Aims and Objectives
In this unit you will learn and practise vocabulary related to European institutions, legislation and projects.
You will practise the following skills and functions:
- reading for information
- specialist lexis
- writing clearly and concisely
Section 1: European Institutions
Here is an easy test to get you warmed up for the subject of this unit:
Read the following text:
The European Parliament is elected by the peoples of the Member States. Elections are held every five years. The present parliament has 732 members from all 25 EU countries. Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) do not sit in national blocks, but in seven Europe-wide political groups. The European Parliament has three places of work: Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg. Luxembourg is home to the administrative offices (the 'General Secretariat'). Meetings of the whole Parliament, known as plenary sessions, take place in Strasbourg and sometimes in Brussels. Committee meetings are also held in Brussels. Parliament has three main roles:
- Passing European laws - jointly with the Council in many policy areas.
- Parliament exercises democratic supervision over the other EU institutions, particularly the Commission. It has the power to approve or reject the nomination of commissioners, and it has the right to censure the Commission as a whole.
- Parliament shares with the Council authority over the EU budget and can therefore influence EU spending.
Read the following text and answer the questions:
Now listen to the recording of the text of the previous exercise:
Use the correct word or expression from the list below to fill in the gaps in the sentences.
- censure
- hold
- jointly
- plenary
- reject
Now listen and repeat in the spaces provided:
Use the correct word or expression from the list below to fill in the gaps in the sentences.
- police
- policy
- political
- politician
- politics
Now listen and repeat in the spaces provided:
Read the following text:
The Council of the European Union is the EU's main decision-making body. Its meetings are attended by one minister from each of the EU's national governments depending on the topic under discussion. It should not be confused with the European Council, which is a 'summit' meeting of the heads of EU governments. It should not be confused either with the Council of Europe, which is a completely separate body independent of the European Union. The Council of the European Union has six key responsibilities:
- To pass European laws, jointly with the European Parliament in many policy areas.
- To co-ordinate the broad economic policies of the member states.
- To conclude international agreements between the EU and other countries or international organisations.
- To approve the EU's budget, jointly with the European Parliament.
- To develop the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy, based on guidelines set by the European Council.
- To co-ordinate co-operation between the national courts and police forces in criminal matters.
- Decisions in the Council are taken by vote. The bigger the country's population, the more votes it has. In some particularly sensitive areas such as Common Foreign and Security Policy, taxation, asylum and immigration policy, Council decisions have to be unanimous and each member state has the power of veto. On most issues, however, the Council takes decisions by a system called 'qualified majority voting'.
Read the following text and answer the questions:
Fill in the gap in sentence B so that it means the same as sentence A.
Read the following text:
The European Commission is independent of national governments. It drafts proposals for new European laws, which it presents to the European Parliament and the Council. It is also the EU's executive arm - in other words, it is responsible for implementing the decisions of Parliament and the Council, running EU programmes and spending EU funds. A new Commission is appointed by member state governments and the Parliament every five years, within six months of the elections to the European Parliament. The Commission remains politically accountable to Parliament, which has the power to dismiss the whole Commission by adopting a motion of censure. The day-to-day running of the Commission is done by its administrative officials, experts, translators, interpreters and secretarial staff. There are approximately 25,000 of these European civil servants. The 'seat' of the Commission is in Brussels, but it also has offices in Luxembourg, in all EU countries and delegations in capital cities around the world. The Commission has four main roles:
- to propose legislation to Parliament and the Council;
- to manage and implement EU policies and the budget;
- to enforce European law (jointly with the Court of Justice);
- to represent the European Union on the international stage, for example by negotiating agreements between the EU and other countries.
Chose the correct answer.
Choose the correct definition, A or B, of the word or expression as used in the previous text:
Read the following text:
The Court of Justice of the European Communities is based in Luxembourg. Its job is to make sure that EU legislation is interpreted and applied in the same way in all EU countries, so that the law is equal for everyone. It ensures, for example, that national courts do not give different rulings on the same issue. The Court also makes sure that EU member states and institutions do what the law requires. The Court has the power to settle legal disputes between EU member states, EU institutions, businesses and individuals. The Court is composed of one judge per member state, so that all 25 of the EU's national legal systems are represented. For the sake of efficiency, however, the Court rarely sits as the full court. It usually sits as a 'Grand Chamber' of just 13 judges or in chambers of five or three judges. The Court is assisted by eight 'advocates-general'. Their role is to present reasoned opinions on the cases brought before the Court.
For each of the statements below, choose True or False.
In the following groups of words and expressions, which one does not belong?
Fill in the gaps in the text below. For each gap there is only one correct answer.
Fill in the gaps in the text below. For each gap there is only one correct answer.
Now listen to the recording of the text of the previous exercise:
Test your knowledge about EU institutions:
Which of the following are institutions of the European Union?
Section 2: European Legislation
Read the following text:
The European Union has a complex system of law which has direct and indirect effect within the legal systems of its member states. In some cases European law is directly binding in member states, i.e. it is mandatory and member states must comply with it. In other cases European law has to be transposed into national law before becoming binding. There are three sources of Union law:
- Primary legislation: the treaties and their amendments.
- Secondary legislation: regulations and directives, which are binding.
- Decisions of the European Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance.
Recommendations and opinions made by the Union's institutions are not binding. The entire body of European laws is known as the acquis communautaire. This includes all the treaties, regulations and directives passed by European institutions as well as rulings of the Court of Justice. Countries that wish to join the EU must adopt, implement and enforce all the acquis. As well as changing national laws, this often means they must set up or change the necessary administrative or judicial bodies to oversee the legislation.
