to the European citizens. Thus, from a sectoral point of view, the legislative procedures have echoed the concrete needs of the Europeans, the most codecision active Committee of the European Parliament being, over the years, the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee followed, at the mid-term of the present legislature, by the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In late 2004, the Conference for EU-Related Affairs (CARUE) approved two agreements governing the participation of the autonomous communities in the Council of the European Union and its preparatory bodies. After more than seven years of implementation, the system is not bringing the expected results. The problems identified in practice in a context, moreover, of institutional and economic crisis, call for new approaches. The following paper analyses the main obstacles that have arisen since the implementation of the 2004 agreements with a view to determining future prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political feasibility (or infeasibility) is often associated with target-group support (or opposition) of specific policy alternatives. We argue that target-groups' capacity to influence the spectrum of politically feasible policy options tends to be higher when (1) target groups control resources needed by decision-makers, that (2) are agenda-setters and/or veto players in the decision-making process. In the 2008 revision of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) exemptions from the basic principle of full auctioning of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions allowances can all be traced to target-group interest representation by single veto players or blocking minorities in the European Council and the Council of Ministers. Our analysis indicates that target groups succeeded in constraining the spectrum of politically feasible policy options to the extent that their positions were unified and threats to shut down or relocate activity were perceived to be relevant, severe and credible. Our findings confirm both the significance and the limits of portfolio assignment in the Commission. Even with Directorate General (DG) Environment in an agenda-setting role, target groups acquired exemptions through their relations with veto players in the Council. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why does the Council of the European Union continue to function without apparent problems, despite the increase in the number and heterogeneity of its members brought about by the Eastern enlargement? We argue that the reason why the Council has not become paralysed lies in the increased delegation of its agenda load from the ministerial meetings downwards to the Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper). We assess our argument on the basis of quantitative analysis of the amount of the so-called A-points (decided by Coreper) and B-points (decided by ministers) on the Council agenda in the years 2000 through 2007. Studying the delegation mechanism deeper, we argue that two design features of Coreper — its permanent nature and its broad scope of agenda coverage — enabled the delegation from ministerial meetings to take place and thus helped the Council cope with the larger and more heterogeneous membership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union's (EU's) responses to the economic and financial crisis provided a vigorous illustration for how the role of the Union's core intergovernmental bodies – the European Council and the Council – has evolved in recent years. The European Council has emerged as the centre of political gravity in the field of economic governance. The Council and the Eurogroup fulfil a crucial role as forums for policy debate. The emphasis on increased high-level intergovernmental policy co-ordination is the reflection of an integration paradox inherent to the post-Maastricht EU. While policy interdependencies have grown, member state governments have resisted the further transfer of formal competences to the EU level and did not follow the model of the Community method. Instead, they aim for greater policy coherence through intensified intergovernmental co-ordination. Given its consensus dependency, this co-ordination system can best be conceptualized as deliberative intergovernmentalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aims to explain variation between member states in compliance with provisions of a European Union (EU) law. Predictions are derived about the effects of technical fit, discretion, Commission warnings, and conflict in the Council on the probability of member-state transposition of separate EU policy requirements. Hypotheses are tested on the level of compliance of 15 member states with 27 major provisions laid down in the Framework Equality Directive (2000/78/EC). Extensive analysis of documents and reports from key informants provided information on member-state transposition progress at the end of 2004 and 2006. Results show that the domestic adaptation costs to a provision play an important role for member-state transposition success: high levels of fit and provisions granting discretion improve member-state transposition success. Formal warnings by the Commission lead to a better compliance record, while conflict in the Council does not affect the successful transposition of provisions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The European Union (EU) is assumed to suffer from a democratic deficit. It is often posited that in the EU there is only a weak and indirect connection between public preferences and policy change. This article investigates empirically whether any relationship exists between public support for European integration and EU policy output (1973—2008). Using a new indicator of policy output — the volume of important legislation produced in a semester — I discover a surprising relationship between public support and legislative production. Employing vector autoregression (VAR), I demonstrate that public EU support Granger-causes legislative output but not vice versa, and that the relationship is strong up to the middle of the 1990s but non-existent afterwards. The effect is robust to the inclusion of indicators of the state of the economy and government preferences. In addition, I discover that the average level of EU support in the Council of Ministers follows unemployment levels with a four-year delay. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Tax competition in the European Union is shaped by four partly opposed institutional mechanisms. While market integration and enlargement increase competitive pressure, the tax co-ordination of the Council of Ministers and the tax jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice could potentially reduce it. The net effect is to accelerate tax competition. This article presents quantitative evidence to suggest that tax competition is stronger in the EU than in the rest of the world, and explores qualitatively why tax co-ordination and tax jurisprudence have failed to prevent a race to the bottom in tax rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the dimensionality and nature of political conflict in the European Union Council of Ministers between 1998 and 2007. By comparing policy platforms of member state governments, multidimensional scaling techniques are employed to make inferences about the dimensionality of the Council’s political space. The dimensions are interpreted performing 1250 multiple regression analyses. The results largely corroborate the assumption that cleavages are structured along geographically defined clusters of states. After Eastern enlargement (2004), a North—South divide was replaced by an East—West cleavage. The analysis moreover suggests that there are two stable conflict dimensions within the Council’s political space. The first is an integration dimension that represents the support for deepening European Union integration and the transfer of sovereignty to a supranational level. The second is a ‘policy’ dimension, manifested predominantly in disputes over redistributive policies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

