1/ This tweet of mine about the Tories taking credit for something the EU did (banning credit card surcharges) was retweeted far and wide:
2/ This prompted a whole lot of discussion about whether the Tories were right to claim any credit at all for this, and how Tories actually behaved throughout the procedure.
3/ Folks, *please* don't bore me with answers to this thread about whether banning credit card fees is a good or a bad thing. FWIW I think it's good, but that's not the point here. The issue is *how* we got here.
4/ I'm going to try to answer how does a law like this come into being, and who does what in the EU legislative process?
5/ As a starting point we need to look at
Procedure 2013/0264(COD)
Payment services in the internal market
The European Parliament OEIL fiche is here: europarl.europa.eu/oeil-mobile/fi…
(**TIP**: The EP's legislative database OEIL is the nicest to use)
Procedure 2013/0264(COD)
Payment services in the internal market
The European Parliament OEIL fiche is here: europarl.europa.eu/oeil-mobile/fi…
(**TIP**: The EP's legislative database OEIL is the nicest to use)
6/ Any Single Market issue like this requires a proposal from the European Commission - they have the sole right of legislative initiative. The text of the original proposal COM(2013)0547 is here as a PDF: europarl.europa.eu/RegData/docs_a…
7/ A caveat here: the European Commission does not dream up ideas from thin air. Member States, the EP, lobbyists, NGOs etc. all lobby it to persuade it to act. I can find no evidence that it was the UK Government that was especially pushy towards the Commission.
8/ As the proposal itself makes clear, it then passes to the European Parliament AND The Council of the EU:
Proposal for a
DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL
Proposal for a
DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL
9/ Then:
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 114 thereof
Look that up lisbon-treaty.org/wcm/the-lisbon… and you see that the Ordinary Legislative Procedure applies (used to be called Co-decision)
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 114 thereof
Look that up lisbon-treaty.org/wcm/the-lisbon… and you see that the Ordinary Legislative Procedure applies (used to be called Co-decision)
10/ In other words you need a vote of BOTH the European Parliament and The Council of the European Union for this to become law.
11/ So how did each of them vote?
**TIP**: Here is where we need to move away from the official EU institution websites, and use @VoteWatchEurope instead.
**TIP**: Here is where we need to move away from the official EU institution websites, and use @VoteWatchEurope instead.
12/ Vote Watch Europe shows us this is how the EP voted:
votewatch.eu/en/term8-payme…
For - 578 (88%)
Against - 29 (4%)
Abstentions - 52 (8%)
Date of vote: 08.10.2015
votewatch.eu/en/term8-payme…
For - 578 (88%)
Against - 29 (4%)
Abstentions - 52 (8%)
Date of vote: 08.10.2015
13/ We can even break it down to see how the UK Tories voted (use drop downs on the page):
For - 15
Against - 0
Absent - 5 (inc. Dan Hannan)
Didn't vote - 1
For - 15
Against - 0
Absent - 5 (inc. Dan Hannan)
Didn't vote - 1
14/ Then in The Council:
votewatch.eu/en/term8-direc…
Date of vote: 16.11.2015
For - 27 (inc. UK)
Against - 1 (Luxembourg)
votewatch.eu/en/term8-direc…
Date of vote: 16.11.2015
For - 27 (inc. UK)
Against - 1 (Luxembourg)
15/ So - aside from the hard core Tory sceptic brigade in the EP like Campbell Bannerman and Hannan - the Tories have officially backed this.
Nick Tolhurst reckons it might have been through gritted teeth, but I cannot substantiate this:
Nick Tolhurst reckons it might have been through gritted teeth, but I cannot substantiate this:
16/ This leads us then to one final issue: if that was all voted in late 2015, why is it happening *now*?
17/ "A directive shall be binding, as to the result to be achieved, upon each Member State to which it is addressed, but shall leave to the national authorities the choice of form and methods"
18/ This is a Directive, not a Regulation, and hence time is allowed for Member States of the EU to implement it. The deadline for implementation was 13.01.2018
19/ So there you have it folks. How the EU - in terms of law and votes - banned credit card charges.
(note: my RT of this was wrong earlier - this thread puts it all right)
(note: my RT of this was wrong earlier - this thread puts it all right)
(Oh and if your head is hurting after that little lot: welcome to my world. Explaining that sort of stuff has been the bread and butter of my blog for the last 12 years!)
