Senat

1.    Composition and organization

In accordance with Article 94, paragraph 2 of the Constitution of the European Union as a federal state “the Senat shall consist of members of the Member State governments, which appoint and recall them”. The Senat is not elected for a specific term and composition of its changes gradually, according to changes in the governments of individual of the Member States. The number of votes a Member State is allocated is based on a form of degressive proportionality according to its population. This way, smaller Member States have more votes than a distribution proportional to the population would grant.

 

The allocation of votes is regulated by the Constitution of the European Union. Each Member State is allocated at least two votes, and a maximum of ten. Member States with more than

•     6 million inhabitants have 3 votes,
• 
  
•     12 million inhabitants have 4 votes,
• 
  
•     20 million inhabitants have 5 votes,
• 
  
•     30 million inhabitants have 6 votes,
• 
  
•     42 million inhabitants have 7 votes,
• 
  
•     56 million inhabitants have 8 votes,
• 
  
•     72 million inhabitants have 9 votes,
• 
  
•     90 million inhabitants have 10 votes.

 

Comparison of voting weights according of the Constitution of the European Union

Rank	Member State	Population	Votes
1	Germany	81285000	9
2	France	67087000	8
3	United Kingom	64800000	8
4	Italy	60725000	8
5	Spain	47705000	7
6	Ukraine	42813557	7
7	Poland	38484000	6
8	Romania	19942642	4
9	Netherlands	16924000	4
10	Belgium	11250659	3
11	Greece	10846979	3
12	Czech Republic	10537818	3
13	Portugal	10374822	3
14	Hungary	9849000	3
15	Sweden	9816666	3
16	Belarus	9485300	3
17	Austria	8602112	3
18	Switzerland	8279700	3
19	Bulgaria	7202198	3
20	Serbia	7114393	3
21	Denmark	5678348	2
22	Finland	5489639	2
23	Slovakia	5421349	2
24	Norway	5189435	2
25	Ireland	4635400	2
26	Croatia	4225316	2
27	Bosnia and Herzegovina	3791622	2
28	Georgia	3729500	2
29	Moldova	3555200	2
30	Armenia	3005500	2
31	Lithuania	2900787	2
32	Albania	2893005	2
33	Macedonia	2069172	2
34	Slovenia	2068299	2
35	Latvia	1978300	2
36	Kosovo	1827231	2
37	Estonia	1313271	2
38	Cyprus	858000	2
39	Montenegro	621207	2
40	Luxembourg	562958	2
41	Malta	445426	2
42	Iceland	330610	2
	Totals	605715421	138

In this way it excluded to be the dominance of the Member States with the largest population of small Member States. Thus formed the Senat has to be a compromise between Member States that are more and less populated.  The Senat aims to express the idea of equality of all Member States in the European Union while maintaining the idea of the equality of citizens. Furthermore, the Senat has been strongly linked with the authorities of the Member States because that the Member States by creating European Federation voluntarily waive some of their sovereign powers to the European Union. However, Member States as subjects of the federation must be provided with real impact on the creation of internal policies and the exterior of the European Union as a federal state.

 

The Constitution in Article 94, paragraph 2 requires the delegate to the Senat prime ministers of Member State governments as heads of delegations and other cabinet ministers. This gives the Senat a serious political authority. At the same time, however, the governments of the Member States appoint the other of its members as alternates, and to the committees of the Council may also be designated persons from outside the Governments of the Member States. Consequently, the personal composition of the Senat does not have a permanent character.

The President of the Senat is the chairperson or speaker of the Senat. He is elected for a period of 6 months (from January to June and from July to December). The presidency of the Senat rotates among the heads of government of each of the Member States. The President has the organizational and managerial functions to the Senat.

The Senat have three Vice-Presidents. The vice-presidents are elected for a period of 6 months (from January to June and from July to December). The Constitution also these positions is entrusted to the Heads of Governments of the Member States; the predecessor of the current President is first, his successors second vice-president and third vice-president. The four together make up the Senat executive committee. The most important executive body of the Senat is a "Friends of Presidency" Group. This group is composed of the President of the Senat, the three vice-president of the Senat and the representatives of the Member States. The "Friends of the Presidency" Group prepares a course of work of the Senat by agreeing to agenda for meetings and manner of debating on particular issues. It aims to relieve the senior officials or ministers of the Member States.

A useful body of the Senat are committees. Their existence guaranteed by the Constitution in Article 97, paragraph 3. The Senat shall appoint standing committees and may also appoint special committees. Other members or representatives of Member State governments may serve on committees. In the committees, each Member State has only one vote. The committee members are appointed and dismissed by the governments of the Member States. The Presidents of the committees are elected by the Senat without prior discussion. It should be emphasized that the Constitution of the European Union as a federal state imposes an obligation that a representative of the Member State served as president of only one of the committees.

The mandate of the members of the Senat is imperative mandate, which means that the members of the Senat are bound by instructions of their governments. In this way members of the European Union represent the views of their governments in the Senat. The delegates to the Senat from any one Member State are required to cast the votes of the state as a single bloc (since the votes are not those of the respective delegate) and the possibility of donation by one member of the Council of the few voices behalf of the whole delegation of their Member State. If the members of a delegation cast different votes then the entire vote of the respective Member State is valid in accordance with the decision of the Head of Delegation of the Member State.

The meetings of the Senat are public. Nevertheless the public can, pursuant to the provisions of the Standing Orders, be excluded by resolution. The Senat shall act by a qualified majority except where the Constitution provides otherwise. A qualified majority shall be defined as at least 11/20 of the Member States of the European Union, which together hold at least 3/5 of votes in the Senat.

 

2. Tasks and competences

 

            In accordance with Article 79 of the Constitution of the European Federation, the Senat with the Chamber of Deputies exercises legislative power in the European Union. Article 94 of the Constitution says that through the Senat the Member States participate in the legislation and administration of the European Union. According to these provisions, the Senat, there is virtually no powers, which alone produce also those outside the powers of control. It should be emphasized that the participation of the Senat is necessary to come into effect a number of important state decisions taken by the Chamber of Deputies, the European Executive Council or the President of the European Executive Council. The Senat is not involved in the creative process of the European Executive Council and the President of the European Union. But it participates in the appointment of the Court of Justice of the European Union. The Senat there is also no powers to enforce parliamentary accountability of the European Executive Council. It may in accordance with article 122, paragraph 2 of the Constitution of the European Union to initiate pulling the President of the European Union constitutional responsibility.

            The most important powers of the Senat are associated with the process of the federal (european) legislative act.