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Essay Subject: History & evolution of EC, institutions, Council of Ministers; role of Secretariat, powers, consensus-building, administration, directorate-generals, future.... More...

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Paper Abstract: History & evolution of EC, institutions, Council of Ministers; role of Secretariat, powers, consensus-building, administration, directorate-generals, future. Paper Introduction: European intentions to develop a true common foreign and security policy, as described in the Maastricht Treaty, are shaping up into some major battles over the structure and decisionmaking process of the European Community. The Community is continuing to struggle over defining and implementing the provisions of the Maastricht Treaty, which include problems ranging from uncertainty over the timetable for economic and monetary union--the single European currency which is supposed to encourage greater political unity--to fears of establishing the Western European Union as a non-NATO policing/military unit under Community direction. Central to these new developments in the European Community is the role of the office of the General Secretariat--the administrative and research arm of the European Community's Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Originally devised as an administrativeagency, the General Secretariat has quickly expanded its size and role inEuropean politics as the sure-footed and stable "civil service" system ofthe Community. Perhaps more than any other institutional arrangement in the EuropeanCommunity, the office of the General Secretariat embodies the EC'sconsensus-building mechanism. In most instances, by the time draftlegislation reaches the Council, a consensus has been firmly establishedand adoption is forthcoming. Butler. Directorate-General D guides issues dealingwith energy and the environment. Directorate-General A is in charge of matters relating to organization and security ofthe European Community. The movement toward European unity has been taken very slowly andcautiously. Atthe top of the hierarchy is the Secretary-General, an individual chargedwith financial control of the agency and personally responsible to overseeother tasks of the Secretariat. Directorate-Generals in both branches of the European Communityare part and parcel of the office of the General Secretariat. 1991regulatory decision to block a proposed French-Italian takeover of aCanadian airline firm, De Havilland. Instead, the Council isorganized largely along functional lines. London: Jonathon CapePress.----------------------- 1 Once the draft legislation has passed through the unofficial workingparties and the COREPER mechanism, the proposal is finally submitted to theCouncil of Ministers for action. The Community is continuing to struggle over defining andimplementing the provisions of the Maastricht Treaty, which includeproblems ranging from uncertainty over the timetable for economic andmonetary union--the single European currency which is supposed to encouragegreater political unity--to fears of establishing the Western EuropeanUnion as a non-NATO policing/military unit under Community direction. The Parliament possesses the right to reject theentire draft budget of the EC, and the body has the right to determine thelevel of noncompulsory expenditures not specifically detailed ininternational treaties (Marquand, 1979, p. Central to these new developments in the European Community is therole of the office of the General Secretariat--the administrative andresearch arm of the European Community's Council of Ministers. The terminology used for each institutional structure tend tobetray their real workings. In the former branch of the European Community,Directorate-Generals in the Commission tend to play a larger role in theinitiation of draft legislation. There is no indication whatsoever in the treaties thatdecisions by a Council of lower level ministers carry any less weight thandecisions by a Council of the foreign ministers. The General Secretariat has already been rustling for fundamentalchanges in the European Community. The European Community currently has12 member nations, including a unified Germany (Archer and Butler, 1992,pp. The office strives tohelp the Council make decisions based on compromises through preparatorymeetings and negotiations with various delegates involved in draftinglegislation. It is no wonder that theGeneral Secretariat is currently the only EC institution actively makingplans for European unity in 1996 and beyond. TheseDirectorate-Generals, along with the other organs of the GeneralSecretariat like the Legal Service and so forth, compose a form of "civilservice" for the Commission, the Council and the European Community as awhole. 