The Nice Treaty gives the European Parliament new powers to challenge EU laws before the Court of Justice. The Parliament will also have the right to initiate an early warning system if a member-state is suspected of breaching fundamental rights.
This is part of a new system to regularise the EU's response to controversial political events. The treaty also changes the allocation of seats in the European Parliament, altering the balance between larger and smaller member-states. Ireland will lose three of its 15 seats but Germany will continue to send 99 members to the Parliament, which will have a maximum of 732 members.
The treaty changes the structure and functioning of the European Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance. The Court of Justice rules on interpretations of the treaties and EU laws and ensures national laws are in keeping with the treaties.
The Court of First Instance is a subsidiary of the Court of Justice. It provides the first ruling on less complicated cases but losing parties can appeal its decisions to the Court of Justice.
The Nice Treaty makes some administrative changes to speed up the work of the courts, whose caseloads have grown enormously in recent years. The treaty also removes the requirement of unanimity in the Council of Ministers for further changes to the workings of the courts.
The treaty removes the need for unanimity in appointing members of the Court of Auditors, which examines the EU's accounts. But each member-state will continue to nominate one member of the court.
The Economic and Social Committee, an advisory body representing interest groups such as employers, unions and farmers, will also include consumer representatives if the treaty is ratified. The treaty also removes the need for unanimous approval of members but leaves unchanged the number of representatives from each member-state.
The treaty requires that members of the Committee of the Regions, which represents region al and local government in the EU, must be elected politicians or be accountable to an elected assembly.
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