EU Institutions Flashcards
Name the 4 main EU institutions?
1) The European Council
2) The European Commission
3) The Council of the European Union (The Council of Ministers)
4) The European Parliament
What does The European Council do - describe the main functions?
Role: Defines the general political direction and priorities of the European Union
Members: Heads of state or government of EU countries (28), European Council President, European Commission President.
President: Charles Michel
(The President of the European Council is elected, by a qualified majority, for a term of two and a half years).
Established in: 1974 (informal forum), 1992 (formal status), 2009 (official EU institution)
Since the Treaty of Lisbon, the European Council has been an EU institution.
Location: Brussels (Belgium)
The European Council brings together EU leaders to set the EU’s political agenda. It represents the highest level of political cooperation between EU countries.
One of the EU’s 7 official institutions, the European Council takes the form of (usually quarterly) “summit meetings” between EU leaders, chaired by a permanent president.
What does the European Council do?
Decides on the EU’s overall direction and political priorities – but does not pass laws.
Deals with complex or sensitive issues that cannot be resolved at lower levels of intergovernmental cooperation.
Sets the EU’s common foreign & security policy, taking into account EU strategic interests and defence implications.
Nominates and appoints candidates to certain high profile EU level roles, such as the ECB (European Central Bank) and the Commission.
On each issue, the European Council can:
Ask the European Commission to make a proposal to address it pass it on to the Council of the EU to deal with Composition.
The European Council is made up of the heads of state or government of all EU countries, the European Council President, and the European Commission President.
It is convened and chaired by its President, who is elected by the European Council itself for a once-renewable two-and-a-half-year term. Among other things, the President represents the EU to the outside world.
How does the European Council work?
It usually meets 4 times a year – but the President can convene additional meetings to address urgent issues.
It generally decides issues by consensus – but by unanimity or qualified majority in some cases. Only the heads of state/government can vote.
Give a short explanation of the difference between The European Council and The Council of Europe?
The European Council = defines EU’s general political direction and priorities (based in Brussels, brings together the 28 EU leaders).
The Council of Europe = seeks to promote democracy, protect human rights and safeguard the rule of law in Europe (based in Strasbourg, all EU member states belong to the Council of Europe - has 47 members including Russia and Turkey)
What does The European Commission do - describe the main functions?
Role: Promotes the general interest of the EU by proposing and enforcing legislation as well as by implementing policies and the EU budget
Members: A team or ‘College’ of Commissioners, 1 from each EU country (1 president, 7 vice presidents (1 head vice president) and 20 other commissioners)
President: Ursula von der Leyen
Year established: 1958
Location: Brussels (Belgium)
The European Commission is the EU’s politically independent executive arm. The commissioners are not allowed to work for their own contry’s national interrest, but should operate after EU as a whole.
It is alone responsible for drawing up proposals for new European legislation, and it implements the decisions of the European Parliament and the Council of the EU.
Meetings takes place once a week and are not open to the public.
What does the Commission do?
- Proposes new laws
- The Commission is the sole EU institution tabling laws for adoption by the Parliament and the Council that:
Protect the interests of the EU and its citizens on issues that can’t be dealt with effectively at national level
get technical details right by consulting experts and the public
- Manages EU policies & allocates EU funding
- Sets EU spending priorities, together with the Council and Parliament
- Draws up annual budgets for approval by the Parliament and Council
- Supervises how the money is spent, under scrutiny by the Court of Auditors
- Enforces EU law
- Together with the Court of Justice, ensures/monitors that EU law is properly applied in all the member countries (formal infringement procedures can be initiated if the EC detect breaches)
- Represents the EU internationally
- Speaks on behalf of all EU countries in international bodies, in particular in areas of trade policy and humanitarian aid
- Negotiates international agreements for the EU Composition
Political leadership is provided by a team of 27 Commissioners (one from each EU country) – led by the Commission President, who decides who is responsible for which policy area.
