[P2P-F] Understanding European Governance ? - in context of Tobin Tax

Wed Jun 29 17:49:51 CEST 2011

Part of the picture is that the Commission gets its budget from the
Parliament.

It’s the Commissioners who have the ultimate power but the rarely look into
details of how the real work of the Commission is done, which is happening
at the level of Directorates that correspond to ministries in many of the
Member States.  

g.
> 
> Below, a report showing the interest from the European Parliament in relation
> to Financial Transaction Taxation.
> 
> //
> 
> further notes, on how difficult in might be to actually adopt such financial
> transaction tax through elected representative political procedures :
> 
> The Parliament seems, in my current understanding, to have only a limited
> influence :
> a diluted power to approve or reject directives made by the European
> Commission.
> 
> 
> 
> ( link to image - wikipedia )
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:European_Union_legislative_triangle.svg>
> 
> Based on the report below, it feels like the EU Parliament does not have the
> power to choose the laws it wants to vote on, and which have precedent on all
> other national and regional legislations.
> 
> It seems to me that the combined powers of the EU Parliament and of all the
> other National and Regional Parliaments is less then that of the European
> Commission and the European Council.
> 
> It seems - based on my current knowledge - that the EU Parliament, in relation
> to proposals for directives, is merely relegated to a pressure group with some
> kind of attention from media, towards a population which has no powers to
> elect nor the European Commission, not the President of the European Council ,
> or more exactly the Councilium of the European Union
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_the_European_Union>   
> 
> The EU Parliament seems to have even less powers then the Council of the
> European Union , as the Council seems to have the power to initiate EU law
> itself :
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_the_European_Union
> 
> " In a few limited areas the Council may initiate new EU law
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_the_European_Union>  itself. "
> 
> Hence, overall, the framework for political "democratic" accountability
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accountability>  seems to be very limited,
> despite the EU Commissioners needing to be approved once every few years by
> the European Parliament, a European Parliament which itself is, at the scale
> of the population of the EU who voted, apparently not very legitimate,
> considering the low voting turnout.
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Parliament_election,_2009
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_the_European_Union#Voter_behaviour
> 
> "In 2009, the overall turnout was just 43%"
> 
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: 
> 
> yes, I think you'e right about the directives taking precedence, I so need to
> find out more about how it all works tho! Here is one of our press releases
> anyway: 
> 
>   
> Financial transaction tax
> European Parliament keeps pressure on for European FTT
> The European Parliament today reiterated the call for the introduction of an
> EU-level financial transaction tax, as part of a report on innovative
> financing adopted by MEPs. The Greens have long called for the introduction of
> a financial transaction tax and welcomed the vote, with Green MEP Philippe
> Lamberts commenting:
> 
>  
> "The EP has kept the pressure on for the introduction of a financial
> transaction tax at EU-level. While the ultimate goal should be to introduce a
> global FTT, there are clear benefits for the EU to push ahead on its own. MEPs
> have today urged the Commission to take steps to this end.
>  
> "The Greens have long championed the introduction of a financial transaction
> tax both as a means of curbing harmful speculation and as a new source for
> generating public revenue. As well as being a potentially significant source
> of revenue at a time when national exchequers are under strain, a financial
> transaction tax is socially just. A FTT would also clearly address the
> systemic risk emanating from high-frequency trading, acting as a disincentive
> for risky speculation. It is time for the Commission and member states to stop
> stalling."
>   
> The petition thing is the "European Citizens' Initiative" which coincidentally
> enough was just launched today and there is even a conference starting now on
> it! 
> 
> The Greens have also created a website (http://www.eci-greens-efa.net/) that
> will function as a sort of hothouse/message board to allow people all over
> Europe to get together to launch one of these initiatives.
> 
>   
> 
> Livestream of conference now: http://www.greenmediabox.eu/live/eci/
> 
>   
> 
>   
> 
> Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2011 15:44:10 +0200
> Subject: Re: article trends : 2 Belges sur 3 veulent taxer les transactions
> financières
> From: dante.monson at gmail.com
> To: p2p-foundation at lists.ourproject.org; econowmix at googlegroups.com;
> gtmonnaie at gtmonnaie.be
> 
> 
> Unfortunately, the situation of the current Belgian "caretaker" Government may
> not make it possible to bring forward and apply such Tobin Tax measures.
> 
> And even if it did
> ( although I would need some more expert opinion on this )
> my current understanding is that 
> 
> the European Commission drafts directives can block or over-rule national or
> regional decisions.
> 
> To my current understanding, directives of the European Commission
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_law
> 
> only need to be approved by the European Council and the European Parliament -
> not by national governments.
> 
> To my current understanding, it is not the european parliament which drafts
> law proposals at a european level.
> 
> For the European Commission to "consider" to draft or change a directive,
> there is the "option" to make a petition converging one million signatures. (
> under specific conditions - percentages from each country, etc )
> 
> And even after such petition asking for writing or modifying a directive,
> there is no obligation for the commission to follow suit on such request by
> one million people.
> 
> ///
> 
> European Union - Democratic ?
> 
> 
> 
> 2011/6/29 Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com>
>> strong social support for tobin tax in belgium:
>> 
>> 
>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> From: Dante-Gabryell Monson <dante.monson at gmail.com>
>> Date: 2011/6/29
>> Subject: article trends : 2 Belges sur 3 veulent taxer les transactions
>> financières
>> To: gtmonnaie at gtmonnaie.be, econowmix at googlegroups.com
>> 
>> 
>> 2 Belges sur 3 veulent taxer les transactions financières
>> http://trends.rnews.be/fr/economie/actualite/banque-et-finance/2-belges-sur-3
>> -veulent-taxer-les-transactions-financieres/article-1195046610002.htm
>> 
>> 
>> lundi 27 juin 2011 à 16h58
>> 67 % des Belges sont favorables à l'introduction d'une taxe sur les
>> transactions financières, selon un sondage Eurobaromètre publié par le
>> Parlement européen. C’est plus que la moyenne de l’UE
>> 
>> 

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