For each of the statements below, choose True or False.
In the following groups of words and expressions, which one does not belong?
Read the following text:
The acquis is the complete body of EU legislation. It is over 100,000 pages long in the Official Journal and over 20,000 documents were sent to the applicant countries for approval. In autumn 2004, the European Commission said its legislative work had slowed down because of a backlog of 60,000 pages that had not been translated into all the official languages. More than 400 extra staff have been recruited since, who have translated one million pages. To avoid disappearing under a mountain of paper, the Commission asked officials to draft shorter documents - 15 pages at most, rather than the previous average of 37. But quantity is not the only problem. The Commission has found that the translators from the new member states are not as good as expected in dealing with the subtleties of "Euro-speak". The translation of the European constitution proved a particular challenge, with dozens of mistakes identified in some versions. Many commentators consider that rejection of the constitution in 2005 by French and Dutch voters and the apathy shown by citizens of most countries are due to the fact that it is too long, too detailed, and too difficult to understand. But with the constitution on ice, at least the Commission now has an indefinite period of time in which to improve it.
Chose the correct answer.
Use the correct word or expression from the list below to fill in the gaps in the sentences.
- at most
- backlog
- on ice
- prove
- recruit
Now listen and repeat in the spaces provided:
Chose the correct answer.
Three fundamental principles of the European Union are the principles of conferral, subsidiarity and proportionality. Here, for your interest, is the article from the European Constitution which explains these principles. Don’t worry if you don’t understand the content very well!
Article I-11
Fundamental principles
- The limits of Union competences are governed by the principle of conferral. The use of Union competences is governed by the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality.
- Under the principle of conferral, the Union shall act within the limits of the competences conferred upon it by the Member States in the Constitution to attain the objectives set out in the Constitution. Competences not conferred upon the Union in the Constitution remain with the Member States.
- Under the principle of subsidiarity, in areas which do not fall within its exclusive competence, the Union shall act only if and insofar as the objectives of the proposed action cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States, either at central level or at regional and local level, but can rather, by reason of the scale or effects of the proposed action, be better achieved at Union level.
The institutions of the Union shall apply the principle of subsidiarity as laid down in the Protocol on the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. National Parliaments shall ensure compliance with that principle in accordance with the procedure set out in that Protocol. - Under the principle of proportionality, the content and form of Union action shall not exceed what is necessary to achieve the objectives of the Constitution.
The institutions of the Union shall apply the principle of proportionality as laid down in the Protocol on the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality.
What is important is to notice the use of the auxiliary SHALL in the text:
... the Union shall act...
... The institutions of the Union shall apply the principle of subsidiarity...
... National Parliaments shall ensure...
... the content and form of Union action shall not exceed...
The auxiliary 'shall' in some cases is used in a formal style to form the future tense, especially in the First Person Singular and Plural. For example: 'I shall arrive tomorrow'; 'We shall see you next week'. In a more informal style you could say: 'I will arrive ... ' or 'I'll arrive ...'; 'We will see you ...' or 'We'll see you ...'.
In other cases 'shall' has its original meaning of obligation: 'Shall I open the window? (Compare 'soll' etc in German). It is used in this sense of obligation in all kinds of contracts and legal documents, not only in the First Persons but also the Second and Third Persons.
Here is an extract from Article I-33 of the European Constitution. Fill in the gaps with the auxiliary: shall
Read the following text:
Despite several warnings in the past that Brussels was losing touch with its citizens, seven out of 10 Europeans say they still do not know how the EU affects their daily lives. A month after French and Dutch voters rejected the EU's new constitution, the European Commission presented a 50-point action plan aimed at improving communication with the public, amid growing concern that the EU has lost touch with its citizens. The "Action Plan to Improve Communicating Europe" establishes a set of guidelines for the commission, but the plan itself contains plenty of Eurospeak. The Action Plan aims to engage all stakeholders through mainstreaming of communication in policy formulation and states that clear, simple and precise drafting of Commission proposals is essential if they are to be transparent and understandable for the citizen. The Plan states that only legal text should use legalistic language, that Eurojargon or Eurospeak is often confusing, complicated and elitist, and that there should be a layperson's summary to explain in plain words the personal and societal benefits of each policy.
For each of the statements below, choose True or False.
Type a word from the text to complete the following definitions:
Section 3: European Projects
If you have to read a document which you suspect contains Eurojargon like 'stakeholder' or 'mainstreaming' and you don't know what these expressions mean, you may find the following websites useful:
- http://www.europa.eu.int/scadplus/glossary/index_en.htm
- http://www.europa.eu.int/abc/eurojargon/index_en.htm
Read the following texts and decide whether they are acceptable or not:
Fill in the gaps in the text below. For each gap there is only one correct answer.
Here is an extract from a document published by the British Council under the title ‘A Survival Kit for European Project Management – Advice for Coordinators of Centralised Socrates Projects’. The language used in the document is a fine example of the KISS method – clear, simple writing. You may find the content useful if you are involved in Project Management. The extract consists of six short texts, A to F. Each short text is presented in two versions: a modified version and the original. In each case the original text is better. Your job is to decide why it is better.
Checklist
Use the following list to check whether you have obtained full benefit from this unit. You should have more confidence in:
- reading for information
- specialist lexis
- writing clearly and concisely