European Union - main institutions

 The functioning of the EU is supported by the following institutions :

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1. European Parliament


2. European Council/Council of the European Union


3. The European Commission


4. Court of Justice


5. Court of Auditors

(see Romanian Version)

These institutions collaborate closely with several bodies, namely:

1. Economic and Social Committee


2. Committee of the Regions


3. European Ombudsman


4. European Investment Bank


5. European Central Bank

On February 12, 2001, the foreign ministers of the EU member states signed the Treaty of Nice , a document that provides for the reform of European institutions and paves the way for the expansion of the Union by admitting 12 more states.


The European Union acts within the limits of the competences and objectives conferred on it by the Treaty. In areas that do not belong to its exclusive competence, the Community only intervenes if and to the extent that the objectives of the targeted action cannot be achieved in a satisfactory manner for the member states and can be better achieved at the Community level.


This is the principle of subsidiarity , which aims at decision-making efficiency through the acceptance by the member states of the transfer of a part of the sovereign powers to independent institutions that represent, at the same time, the national interests as well as the community interests. The principle of subsidiarity aims to prevent the "acquisition" of too much influence by the Community, so that the Community acts only if the proposed objective cannot be effectively achieved by the member states.


The Union respects the national identity of the member states, in which the government systems are based on democratic principles, as well as the rights guaranteed by the European Convention on Fundamental Human Rights and Freedoms, signed in Rome in 1950.


Right from the beginning, the task of achieving the goals for which the three Communities (CEEC, CEEA, CEE) were created was entrusted to a number of four institutions: the Commission, the Council, the European Parliament and the Court of Justice. The Court of Accounts was later added to these, which has existed since 1977, but was formally mentioned as a fundamental institution only in the Maastricht Treaty.


As for the headquarters of the main community institutions, they remained unchanged: the European Commission and the Council of the EU in Brussels, the Court of Justice and the Court of Accounts in Luxembourg, the European Parliament in Strasbourg (during ordinary sessions), Luxembourg (General Secretariat) and Brussels (parliamentary commissions, political groups, extraordinary sessions).


Until July 1967, the three Communities had separate Councils and Commissions (for the CEEC, the Commission was called "High Authority" ), while the European Parliament and the Court of Justice have been common since 1958.


Since 1967 there has been a single Council and a single Commission, this merger of institutions being considered a first step towards a single European Community, generated by a single Treaty (this is what was achieved through the Treaty of Maastricht - Holland, signed on February 7, 1992 and entered into force on November 1, 1993).


1. The European Commission is the executive body of the EU, and its main competences are control ( it supervises compliance with the Treaty), initiative (it has the monopoly of the initiative in matters of community competence), execution (it plays the role of a government at the community level) and representation (internally through the fact that the ambassadors to the EU of different countries present their letters of accreditation to the president of the Commission, and externally because the Commission has Delegationswith the rank of embassy in the candidate states or third countries, as well as Offices in the EU member states).


The European Commission is currently composed of 20 members (commissioners), approved by the agreement of the governments of the EU member states and the European Parliament (until the entry into force of the Maatricht Treaty, each state proposed its commissioner - or its commissioners - and the other members they confirmed it by their agreement, the procedure being practically intergovernmental). During the mandate, which lasts five years, the commissioners are independent, both from the governments of the countries they come from and from the EU Council, they cannot dismiss a member of the Commission.However, the European Parliament can request through a motion of censure the en bloc resignation of the Commission, in which case it continues to manage the current issues until the time of its effective replacement.


In general terms, the role of the European Commission includes the functions of the guardian of the EU Treaty, the executive body of the Union, it holds the quasi-total monopoly of the initiative in the legislative process and is the defender of the interests of the European Union before the Council, the latter being, by definition, a representative of the interests of the member states.


The administrative apparatus available to the commissioners is permanent (career officials) and numbers over 15,000 people. This apparatus is structured in general directions, directions, specialized services and units.


2. The Council of the European Union is composed of representatives of the governments of the member states. Its meetings are usually attended by the ministries responsible for the sector under discussion (each government sends its own minister), but there is also a permanent secretariat (the General Secretariat of the EU Council), as well as meetings at the level of ambassadors of the community states and their deputies, in what is called the "Committee of Permanent Representatives" (COREPER 2 - for ambassadors, COREPER 1 - for their deputies).


Although the foreign ministries are considered the main representatives in the Council (they meet in the General Affairs Council which ensures horizontal coordination and foreign policy decisions), the portfolio holders from finance, agriculture, transport, economy, social protection, industry, environmental protection, And so on they frequently meet alone or with foreign ministers.


The Council of the European Union represents one of the fundamental institutions of the community construction, the Treaty establishing that it is the representative of the interests of the member states. The presidency of the EU Council is held by rotation, for six months, by each member state.


The EU Council takes decisions after the opinion of the Parliament or in co-decision procedure with it. It has the role of coordinating the general economic policies of the Union, of concluding, on its behalf, international agreements, of approving, together with the Parliament, the Community budget. It also takes the necessary decisions in order to define and implement the CFSP, and in order to coordinate the actions of the member states in the areas related to public order and judicial cooperation in criminal matters.


