Fifteen into one?: The European Union and its member states

The Transposition of EC Directives: A Comparative Study of Instruments, Techniques and Processes in Six EU Member States

“…Due to the original ECSC and EEC treaties with their concentration on a few economic policy areas, only the Ministry for Economics had established a European affairs division. In absence of a foreign minister until 1955, the Federal Ministry for Economics took on the lead-role in the day to day policy management for the European Coal and Steel Community (Maurer, 2003). These original arrangements established the Ministry of Economics in a strong position on matters of functional -economicsintegration, although there had been no formal agreement on the division of labour with the Chancellor's Office.…”

“…These provisions were complemented by two Acts, one of which is the Act on cooperation of the Federation and the Länder regarding European affairs 113 , the other one is the Act on cooperation of the Federal Government and the Bundestag 114 , and by an Agreement between the Federal Government and the Governments of the Länder. 115 The involvement of the Länder is now as follows (Maurer, 2003): -the Länder have to be informed through the Bundesrat by the Federal Government in matters concerning the European Union, -the Bundesrat has to be involved in the decision making process of the Federation in so far as it would have to be involved in a corresponding internal measure or in so far as the Länder would be internally responsible, -in case of federal legislative power, if Länder interests are affected the opinion of the Bundesrat has to be taken into account, -if Länder legislative powers, the establishment of their authorities or their administrative procedures are essentially affected the opinion of the Bundesrat shall revail while, at the same time, the responsibility of the Federation for the country as a whole shall be maintained, -if Länder exclusive legislative powers are essentially affected the exercise of rights of Germany as EU member is transferred by the Federation to a representative of the Länder while, once again, the responsibility of the Federation for the country as a whole shall be maintained. As a response to the growing amount of EC legislation after the entry into force of the SEA, the Länder also opened information or liaison offices in Brussels between 1985 and 1987.…”

“…one department is assigned the leadership and the final responsibility for the preparation. A civil servant responsible for the preparation and negotiation of a draft legislative act is also likely to draft the implementation measure (Referentenentwurf) (Maurer, 2003).…”

“…o coordinate European policy making between the federal state and the Länder more efficiently, every Land government nominated its own European affairs Commissoner (Europabeauftragter) or European affairs delegate (Europabevollmächtigter) occupying a post either as a minister or as a state-secretary. Such delegates act a s a 'bridge' between their Land and the other levels of European policy making by representing their Land in the 'Europe chamber' of the Bundesrat, a special institution for the coordination of the Bundesrat's European policy, and vis-a-vis the federal government (Maurer, 2003). For this reason, most of these posts have been located at the Representation of the Länder at the federal state level in Berlin.…”

Why European Commissioners Matter*

“…More generally, Commissioners from Member States with large and highly specialized bureaucracies can often get a headstart on colleagues from countries with smaller bureaucracies. However, given the fragmented nature of the Spanish, Italian and even the German national administrations (Maurer et al, 2001), in terms of the needs of Commissioners and their teams, big does not necessarily mean effective.…”