Coordination of European matters
Z Encyklopedia Administracji Publicznej
COORDINATION OF EUROPEAN MATTERS – a group of actions performer by different political entities (on both country and European levels) with use of tools and instruments of coordination (appropriate legislation, effective channels of communication, division of competence within and among institutions), aimed at creating a state of allowing the most effective representation of interest of the EU member states on the EU institutions’ forums in the scope of European policies with simultaneous most effective implementation of the assumptions of these policies on the country level. In this context, the term coordination means to define, organise various elements, actions, functions to ensure their accordant cooperation, to align themselves to achieve a goal. The c.o.e.m. is grounded in the EU Treaty – in the obligation of the member states to take any general or particular measures required to carry out the obligations resulting from the EU treaties or institutions. The term European matters is most often used to describe the EU policies. The institutions engaged in the c.o.e.m. to the greatest extent are ministries (to a different extent, depending on the country), parliaments of the member states, permanent representations of the states in Brussels, often also regional-level institutions. The c.o.e.m. is often divided into “coordination up” and “coordination down”. The former concerns establishing a positioning of a member state to the EU institutions (usually the Council), while the latter involves the implementation of a decision already taken at European level into the legal system of a member state. Representing the member state before the Court of Justice of the European Union also lies within the scope of the c.o.e.m [ R. Mieńkowska-Norkiene ].
Literature: R. Mieńkowska-Norkiene, Efektywność koordynacji polityki europejskiej w Polsce. Model teoretyczny, ewaluacja i rekomendacje, Warszawa 2013 ■ A. Nowak-Far, A. Michoński, Krajowa administracja w unijnym procesie podejmowania decyzji, Warszawa 2004.