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THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
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The European Parliament’s role in the legisla-
tive process has been detailed previously and is
similar to that of any other legislative chamber
in a national democracy. True, the Parliament
still has some gaps regarding competences, par-
ticularly in the tax and fiscal area. However, the
absence of powers of the Parliament in these
areas is also the result of the lack of the same on
the part of the rest of the Union’s institutions.
Generally speaking, it can be said that only the
European Council and, therefore, the Council
has any authority on tax matters, leaving the
Parliament a consultative role. However, the
Council requires the unanimity of its members
when taking decisions on those issues. The re-
quirement of unanimity is in fact equivalent to
the absence of powers over tax measures in the
Union as a whole. If any decision must be
agreed by each and every one of the national
governments, we have to acknowledge that
there is no competence placed specifically in the
Union institutions. So neither the Council nor
the Parliament can decide, as European institu-
tions, any tax policy.
Therefore, the Parliament’s lack of powers
on this issue is equivalent to the principle of
unanimity for the taking of decisions by the
Council. So we cannot speak of a lesser role for
the Parliament in tax debates. However, that
should not stand in the way of pointing out one
of the current European Union’s most serious
problems, especially within the framework of
the Eurozone, which is the lack of a fiscal pillar.
That is why, sooner rather than later, it will be
necessary to amend the Treaties to allow the Eu-
ropean Council and Council to take decisions by
majority on this issue and, therefore, also in-
volve the Parliament in the legislative and over-
sight aspect.
Another recurring issue on the Parliament’s
shortcomings centres on the absence of legislative
initiative. All the national parliaments have that
capacity, though we would have to ask to what
extent the legislative powers of the Member
States make use of that competence. In Spain,
even though the Parliament and the Senate
have power of legislative initiative, it is no less
true that the power is not usually used. In the
normal legislative process, it is the government
that takes on that power, leaving the legislative
arm to debate, amend and subsequently adopt.
In any case, it is true that the Parliament
does not fully have this prerogative, though this
changed substantially with the Lisbon Treaty. On
the one hand, the Parliament takes part in the
annual and multiannual planning of the legisla-
tive activity, as it is qualified to review the agen-
da put forward by the Commission, as is the
Council. On the other, acting by a majority of its
members, the Parliament can request the Com-
mission submit a legislative draft on the issues
that it considers to be of interest, in accordance
with Article 225 of the Treaty on the Function-
ing of the Union. So, even when the Parliament
does not have the authority to prepare a legisla-
tive draft, it has indeed been equipped with the
instruments to have a legislative initiative capac-
ity, in which the Commission plays the role of
the drafter of the text to be debated. This ca-
pacity, then, resembles that of the European
Council, which has always led the legislative
activity, with the Commission in charge of pre-
paring the initial version of the projects.
Meanwhile, the oversight capacity of the
Parliament over the executive powers and other
independent bodies is broad and sometime
stricter than the one exercised by the national
democracies.
Firstly, the capacity for parliamentary control
over the activity of the Head of State, of the
European Council, is limited. As a collegial body
made up of the Heads of State or Government,