On 29 September 2008, the Council of the European Union (EU) adopted Council Regulation (EC) No. 1005/2008 establishing a Community system to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Essentially, the EU IUU Regulation establishes a framework in which access to EU markets for fisheries products is partly conditioned by the extent to which a country, area or region of origin is demonstrably or increasingly free of IUU fishing. Aside from the amendments to US legislation in 2007, the EU IUU Regulation is the only other domestic legislative measure adopted solely to combat IUU fishing, with four main components: port State measures against third-country vessels, a catch documentation scheme, IUU vessel listing, and listing of non-cooperating States. This article analyses the EU IUU Regulation in the context of international fisheries law, and particularly international efforts to combat IUU fishing. It is concluded that the measures outlined in the EU IUU Regulation, despite several ambiguities, are generally consistent with those called for under international fisheries instruments and measures being implemented by regional fisheries management organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the Framework Decision designed by the Council of the European Union (CEU) to fight against serious forms of xenophobia and racism by criminal law in Europe. It states that the comprehensive framework notes an important movement in the development of European Union (EU) human rights guidelines. It also cites that the European Commission for Democracy examined several EU studies of the relation of freedom of speech, racism and press freedom with special attention to religious defamation. It also mentions that the EU and the United Nation Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) disagree on the freedom from religious defamation.

Ideology is widely seen as a powerful explanatory force of behaviour in collective decision-making. Yet, research on the Council of the European Union, the chief legislative body in the European Union, has only recently started to pay attention to ideology. We investigate to what extent formal position-taking can be explained by the ideological party affiliation of the governing parties. The focus is twofold. First, can aggregated coalition patterns be explained by ideological party affiliation? Second, do countries change coalition partners when there is a change of parties in government? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In June 2001 the European Council adopted the EU Programme for the Prevention of Violent Conflict. The story of how conflict prevention became an integral and legitimate part of EU policy and practice illustrates the influence of powerful ideas and successful norm advocacy of a small state managing to punch above its weight in the EU. The aim of this article is to analyse norm advocacy as a potent addition to traditional strategies of gaining influence in the Union. By tracing the process of Swedish promotion of conflict prevention the article explores norm advocacy strategies, such as framing, agenda-setting, diplomatic tactics and the power of the Presidency. The EU institutional setting also provides ample opportunities for a small state to exert normative power, and in areas where great powers are generally regarded as dominant, such as the CFSP and the ESDP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzes the case law on Regulation No. 1049/2001 on public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents. Provisions in the European Council Treaty regarding the right of access to documents; Overview of the creation of the regulation; Exceptions to the general principle of access to all documents held by the three institutions.

The article presents an overview of the European Arrest Warrant (EAW), the Framework Decision of which was adopted by the Council of the European Union on June 13, 2002. The EAW required the direct recognition and execution of requests for arrest and surrender from another Member State's judicial authority, by national judicial authorities of each Member State. It is applicable to offences such as participation in a criminal organization and human trafficking. Traditional grounds for refusing extradition are removed by the EAW. The advantages of the EAW for the prosecution of International Criminal Court (ICC) crimes are discussed. Issues of compatibility with the ICC statute are raised by the EAW. It is suggested that legislation relating to EAW should be implemented by Member States.

Analyzes the distribution of voting power in the Council of Ministers under different majority requirements in an enlarged European Union. Measuring influence; Banzhaf index; Research question; Distribution of voting power; Realistic enlargement scenarios; Member countries of the union.

The author reflects on the protection and enhancement of green infrastructure in Europe. He cites the 2010 Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico that brought ecological restoration to the public's attention and triggered the world political leaders to make or revise environmental policies. He also mentions the ambitious biodiversity targets adopted by the Council of the European Union that put ecological restoration at the heart of European policy.

The present article explores whether the first Trio Presidency of the Council of Ministers of the European Union (EU), composed of Germany, Portugal and Slovenia, lived up to the goal of ensuring greater continuity and sustainability in managing the Council?s work. Focusing on the Trio?s performance in promoting the principle of Policy Coherence for Development (PCD) in EU global action, the article explores patterns of cooperation established by the first Trio alongside the traditional roles of the rotating presidency, as the manager, provider of political initiative, broker, and representative of the Council and member states. The contribution demonstrates the emergence of a distinctive cooperation pattern among Germany, Portugal, and Slovenia, which we refer to as „Trio effects?. While such effects were established in all presidency functions with the exception of EU external representation, the Trio effects in exerting management functions contributed most in having more continuity in the promotion of the PCD. Taking into account the particular institutional and procedural context in which the Trio operated, the contribution draws lessons for the role of the Trio in the post-Lisbon external action system. Along with the review of official policy documents and secondary sources, this contribution draws on 40 anonymous semi-structured expert interviews, which were conducted by both authors between 2007 and 2009 in Brussels, Berlin, Lisbon and Ljubljana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]