The College of Commissioners is composed of the President of the Commission, eight Vice-Presidents, including three Executive Vice-Presidents, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and 18 Commissioners, each responsible for a portfolio.
The day-to-day running of Commission business is performed by its staff (lawyers, economists, etc.), organised into departments known as Directorates-General (DGs), each responsible for a specific policy area.
Appointing the President
The candidate is put forward by national leaders in the European Council, taking account of the results of the European Parliament elections. He or she needs the support of a majority of members of the European Parliament in order to be elected.
Selecting the team
The Presidential candidate selects potential Vice-Presidents and Commissioners based on suggestions from the EU countries. The list of nominees has to be approved by national leaders in the European Council.
Each nominee appears before the European Parliament to explain their vision and answer questions. Parliament then votes on whether to accept the nominees as a team. Finally, they are appointed by the European Council, by a qualified majority.
The current Commission’s term of office runs until 31 October 2024.
How does the Commission work?
Strategic planning
The President defines the policy direction for the Commission, which enables the Commissioners together to decide strategic objectives, and produce the annual work programme.
Collective decision making
Decisions are taken based on collective responsibility. All Commissioners are equal in the decision-making process and equally accountable for these decisions. They do not have any individual decision-making powers, except when authorized in certain situations.
The Vice-Presidents act on behalf of the President and coordinate work in their area of responsibility, together with several Commissioners. Priority projects are defined to help ensure that the College works together in a close and flexible manner.
Commissioners support Vice-Presidents in submitting proposals to the College. In general, decisions are made by consensus, but votes can also take place. In this case, decisions are taken by simple majority, where every Commissioner has one vote.
The relevant Directorate-General (headed by a Director-General, answerable to the relevant Commissioner) then takes up the subject. This is usually done in the form of draft legislative proposals.
These are then resubmitted to the Commissioners for adoption at their weekly meeting, after which they become official, and are sent to the Council and the Parliament for the next stage in the EU legislative process.
What does The Council of the European Union (The Council of Ministers) do - describe the main functions?
Role: Voice of EU member governments, adopting EU laws and coordinating EU policies
Members: Government ministers from each EU country, according to the policy area to be discussed
President: Each EU country holds the presidency on a 6-month rotating basis
Established in: 1958 (as Council of the European Economic Community)
Location: Brussels (Belgium)
In the Council of the EU, informally also known as the Council, government ministers from each EU country meet to discuss, amend and adopt laws, and coordinate policies. The ministers have the authority to commit their governments to the actions agreed on in the meetings.
Together with the European Parliament, the Council is the main decision-making body of the EU.
Not to be confused with:
European Council - quarterly summits, where EU leaders meet to set the broad direction of EU policy making
Council of Europe - not an EU body at all
What does the Council do?
- Negotiates and adopts EU laws, together with the European Parliament, based on proposals from the European Commission
- Coordinates EU countries’ policies
- Develops the EU’s foreign & security policy, based on European Council guidelines concludes agreements between the EU and other countries or international organisations
- Adopts the annual EU budget - jointly with the European Parliament Composition
There are no fixed members of the EU Council. Instead, the Council meets in 10 different configurations, each corresponding to the policy area being discussed. Depending on the configuration, each country sends their minister responsible for that policy area.
For example, when the Council meeting on economic and financial affairs (the “Ecofin Council”) is held, it is attended by each country’s finance minister.
Who chairs the meetings?
The Foreign Affairs Council has a permanent chairperson - the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. All other Council meetings are chaired by the relevant minister of the country holding the rotating EU presidency.
For example, any Environment Council meeting in the period when Estonia holds the presidency will be chaired by the Estonian environment minister.
Overall consistency is ensured by the General Affairs Council - which is supported by the Permanent Representatives Committee. This is composed of EU countries’ Permanent Representatives to the EU, who are, in effect, national ambassadors to the EU.
