Talk:Article 6: Legislature
From Wikitution
7) Including its choice of seat, so ending the monthly commute between Brussels and Strasbourg.
8) A new power. Until now Parliament has been able to dismiss the commission en bloc only. This new power for Parliament checks the greater power given to the commission president in choosing his commissioners.
(Original footnotes from "A constitution for the European Union": Oct 26th 2000 The Economist print edition ©2000 The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved.)
New changes:
- making Parliament a complete equal to the Senate (former Council of Ministers). Principle that all legislation should be approved by both chambers, and that amendments of any chamber are approved unless struck down by the other. - introducing near-complete proportionality in number of seats per country - balanced by one-country-one-vote in the Senate - introducing double majority (by member and by national delegation) to reflect similar balance in the Senate and to compensate for the loss of power of smaller Member States due to near-complete proportionality. Double majority also makes it harder to take a decision which compensates for the lower threshold of a simple majority of votes cast. As national delegations become more important for making decisions, media are likely to focus much more on the voting behaviour of their own representatives in the Parliament.
- "The number of constituencies per Member States shall not be lower than one third of the number of Representatives." This is to ensure that MEPs represent not the Member State as a whole, thereby mirroring too much the role of the Senate, but a distinct part of the Member State in which they are well-known. The maximum average of three members per constituency allows for sufficient proportionality to ensure a wide range of parties could still be represented.