18-2 ). These offices within theGeneral Secretariat, in effect, are the academic experts in theirrespective fields and one of the major forums for competing individual,business and national interests to air their differences and work outcompromise solutions. Theseenforcement regulations may apply to member nations or, if deemedappropriate by the Commission, to individuals and businesses as well. But even in the Council, aseries of checks and balances have been built into the system to curtailthe authority of the European Community--although, today, revisions in theCommunity through the Maastricht Treaty and other arrangements are vestingthe EC with unprecedented powers in determining continental economic andpolitical affairs. There are 17 commissioners on the board, with eachmember nation having at least one representative, in addition to the fivelargest member nations (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Britain) havingtwo representatives. 96). The Presidency ofthe Council rotates every six months among the member nations byalphabetical order of the nations, names. So according to the type oflegislation being discussed, different Councils meet to discuss differentlegislation. The Secretariat was initially located in Luxembourg, but office weresoon expanded to Brussels when charged with administering conferences andcommittees which prepared the Rome Treaties. Inone such example, the Commission was embroiled in controversy for a. The Parliament has alsoacquired some new supervisory powers in the 1992 Maastricht Treaty,including the right to initiate investigations of wrongdoing by theCommission or the Council and to file legal actions before the EuropeanCourt of Justice. The Council exercises its greatest authority to amend draftproposals by instructing COREPER members of concerns and by issuing"Recommendations" and "opinions" to COREPER (Hurwitz, 1987, p. Anyobjections to draft legislation are then hammered out between COREPER andthe European Commission for unofficial revisions. For example, if the Commission proposes draft legislation onagricultural matters, then each member nation will probably send theiragricultural ministers to cast votes on the Council. In the course of establishing its administrative andresearch expertise and providing a base of continuity in policy direction,the General Secretariat has extended its influence into policy development. The General Secretariat attempts to maintain an atmosphere ofcontinuous policy development for each incoming Council President. Edinburgh, INRO PressLimited.Doughty, N. Following establishmentof the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Communityin 1958, Secretary-General Calmes was put in charge of the GeneralSecretariat of the three Councils, which became a single Council withagreement to the Merger Treaty in 1967. Itkeeps each transition of the Presidency abreast on policy negotiations andassumes the forefront of compromise discussions on draft legislation onbehalf of the Council and each successive Presidency. 29). New York: Greenwood Press.Lodge, J. For example, in regardto the internal markets, the past, present and future presidents worktogether as a body known as the "Troika." In accordance to the Rome Treaties that established the EEC andEuratom, the Council of Ministers coordinates the general economic policiesof member nations and wield the power of decisionmaking. (1992). The European Parliament, the Council ofMinisters, the Secretariat General, the Commission, and the Court ofJustice function on behalf of all elements of the European Community.Several other institutions also play assisting roles to the Community, suchas the Economic and Social Committee, the Permanent RepresentativesCommittee, and the Court of Auditors. Through its negotiations on behalf of the Council of Ministers and theCommittee of Permanent Representatives, as well as the interactive researchforums provided by the Directorate-Generals, the Secretariat has become aleading force in the emerging union of Europe. The Maastricht Treaty declares theprinciple of developing a single foreign and security policy (CFSP) for theEuropean continent, presumably under the political control of the EC andthe policing authority of the Western European Union. Most policy and legislative decisions, however, areadopted by a simple or qualified majority vote of the Council. Some of the roles of the European Commission are not clearlydelineated in the Rome Treaties, allowing it to assume perhaps greaterpowers than originally envisioned. Each nation is provided anopportunity to express their own concerns and interests, and parliamentaryministers ensure that those concerns are considered in the formation of EClaws and rules. The political authority whichthe Commission needs to partner the Council derives from the fact that itis answerable to Parliament alone" (Budd, 1985, p. Directorate-General F studies institutionalarrangements within the European Community. Supervisory powers of the European Parliament refer to the body'soversight of the budgetary process--perhaps the Parliament's most importantrole in the Community. Legal disputesfrequently emerge in the preparation of Council actions. It gives final judgment on the interpretation oftreaties and the rules and legislation devised to enforce these treaties.The Court is open to individuals, businesses, governments and even