Eurozone countries
Eurozone countries coordinate their economic policy through the Eurogroup, which consists of their economy and finance ministers. It meets the day before Economic & Financial Affairs Council meetings. Agreements reached in Eurogroup gatherings are formally decided upon in the Council the next day, with only ministers of Eurozone countries voting on those issues.
How does the Council work?
EU ministers meet in public when they discuss or vote on draft legislative acts
to be passed, decisions usually require a qualified majority:
55% of countries (with 27 current members, this means 15 countries)
representing at least 65 % of total EU population
You can watch the Council’s public sessions live in all EU languages. When a Council meeting is public, so are its minutes and votes.
To block a decision, at least 4 countries are needed (representing at least 35% of total EU population)
Exception - sensitive topics like foreign policy and taxation require a unanimous vote (all countries in favour).
Simple majority is required for procedural & administrative issues
What does The European Parliament do - describe the main functions?
Role: Directly-elected EU body with legislative, supervisory, and budgetary responsibilities
Members: 705 MEPs (Members of the European Parliament)
President: David-Maria Sassoli
Established in: 1952 as Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community, 1962 as European
Parliament, first direct elections in 1979
Location: Strasbourg (France for meetings), Brussels (Belgium for meetings), Luxembourg (for administrative work)
The European Parliament is the EU’s law-making body. It is directly elected by EU voters every 5 years. The last elections were in May 2019.
Elections
The European elections took place between 23-26 May 2019.
More about the 2019 European elections results
What does the Parliament do?
The Parliament has 3 main roles:
Legislative
Passing EU laws, together with the Council of the EU, based on European Commission proposals
Deciding on international agreements
Deciding on enlargements
Reviewing the Commission’s work programme and asking it to propose legislation
Supervisory
Democratic scrutiny of all EU institutions
Electing the Commission President and approving the Commission as a body. Possibility of voting a motion of censure, obliging the Commission to resign
Granting discharge, i.e. approving the way EU budgets have been spent
Examining citizens’ petitions and setting up inquiries
Discussing monetary policy with the European Central Bank
Questioning Commission and Council
Election observations
Budgetary
Establishing the EU budget, together with the Council
Approving the EU’s long-term budget, the “Multiannual Financial Framework”
Composition
The number of MEPs for each country is roughly proportionate to its population, but this is by degressive proportionality: no country can have fewer than 6 or more than 96 MEPs and the total number cannot exceed 705 (704 plus the President). MEPs are grouped by political affiliation, not by nationality.
The President represents Parliament to other EU institutions and the outside world and gives the final go-ahead to the EU budget.
How does the Parliament work?
Parliament’s work comprises two main stages:
Committees - to prepare legislation.
The Parliament numbers 20 committees and three subcommittees, each handling a particular policy area. The committees examine proposals for legislation, and MEPs and political groups can put forward amendments or propose to reject a bill. These issues are also debated within the political groups.
Plenary sessions – to pass legislation.
This is when all the MEPs gather in the chamber to give a final vote on the proposed legislation and the proposed amendments. Normally held in Strasbourg for four days a month, but sometimes there are additional sessions in Brussels.
The European Parliament has, since 1979, been elected every five years. How many members are there in the European Parliament today?
705 (according to EU’s website)
How many member states is there in the EU?
27 (without UK)
Which year was the Treaty of Rome signed?
1957
Where are the headquarters of the Council of Europe?
In Strasbourg (France)
How many member states does the Council of Europe have?
47 (including Russia & Turkey)
How frequently does the rotating Presidency of the EU change?
Every six months (the presidency is currently hold by France)
Who appoints the European Commission College of Commissioners? And for how long are they appointed?
Each of the 28 current Member States appoints a Commissioner
Each Commissioner is appointed for a five-year term
What is meant by ‘Exclusive Union Competence’?
Only the EU can legislate and adopt legally binding acts i.e. the Member States cannot act independently in these areas
What is a directive?
A piece of legislation binding on Member States as regards the results to be achieved, but leaves the choice of method up to them
