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Considering the lack of a harmonized approach to labor law, the Member States are still the key actors with relatively independent standpoints and traditions in the employment law sphere. Critical aspects of labor law are excluded from the regulatory competences in the social chapter of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union ("TFEU"). This implies that legal conditions in this field of law remain quite different and labor requirements are heavily dependent on national law. Nevertheless, European Union's ("EU") intervention in employment matters has strongly increased in the last years, but since, as a rule, labor law cannot be legislated at European level by Regulations, Member States are reluctant to implement many of the prevailing legal guidelines and the provisions of the directives are not necessarily transposed in an efficient, coordinated, and timely manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This year, for the first time in the history of its membership in the European Union, Romania exercises the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union. As far as the Council is concerned, it is undoubtedly one of the most important decision-making factors, part of what the specialized doctrine calls the "bicameral legislative of the European Union". The manner of exercising the presidency, the role of the Presidency in the proper functioning of the Council, the challenges and opportunities related to it are, in our opinion, topics of interest for the Romanian public and their approach can bring more clarity to the debates held in this honorable, but the difficult period. That's exactly why the aforementioned subjects are the research topic of the research paper that we submit to your attention in the lines below. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a part of what the specialized doctrine calls the "bicameral legislative of the European Union", the Council, representing the Member States, is undoubtedly one of the most important decision-making institutions in the EU. Its modus operandi, however, can be analyzed on two levels. One of these, consisting of the rules according to which the acts are adopted (in particular, the necessary majority) is found in the treaties on which the European Union comes. The second level, however, which can be called "diplomatic", is the work of the representatives of the Member States, meeting in the Committee of Permanent Representatives. Although it enjoys less visibility, compared to the Council formations, it is in fact responsible for most of the acts adopted in the Council. In the following paper we will analyze the functioning of this institution and its role in the institutional ensemble of the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decision-making process of the European Union is a particularly complex one and its democratic legitimacy has almost always been a preoccupation for the citizens involved in European affairs, researchers, practitioners of Union law and, ultimately, political decision-makers. Today, after an evolutionary process that began, we could say, along with the Single European Act and, as the entire union construction, is still underway, this legitimacy is ensured in a multi-level organized system. One of these, alongside the European Parliament, is represented by national parliaments. This role is regulated in detail by the provisions of the Protocols No. 1 and 2. Practically, according to Protocol No. 1, the National Parliaments have the right to receive information about the content and the effects of the institutions issuing the draft normative acts. The obligation to transmit the documents that are necessary for the exercise of their control is a prerequisite for it, since no effective control can be exercised without knowing its exact subject. In Protocol No. 2, on the other hand, the concrete mechanismes of the National Parliaments' control over the compliance with the aforementioned principles are regulated, consisting in the issuing of reasoned opinions and, in extreme cases, in the action before the Court of Justice of the European Union. We will further discuss these matters in the present study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important moment in the conduct of legislative procedures within the European Union is located right at their onset. Thus, the initiator of an act finds himself in a position to have recourse to its legal basis, since that ground depends on fundamental issues such as the competence of the European Union or its institutions to act, the applicable procedure, etc. However, in practice, this may be rather complicated. For example, depending on the categories of competence of the Union in which each field falls and depending on the desired end, the question arrises about choosing the type of act that is best suited. After that, there is the question of choosing the legal basis of the act, which can be very complicated, since, in the case of some acts, the proper legal basis may not be obvious, in which case the Court of Justice and its case law may provide further clarification. For example, in certain situations, the Union's acts may be susceptible to more than one legal basis. To further complicate the analysis, we can say that these grounds may be compatible or not. If they are not compatible, it is necessary to identify the main legal basis, and there comes the matter of how to determine it. With all these, and not only, we will deal in the present research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union, as its existence that we can meet in the present moment, is not a creation which came out of nothing or arising of the history's hazard, but is rather an evolutionary process that began after the end of the Second World War. In this respect, in their continuing search for security, cooperation and common prosperity, European countries have made, in turn, organizations with different profiles (economic, political, security), such as the Treaty of Dunkirk, Western Union, Organization Economic Cooperation in Europe, Council of Europe, Western European Union, all of which are creations precursor Union and, before being dissolved as obsolete or being embedded in Cleaned have served the aims of their times, representing evolutionary steps in defining project European. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]