ECinstitutions themselves to complain and seek redress. Itconducts on behalf of the Community the complex relationships with membernations as well as the world at large. All legislationare approved by the Council which, except under certain circumstances,either rejects or adopts draft legislation as proposed by the EuropeanCommission. The European Community and the management ofinternational cooperation. This near-obsession withconsensus has recently become an even greater priority as the EuropeanCommunity moves closer to a Common Market, common currency and overallunity in economic and foreign affairs. The Council of Ministers is a collective body of 12 individuals--usually, but not always, the foreign ministers of each of the membernations. The Council of Europe was set up one yearlater. 67). 1). Directorate-General C is responsible for drafting legislationconcerning the internal market, such as customs, industrial policy, companylaw and intellectual property. Eventually, several other Western European countries joined theinternational organizations. It studies the issues, confers with theEuropean Parliament and other EC agencies, and drafts proposed legislationand rules which are then submitted to the Council of Ministers for finalapproval, amendment or rejection. They extended the principlestried and tested in the ECSC, leading toward a Common Market, and set aseries of targets for the establishment of mutual economic, defense andpolitical principles (Budd, 1985, pp. The European Community is still enmeshed in many of the uncertainties thatthe emerging continent-wide political order has to offer, but many changesare clearly underway already. Christian Calmes was appointedSecretary-General in 1954. The EC divisions in legal responsibilities tend to beoverwhelmed by the unifying force of the policy development and informationdispersion roles of the Secretariat. Following a return of democracyto southern European countries, an additional enlargement of the EuropeanCo=unities began. Nevertheless, the mostimportant political issues are almost always reserved for the foreignministers while other national ministers tend to deal with more specificand technical issues. 16-19). Directorate-General B focuses on agriculturalproblems. The underlying premise of the EC's institutionalarrangements is that all players in the Community's decisions talk to eachother, express their interests and concerns, negotiate legislation, andagree upon final implementation of policy. The obstacle posed by a unanimous vote requirement for the Council toamend draft legislation highlights the Community's commitment to pass rulesand laws by consensus. It participates in an advisory capacity in the preparation of Communitylegislation and rules. The means available to the General Secretariat for conductingresearch and encouraging compromises comes through its legal service andthe offices of Directorates-General subsumed under the Secretariat. Atthe third tier is the Legal Service discussed above. These later treaties have help makesignificant strides toward creating a unified Europe with a Common Market,common currency and a more cohesive European Community political structure. The General Secretariat embodies an essential component ofdiscussions, negotiations, consensus-building and continuity in the work ofthe European Community. The Council meets when convened by the Council President or at therequest of a member nation or the European Commission. Within the Council of Ministers there are currently seven offices ofDirectorate-Generals. The governments of each member nationare relatively unrestrained by the Community's treaties in deciding Councilrepresentation. The European Parliament, established by the Rome Treaties as thesingle "assembly" for the three Communities, replaced the preexisting ECSCAssembly. Reuter European Community Report, 1-5.Hurwitz, L. Itsupplies the technical back-up for meetings by providing groups withconference rooms, linguistic services and security staff. Most importantly, the Commissionperforms the preparatory work-for drafting proposed legislation to beconsidered by the governing European Council. 22). In order to understand how the office ofthe Secretariat operates, it is first necessary to discuss the evolution ofthe European Community and the maze of institutional structures that worktogether to maintain and help unify the Community. Directorate-General E researches andnegotiates Community legislation involving external relations anddevelopment cooperation. Under the Paris Treaty of the ECSC, decisions are made whenthe European Commission determines that the Council has given its assent.The treaties specify voting requirements for Council decisionmaking.Amendments to draft legislation proposed by the Commission must be made bya unanimous vote of the Council, as must be decisions to admit new membernations to the EC. COUNCIL OF MINISTERS The Council of European Communities, better known as the Council ofMinisters, works with the assistance of the General Secretariat andCommittee of Permanent Representatives and is the primary