Institutions of the European Confederation
Although the European Confederation's structures were initially defined by international treaties and multinational organizations, since the Paris Conference of 1969 the European Confederation has acquired a sovereignty all its own. The member-states of the European Confederation continue to retain full internal sovereignty -- for instance, they retain their seats in the League of Nations General Assembly, with full voting prerogatives, while they are allowed to follow whatever internal policies and even extra-European relations they want so long as these do not contravene European Confederation policies. Still, the European Confederation reserves certain powers for itself, and to this end maintains specific institutuions to exercise these powers.
The European Parliament is perhaps the most prominent of the Confederation's institutions. Created in 1970 after the Paris Conference, the European Parliament -- like all other European Confederation institutions, based in greater France -- is an unicameral parliament with a total of 1531 parliamentarians as of 2000. Every five years since 1971, a Confederation-wide election has been held in which Europe-wide parties or coalitions of national parties vie for these seats, which are distributed along lines of population (although no Confederation member-state has fewer than 15 parliamentarians). Individual parliamentarians or European Secretaries can propose legislation, which are reviewed by individual committees of the European Parliament. These committees often propose amendments to the legislation before submitting it to the European Parliament for a vote. The European Parliament is also charged with composing the Confederation's budget. Decisions of the European Parliament can be overridden by the European Secretariat only if the decision was made with less than a two-thirds majority of voters.
The European Secretariat is the executive branch of the EC, created in 1970. Including the various Secretaries of different departments and the European President, the Secretariat is a hodgepodge of different institutions and multilateral accords stretching back to the beginnings of the Confederation. There are three forms of Secretaries:
There are permanent treaty-appointed secretaries, that is, secretaries who are appointed in conformance with pre-Confederation treaties. For instance, the Defense Secretary is appointed by the members of the European Treaty Organization, in conformance with the Treaty of London that created ETO in 1950.
There are permanent appointed secretaries, that is, secretaries who are appointed to their positions based on the decision of the European Council. Created in 1963 to supervise Confederation activities, the Council includes as members the acting heads of state of each full member of the European Confederation, and has been charged since 1971 with the task of appointing as heads of the various Sub-Secretariats a European Confederation national. All minister-equivalent positions in the European Secretariat -- for instance, the Minister of Extra-European Affairs, and the Chair of the European Central Bank (BCE) -- are permanent appointed secretaries.
Finally, there are parliament-elected secretaries, that is, secretaries who are elected to their positions by a two-thirds majority vote of the European Parliament, which chooses up to five candidates out of their number. So far, the only parliament-elected secretary that of European President, known under the formal name of Secretary-in-Chief of the European Confederation.
The Secretariat includes as subordinate bodies the various ministries, sub-secretaries, and other subordinate agencies. These are as various as the Committee of the Regions, the European Treaty Organization, and the Ministry of Human Rights, and have their own, institution-specific, internal procedures.
The third pillar of the European Confederation is the European Court of Justice, identified by the Treaty on European Confederation as the ultimate court of appeal for all European Confederation nationals and member-states barring the World Court in the Hague. The Court has three sub-courts:
The Court of European Affairs is the forum of final appeal for European Confederation governments -- whether at the levels of the region, the member-state, or the Confederation -- that seek to resolve intra-governmental disputes
The Court of Criminal Justice is the forum of final appeal for criminal cases, and can recommend, under exceptional circumstances, that particular criminal cases be transferred to the level of the World Court.
The Court of Civil Justice is the forum of final appeal for all civil cases.
Each of the sub-courts has 13 judges who are appointed to five-year terms by the European Council with the final approval of the European Parliament. Great efforts are made in order to assure a rough national and regional balance in the selection of judges.
An emerging fourth pillar of the European Confederation is that of the multilateral accord signed with non-Confederation members. Perhaps the best example of these accords is the Mediterranean Accord, a pact that establishes a free market in labour and a mostly-free market in goods and capital between the European Confederation, Egypt, and the smaller states of Israel, Jerusalem, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria. Depending on the specific provisions of the accord, the accord can be enforceable either by the European Court of European Affairs or by the World Court. The relations of Confederation member-states with non-Confederation member-states -- for instance, of the relationships of the Confederation member-states of the Nordic Council with the non-Confederation member-state of Iceland -- also fall under this division.
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