key institutions

Question 1

what’s the role of the european commission?

Answer 1

-initiate legislation
-draft the EU budget and allocate funding
-represent the EU in international negotiations
-seen as the administrative part of the EU
-only EU body that can propose new laws

Question 2

what’s the significance of the european commission?

Answer 2

-it’s a supranational body
-it has 27 commissioners, one from each EU country
-national governments nominate commissioners and the european council nominates the president of the commission
-nominees are confirmed by the european parliament

Question 3

what’s the role of the council of the european union?

Answer 3

-the main decision making body of the EU
-it coordinates policies of EU nations
-it approves legislation from the commission
-it approves the EU budget
-negotiates trade deals with non EU states e.g. with japan in 2019

Question 4

what’s the significance of the council of the european union?

Answer 4

-it’s an intergovernmental body
-gov. ministers from each of the nations attend and make decisions together
-there are 10 different types of meetings attended by the appropriate ministers e.g. finance ministers at the meeting on economic and financial affairs
-it acts under the authority of the less frequent formal meetings of the european council

Question 5

what’s the role of the european council?

Answer 5

it decides the direction of the EU and policy priorities aka agenda setting

Question 6

what’s the significance of the european council?

Answer 6

-it’s an intergovernmental body
-heads of gov./state for all EU nations meet 4 times annually
-responsible for making big strategic decisions
-it oversaw brexit negotiations with the UK and formulated an EU response to the situation in Ukraine

Question 7

what’s the role of the european parliament?

Answer 7

-it approves legislation from the commission, or amends/vetoes it
-it approves the EU budget
-it provides democratic supervision of EU institutions
-oversees the work of EU institutions
-e.g. in 2019 they vetoed a commissioner nominee over irregularities in her wealth declaration forms

Question 8

what’s the significance of the european parliament?

Answer 8

-it’s the EU’s only directly elected body
-there are 705 members of the european parliament (MEPs)
-each EU nation is allocated a number of seats that reflects its size, e.g. germany has 96 seats whereas cyprus has 6

Question 9

what’s the role of the court of justice of the european union?

Answer 9

-it’s the judiciary of the EU
-made up of the court of justice (preliminary rulings) and general court (actions for annulment)
-it interprets the law and ensures it is applied in the same way across the EU
-it rules against EU nations that infringe the law
-it ensures the EU acts appropriately and in accordance with its own laws
-lots of its work concerns trade and copyright e.g. in 2020 its general court overturned the commission’s decision to block the merger of O2 and three

Question 10

what’s the significance of the court of justice of the european union?

Answer 10

judges are appointed by national governments