decisionmakingbody within the EC institutional framework (Hurwitz, 1987, p. While linguistic services are still a very importantpart of the Secretariat--more than 2 % of staff members are involved intranslating documents in 1992--the General Secretariat has assumed a widearray of other duties for the smooth functioning EC. The European community: Structuresand process. The EEC: A guide to the maze. CONCLUSION The continent that has historically been home to national conflictand international wars is moving steadily toward minimizing the importanceof national boundaries and creating a continent-wide European Community.Progress has been slow, however, as the institutions of the EC are riddledwith checks and balances, overlapping governmental responsibilities, andredundant safeguards of national interests. At the first meeting of the Special Council of Ministers of theEuropean Coal and Steel Community in September of 1952, the ECSCestablished a Secretariat to help in the administration of rules and theresearch and negotiations of legislation. A full majority of theSecretariat's staff provided linguistic services as late as the 196 s(Lodge, 1983, p. Directorates-Generals serve as fundamental working groups thatspecialize in particular subject matters of EC concern and play a primaryrole in identifying issue problems, negotiating conflicting nationalinterests, and drafting proposed legislation. If the draft proposalconcerns financial issues, the Council will likely be comprised of thefinance ministers from each nation. At times, the independence of commissioners has createdfriction with home governments, as when Great Britain under MargaretThatcher refused to reappoint Lord Cockfield to another term with theEuropean Commission. The EuropeanCommission, under the prodding of the General Secretariat is setting up anew Directorate-General for implementation of the CFSP. Advisory powers refer to the Parliament's involvement in the EC'slegislative process. Some of the Commission's Directorate-Generals areexceedingly large agencies, such as Directorate-General VI which studiesagricultural problems, while others are relatively small, such Directorate-General VII which focuses on regional transportation issues. Toward this objective, the GeneralSecretariat plays a crucial role in negotiations between the separatebranches and institutions of the European Community. Legal disputes also arise whenindividuals, businesses or nations challenge the compliance of Councilregulations or laws with the European treaties. Each country desires continent-wideunity, but on the condition that no single country is disadvantaged ortreated unfairly. The actual composition of the Council varies according to theparticular subjects being discussed. NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN THE GENERAL SECRETARIAT Europe has continued to forge ground in creating a unified continent. GENERAL SECRETARIAT'S ROLE IN CONSENSUS-BUILDING When the latest Secretary-General was appointed in 198 , the Councilincreased the role of the office in assisting the Council and President todevelop and enact EC legislation. But one institution in particular has paved the way for a unitedEurope--the General Secretariat. COREPER I tendsto deal with more technical issues. At the same time, the General Secretariat continues to provide itstraditional administrative duties. Greece was admitted to the Community in 1981; and Spainand Portugal became members in 1986. The role of the Secretariat in both the Council and the Commissionwas vastly expanded in 198 . Institutions and policies of the European Community.New York: St. The President carries out thefunction of coordination and synthesis in the Community's decisionmakingprocess with the close cooperation of the General Secretariat. Within the Council of Ministers, the task of the Secretariat'sLegal Service is to assist the Council, the Committee of PermanentRepresentatives and any subsequent working groups established by theCouncil in any and all problems of a legal nature. The COREPER analyzes the content and general significance of draftlegislation, and provide an opportunity for delegates from each membernation once again to negotiate their own national interests. Complicatedvoting procedures in policy decisionmaking designed to curtail policydomination by large member nations, known as a "qualified majority"voting procedures, remain contentious among several member nations, oftenending up before the Court of Justice. COMMUNITY INSTITUTIONS Although the three elements of the European Community remain separateentities--the European Coal and Steel Community, the European Atomic EnergyCommunity, and the European Economic Community--they share several commonstructural institutions. After the term of Mr. Calmes, Nicolas Hommel was appointed Secretary-General from 1973 to 198 . (1993, March 4). The mutual cooperationbetween these three separate organizations earned them recognition under anumbrella terminology of the "European Community" (EC). At the level of COREPER,any actors in the Community may be invited to participate in