The General Characteristic of the Constitutional Basis of Liability of Government in the EU Member-Countries

Problem setting. The article deals with general matters of constitutional basis of liability of government in the European Union member-countries in order to compare different models of legal regulation, find out the specific features of this constitutional institution incorporation into legislation of European countries. Recent research and publications analysis. Some aspects of constitutional legal regulation of the governmental liability were researched by Yu. Barabach, I. Dakhova, V. Marchenko,
O. Novikov, R. Pavlenko, I. Rakitska, S. Serohina, V. Shapoval and others. But foregoing range of problems is not completely analyzed and needs more careful scientific research. Paper objective is to analyze constitutional basis of liability of the supreme body of executive power and individual ministers in the European Union member-countries. Paper main body. There are different aims of the liability of government, among them the constitutional legality guaranteeing and effective cooperation of legislative and executive branches of power in order to pursue chosen policy successfully. That is why there are two forms of governmental responsibility in the European Union member-countries: the liability before parliament or the head of the state and the judicial (legal) one for crimes or abuses of the laws and Constitution. The foreign legislation analysis makes it possible to distinguish three general types of constitutional regulation of the liability before parliament: narrow, fragmentary and detailed. The distinguishing features and examples of each model are given. It is mentioned that the participation of court is usually specified in the articles of the constitutions regulating the judicial liability of ministers. The constitutions of the European Union member-countries define the reason of legal governmental liability differently. It can be the crime, improper discharge of minister’s official duties, violation of the Constitution and laws. The constitutions of such EU member-countries as Austria and Poland also regulate the special kind of liability – the constitutional liability of ministers. The constitutional provisions of the EU member-countries fundamental laws are complex including different sections of constitutions: sections regulating executive power, chapters regulating the legal status of the head of the state and the government, special sections regulating devoted to interrelations between the legislative and executive branches of power.The constitutional regulation of governmental liability depends on many factors such as constitutional traditions, legal system peculiarities, form of government. Constitutions of the majority of the EU member-countries don’t differentiate constitutional and political responsibility, but some of them fix judicial liability of ministers along with liability to parliament or the head of the state. Conclusions of the research. On the bases of the concluded comparative research of the problems of liability of government in the EU member-countries attention is drawn to the fact
of existence of the constitutional liability of government as a special form of legal liability and one of the checks and balances institutions.