The development of the eurozone. Jean Monnet/Robert Schuman Paper Series Vol. 13 No. 2, January 2013

From the Introduction. It is the year 1946 and the Second World War has just ended and not even thirty years had passed since the ‘war to end all wars’ ended, how ironic. Numerous countries in Europe suffered from both the loss of lives and the destruction of land. Powerful countries had been demolished and almost every country on European soil had been affected in some way or another. Change needed to happen for the European people, everyone knew it, and Winston Churchill voiced it. In his speech at Zurich University in 1946, Churchill brought up ideas that would forever change Europe.

The Member States’ Initiatives: An Inter-Institutional Turf War after the Treaty of Lisbon

With the introduction of the Treaty of Lisbon came the possibility for Member States to launch an initiative under the Ordinary Legislative Procedure. This came into being as the scope of co-decision was expanded to cover the more sensitive issues of the third pillar (such as judicial cooperation in criminal matters and police cooperation). It was considered necessary that Member States have a shared right of initiative with the European Commission. One case in which the right of initiative was invoked was the Initiative for a European Protection Order (EPO). This dossier is one of the first and few cases in which the Member States’ Initiative after the Treaty of Lisbon was used. It resulted in a turf war between the Presidency and the Commission regarding the scope of the Member States’ Initiatives. This article looks into the Member States’ Initiative as it was introduced after the Treaty of Lisbon and the debate that took place on the EPO.