finalnegotiations of the draftlegislation. Each of the three communities of the ECpossess their own branches of the Secretariat. Each office is assigned to a specific field of ECconcerns. Directorates-Generals comprise an essential step indrafting proposed legislation for both the European Commission and theCouncil of Ministers. On March 25, 1957, two treaties were signed bythe same six nations creating the European Economic Community (EEC) and theEuropean Atomic Energy Community (Euratom). Plans to develop EC policy promise turf battles. Community lawprevails over national law, and the Court's rulings are enforceable withinas well as across the borders of member nations. Such an objective necessarily required acontinent-wide international organization capable of coordinating economicactivities, managing political and ethnic conflicts, and establishingcomparable social standards between European nations. Boththe Council and the Commission have their own Directorates-Generals, butall properly fall under the auspices of the General Secretariat. EVOLUTION OF THE GENERAL SECRETARIAT As evidenced by the structure and decisionmaking process describedabove, the European Community has a near-obsession with forging consensusin all rules, legislation and policies. COREPER is itself divided into two groups:COREPER I, which is staffed by junior deputies from each member nation; andCOREPER II, which is staffed by senior level ambassadors. As such, the Commission serves as the"motor" of European integration--usurping executive authority to enforcetreaty conditions, regulate the smooth administration of Community laws,and propose the course of the EC legislative framework. Much of this work is performed through the subsumed officesof Directorate-Generals. The European Commission has some 2 different DirectorateGeneralsthat usually are very large agencies further subdivided into a number ofdirectorates which are, in turn, organized by divisions. TheCouncil's President also cooperates with previous and following presidentsfor better organization of work in specific fields. Although it is still unclearwhat role the General Secretariat's offices of the European PoliticalCooperation and the Council of Ministers will play in drafting theseconversion plans, it is reasonable to expect that all branches of the ECwill work closely together. Finally, a system ofDirectorate-Generals have been set up under the auspices of the Secretariatthat are actively engaged in the policymaking process as research andinformational offices. SECRETARIAT AND DIRECTORATE-GENERALS The organization of the General Secretariat has at least fourdistinct levels, with a multitude of sub-levels within each category. The Secretariat's LegalService represents the Council before the Court- of Justice in casesinvolving such Council actions. In 1992, there were about 2,1 staff employees of theSecretariat, governed by the Staff Regulations for officials of theEuropean Communities for permanent employees or the Conditions ofEmployment for non-permanent employees. The General Secretariat, with the assistance of thepertinent Directorate-General, draws up notes and reports on the progressof policy negotiations and assesses the implications for member nations,advising the Council and the President on the appropriate procedures topursue or suggesting alternative courses of action. Martin's Press.Marquand, D. Despite Noel'sclaims, the European Council has since evolved beyond this partnership roleinto a decisive role. New York: St. The office provides three levels of theEC's administrative and practical infrastructure: establishing and guidingconferences and committee meetings; providing technical and linguisticsupport to all elements of the European Community; and disseminatinginformation about Council operations and managing all EC publications. All draft legislation,rules, regulations and Community laws were published by the Secretariat inall official languages of the Community. Initially, France under the leadership ofGeneral de Gaulle resisted expanded the European Community beyond theoriginal six member nations, especially the admittance of the UnitedKingdom. His proposal led to the establishment of the EuropeanCoal and Steel Community (ECSC), a common market of initially six nationsfor strategic economic sectors. The European Parliament, for example, is notthe actual decisionmaking body of the European Community; instead, theCouncil of Ministers wields the greatest power. Although a multitude of other institutional structures are importantplayers in the functioning of the European Community, one institution thatdeserves comment before moving on to the Council of Ministers and theSecretariat General is the European Court of Justice. And these communities are structured withlayers upon layers of decisionmaking institutions that also are givenoverlapping duties. And, finally, Directorate-General G handles conflicts over economic, financial and social affairs. The General Secretariat iscurrently housed at the Charlemagne Building in Brussels, with someservices located at other locations, but a