Public_Services

Unit 8 International perspectives for the uniformed public services Assignment 2 EU Structure and impact of decisions Structure of the EU The European Union has four main parts, the Council of Ministers, the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Court of Justice. The Council The Council is the main decision-making body of the European Union. The council will regularly meet in Brussels or Luxembourg to discuss and agree policy and legislation. The Council brings together heads of state and ministers from member countries, along with the President of the European Commission. Each member state holds the Presidency of the Council for six months in rotation. The European Commission The Commission is the administrative and executive body of the European Union. Its headquarters are also in Brussels, where the majority of its 20,000 staff are based. The Commission is charged with drafting initial proposals for legislation and policy for consideration by the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament. There are currently 25 Commissioners, one for each member state. The Commissioners serve for five years and are nominated by national governments. The European Parliament The Parliament consists of over 700 MEPs (Members of the European Parliament) from each of the member states. MEPs are elected for a five-year term. When the EU was enlarged in 2004, membership increased from 626 to 732 MEPs with the UK currently having 78. Working in Brussels and Strasbourg, the Parliament scrutinises the activities of other EU institutions, passes the annual EU budget, and shapes and decides new legislation jointly with the Council of Ministers. The Parliament has a staff of about 4,200. The European Court of Justice The Court, who has a judge from each member state, adjudicates on all legal issues and disputes involving Community law. The 25 judges and eight advocates-general, who are appointed by member states, give an initial ruling on each case before a final judgement. The Court deals with two main types of actions: those referred to it by national courts for rulings of interpretation of Community law; and those started by one of the other institutions. The decision making process of the EU 1. Firstly, the commission forwards a proposal for a new EU to law to the European parliament. 2. Next, the European parliament discusses the offer and amends it as required. 3. Then the commission drafts a firm proposal which is then sent to the European council. 4. The council then give suggestions and amendments and consult the national parliaments. 5. The European parliament then considers this. 6. If it is approved, the council takes it on board, and even if it is rejected it can be adopted as long as it remains anonymous. 7. EU regulations automatically become law in all member states and can pass directives. The states are then told to introduce new law within the time limit. Key decisions that have impacted on UK public services The EU Working Time Directive is a law which creates the right for EU workers to a minimum number of holidays each year, paid breaks, and rest of at least 11 hours in any 24 hours' work it also restricts excessive night work and a default right to work no more than 48 hours per week. It was issued as an update on an earlier version on 22 June 2000. Excessive working time being a major cause of stress, depression and illness, the purpose of the Directive is to protect people's health and safety. It has affected workers from health care services, where in particular junior doctors have traditionally been required to work long hours when "on call" has been controversial. Many of these employees are now required to work rotating shifts instead of on call. This has upset some hospital administrators in the public system. The Common Security and Defence Policy, formerly known as the European Security and Defence Policy, is a major element of the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union. It is the domain of EU policy covering the majority of defence and military aspects. The ESDP was the successor of the European Security and Defence Identity under NATO. The European Security and Defence Policy aims to strengthen the EU's ability to act through the development of civilian and military capabilities in Conflict Prevention and Crisis Management.. Europol is the European Union’s criminal intelligence agency. Joint investigation teams have been created to combat cross-border crime and are likely to be given the go-ahead by the Irish and British Governments and sent into action quickly. Senior officers from the Garda and the Police Service of Northern Ireland have met to review existing cross-border arrangements for dealing with organised crime. The threat from organised crime in the EU has been a major political concern for several years. Europol has already identified some 3,000 organised crime groups active across the EU with 30,000 members between them. They are involved in drug trafficking, illegal immigration, trafficking in human beings, all sorts of commodity smuggling, fraud and other forms of financial crime. Eurojust was set up by the Council of the European Union in February 2002 to improve the fight against serious crime. In 2007 the European Commission proposed legislation for increasing the powers of Eurojust. The proposals include the harmonisation of the powers held by national representatives with a minimum set of powers and a minimum three year long renewable term to increase continuity. This is to ensure states co-operate with Eurojust and to deal with the increasing number of cases under its remit. Cross border crime saw a 29% increase between 2006 and 2007 which is why laws have been changed to stop such issues. The Employment Directive instructed that both direct and indirect discrimination in employment on the grounds of gender, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation was to be prohibited throughout the EU by December 2003. Member States ensure to take necessary measures to make sure that any laws, regulations, collective agreements, internal rules of organisations or independent occupations are not different to the principle of equal treatment. It also allows the accommodating of the special needs for disabled people at the workplace and how they are a necessary part of combating discrimination on the grounds of disability. In some instances, the services will find it difficult to turn down offers from the EU. In recent news, the Home Office has signed up to an EU strategy against cybercrime that "encourages" police across Europe to remotely access personal computers. The plan has sparked fears that the government is looking to increase police powers to hack into people's computers without a court warrant. The plan, drawn up by the Council of the European Union, makes broad statements on how to improve European cyber crime-fighting, including inviting countries to introduce remote searches if they are already provided for under national law. British law already allows police to remotely access computers under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, which allows surveillance to "prevent or detect serious crime". The UK has agreed to a strategic approach to tackling cybercrime with other EU member states, but this is separate from existing UK laws," the Home Office said in a statement, adding that the plan is not legally binding and there is no timescale for implementing the strategy.