new office building near theRond-Point Schuman is scheduled for completion in the mid-199 s. As will be discussed further below, both the European Commission andthe Council of Ministers are assisted in their deliberations by the officeof the General Secretariat. Once Maastricht is formally recognized by all member nations andWestern Europe, the General Secretariat, with the guidance of the newDirectorate-General, will begin developing draft legislation for theconversion toward a united Western Europe. Toward this end, the organization for European Economic Cooperationtreaty was signed in April 1948. It is an office committedto the administrative functioning and research obligations of thecommunities, but simultaneously tied together under a civil servicedirective to ensure the successful operations of the European Community asa whole. As laid down by the current EC Rules of Procedure, the Commission andthe Council "shall be assisted by a General Secretariat under the directionof a Secretary-General." The office of General Secretariat has evolvedthrough history into playing a more and more unifying role in the EC. Theoverall office of the General Secretariat oversees these researchactivities and coordinates them between the Commission and the Council sothat decisions are made from comparable information and based largely onconsensus. European intentions to develop a true common foreign and securitypolicy, as described in the Maastricht Treaty, are shaping up into somemajor battles over the structure and decisionmaking process of the EuropeanCommunity. It is expected that these plans could beginmaterializing sometime around 1996. In order to further ensure that decisions arenearly universally agreed upon, an administrative a= of the Council, knownas the Committee of Permanent Representatives, plays an active role indrafting legislation. There are roughly7 subdivided directorates and about 29 divisions across the entireCommission that fall within the purview of the General Secretariat(Hurwitz, 1987, p. And in 195 , French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Robert Schuman,proposed the creation of a large European Common Market open to all nationson the continent. In 1958, there were 238 people working for the GeneralSecretariat. Originally, the Secretariat was establishedto set up conferences and committees and, most importantly, to providelinguistic services to all players in the EC. In the case of the Commission, the Secretariatpresides over a system of Director-Generals that are assigned to monitorand study specific issue areas of concern to the European Community. When draft legislation is initially proposed by theEuropean Commission, it first goes to the Committee of PermanentRepresentatives (COREPER). Article 145 of the EEC Treaty more accurately describes the dominantgeneral functions of the Council of Ministers as ensuring "coordination ofthe general economic policies of the member states" with the "power to takedecisions" and it can "confer on the Commission, in the acts which theCouncil adopts, powers for the implementation of the rules which theCouncil lays down (Archer and Butler, 1992, p. Clearly, the most important role of the Commission is to serve as theinitiator of EC legislation. Writing in the early 198 s, Emile Noel, the Secretary General of theEuropean Commission, described the original working relationship of theCommission, the Parliament and the Council as follows: "The teaming of theCommission and the Council in double harness is perhaps the most novelfeature of the whole institutional system. But after the retirement of de Gaulle, Ireland, Denmark, and theUnited Kingdom joined in 1973 (after staving off veto efforts by France),expanding the Community to nine members. 13). Important modifications have been made to the original Rome and ParisTreaties by the Single European Act (effective in 1987), the MaastrichtTreaty (agreed upon in 1991-1992), and a host of other internationalagreements and conferences. The European Commission of the Community administers theCommon Market and the whole range of internal organizational agreements.It is also the Community's "think tank" and its diplomatic service. In the latter branch of the Community,Directorate-Generals for the Council tend to play a larger negotiating rolebetween conflicting interests that emerge later in the policymakingprocess. Niels Ersboll was appointed by the Council asSecretary-General since 198 , serving three terms due to expire in July1994. The Secretary-General, along with the assistance of the Secretariat staff, no longer playjust a technical role in setting up negotiations, but also play asubstantive role in the political operations of the European Community. Today, the paramountcy of the Council is not onlybeyond doubt; it has sometimes seemed to overwhelm the Community'sdecisionmaking apparatus. Immediately below the Secretary-General isthe Secretary's Private Office. But, at the same time, theSecretariat is a more unified body than other EC institutions that crossthe separate legal barriers of the communities. (1979). Thus, it is not quite correct to viewthe Council as a single legislative body. (1987). The office of the Secretariat has grown enormously in size as well asimportance. The Commission is granted limitedauthority to ensure international compliance to the provisions of Communitytreaties which, in effect, grants the Commission with interpretiveauthority and the right to devise enforcement regulations. It will contain four directorates dealingwith EC structure as well as foreign relations with North America, EasternEurope and the rest of the world (Doughty, 1993, p. The Secretariat helps keep the Council's workload down byworking hand-in-hand with the Committee of Permanent Representatives onsubstantive matters of dispute in draft legislation--oftentimes serving asthe primary conduit of information exchange between the Commission, theCommittee of Permanent Representatives and the Council. The Court rules onCommunity legislation. The Private office is a complete staff forthe Secretary-General that advises the Secretary, as well as providesgeneral information and publications for the Community and the public. Unlike the Parliament, the Commission must act in the interest of theEuropean Community as a whole and cannot receive any instructions f romhome governments. It isnot necessarily the deliberative body of the Community--the EuropeanParliament fills that role-but in general the Council is the finalauthority on EC legislation. The Directorate-Generals are classified from A to G. The terrifying and destructiveconsequences of World War II fed upon this historical experience and causedmany Western European countries to work toward continental unity andminimize national conflict. Since most ECdocuments have to be published in at least nine languages, a largeproportion of the Secretariat staff is involved in translating documents,typing, reproduction, document distribution, and archival services. The European Parliament, in essence, is anopportunity for electorates in each nation to send ministers who reflectnational interests to the European Community in which legislation andpolicies are discussed in an open platform. It has popularly been said that "theCommission proposes, and the Council disposes" (Archer and Butler, 1992, p.29). HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE EC Europe has historically been racked by war; it is the continent thatfirst experienced strife between nations. It adopts nonbinding resolutions on its owninitiative regarding various aspects of Community and international policy. The European Courtconsists of 13 judges to rule on cases, and six Advocates-general toprepare for submissions in open court on cases brought before the Court.The judges and Advocates-General are appointed by unanimous consent fromthe governments of member nations for six-year terms. In the meeting of the six Ministers of ForeignAffairs in the following year, the Secretary-General was instructed todevelop an agency capable of managing the conferences and committeesresponsible for preparing the European treaties. The Directorate-Generals simultaneously provide theframework for cooperation and negotiations between the Commission and theCouncil. Although the Community itself is divided intothree separate legal branches, the General Secretariat as the Community's"civil service" provides a powerful unifying factor in EC policydevelopment. Each Council,Council President and Committee of Permanent Representatives meeting istherefore preceded by a detailed analysis from the Secretary-General andthe Directorates-General of existing legislative problems and ongoingpolicy negotiations. ReferencesArcher, C. 69). Parliament for Europe. 77). originally consisting of delegates selected from theparliamentary bodies of member nations, its delegates have been selected bydirect universal suffrage by electorates in each member country since 1979. Shortly thereafter, in the Treaty of Rome,several Western European countries organized unions for defense andpolitical purposes as well. This de facto veto power of individual members in theCouncil has been used several times, the most well known instance beingFrance's General de Gaulle's historic refusal to admit the United Kingdominto the Community. The plan is for anew Directorate-General with a staff of about 15 people under theleadership of Guenter Burghardt. But the most important role of the General Secretariat is its newduty of facilitating negotiations, compromise and consensus in policy andlegislation. Delegates in the European Parliament, known as ministers of parliament,perform "advisory" and "supervisory" powers in the EC (Lodge, 1983, pp.27-3 ). Thisresearch examines the structure, functions and activities of the GeneralSecretariat and assesses the role of the Secretariat in the newly emergingEuropean Community of the 199 s. Martin's Press.Budd, S. (1985). & F. Three separate Europeancommunities exist to manage the continent's problems, each with overlappingrights and responsibilities. (1983). If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.

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