This institution should not be confused with the Council of Europe , which is a continental intergovernmental organization, mainly active in the field of human rights.


The EU Council is assisted by a large number of working groups, as well as by COREPER, the latter having the role of filtering files and preparing the issues on the agenda of the Council of Ministers.


3. At the December 1974 summit , heads of state (for France) or governments (for the other member countries) decided to meet periodically, in what has since been called the European Council . The president of the European Commission, one of the commissioners (usually the one responsible for foreign policy or, as the case may be, EU enlargement) as well as the foreign ministers from the 15 EU member states attend its meetings. Until 1985, the number of European Council meetings was three each year. Since 1986 they have been reduced to two, one during each biannual EU presidency. Obviously, extraordinary meetings can also take place, if necessary.


In the practice of the last years, the heads of states or governments from the candidate countries for accession are also special guests at the European Councils.


The legal consecration of the European Council was achieved through the Single European Act (1987), the Maastricht Treaty specifying its competencies: "it provides the European Union with the impulses necessary for its development and defines the general political guidelines, debates the major economic policy guidelines of the member states and defines the general principles and guidelines of foreign policy and common security."


4. The European Parliament represents the democratic forum of the EU, made up of the representatives of the peoples of the Union, elected by universal suffrage by the citizens of the member states. It has the function of participating in the legislative process (through the co-decision procedure) and controlling the Union's activity.


In the current formula of the European Union with 15 members, the European Parliament counts 626 MEPs, appointed by universal suffrage and directly in the states they come from. Following the Treaty of Nice (December 2000), the number of members was increased to 732 (to allow the entry of MEPs from the candidate countries that will become members). The electoral procedure is not uniform, although there have been a number of projects in this sense (recently, the debate on this topic was reopened), the matter being the responsibility of the parliamentary initiative.


The first direct elections for the European Parliament took place on June 10, 1979, and the most recent on June 10-13, 1999. The main competence of the European Parliament is manifested in the budgetary field, because it has the possibility to completely reject the adoption of the Community budget.


The European Parliament also has the last word regarding non-compulsory community spending (European social fund - ESF, regional development fund - FEDER, funds allocated to research, the energy field, industrial policy, etc. - in total almost a third of the European Union budget).


In the legislative field, its initial power was relatively limited, consisting mainly of issuing advisory opinions. The original treaties also mentioned sectors in which the approval of the parliamentary institution was necessary (for example, in the case of concluding association agreements with third countries or ratifying EU accession agreements).


Since 1987, with the entry into force of the Single European Act (the first major amendment to the Treaties establishing the European Communities), a cooperation procedure was introduced between the EU Council, the European Commission and the European Parliament, applicable to decisions taken by qualified majority in the fields related to the internal market, social policy, economic and social cohesion, scientific research.


The Maastricht Treaty introduced a new procedure called the "co-decision procedure", which further anchors the European Parliament in the legislative decision-making process, and the Amsterdam Treaty simplified and expanded co-decision so that it becomes operational in an increased number of domains.


The European Parliament appoints, during its legislature, a Mediator (Ombudsman - equivalent to the People's Advocate in Romania), tasked with receiving complaints from EU citizens in cases of bad administration by community institutions. The mediator can conduct investigations and submit reports on their results to the European Parliament and the community institution in question.


5. The Court of Justice (CJCE) is composed of 15 judges (one for each member state) appointed by the agreement of the governments of the EU countries for a period of 6 years, with the role of ensuring the implementation of the provisions of the Treaty. The 15 judges are assisted by 8 general advocates.


The role of the ECJ is to ensure the interpretation of Community legislation, in accordance with the provisions of the ECJ Treaties; it is, at the same time, the only competent institution to pronounce on the correct interpretation of the Treaties, on its own initiative or at the request of the courts of the EU states; it also has the competence to control whether the instruments used for the implementation of community policies comply with the principle of respect for fundamental rights.


Since 1989, the CJCE has been assisted by a Court of First Instance composed of 15 judges, whose role is to resolve disputes between the European Commission and natural or legal persons, as well as administrative disputes between community institutions or between them and their officials, in the purpose of relieving the Court of Justice of lighter cases.


6. The Court of Accounts was established in 1977, but without being, from a strictly legal point of view, a community institution until the entry into force of the European Union Treaty (November 1, 1993).


It is composed of 15 members approved by the unanimous decision of the EU Council, after consulting the European Parliament.


The role of the Court of Accounts is to control whether the revenues and expenses from the community budget were legally obtained and used and whether the financial management of the European Union corresponded to the program established at the beginning of the year for which the control is carried out. The result of this control is materialized in an annual report on the basis of which the European Parliament grants the European Commission the budgetary discharge.


7. Following the decisions adopted at Maastricht, a series ofnew community institutions were established :



The Economic and Social Committee (ECOSOC), with an essentially consultative role and headquarters in Brussels. It existed before the adoption of the Maastricht Treaty, but it was not legalized as a community institution. It is composed of 222 members, representatives of economic and social interest groups from the EU states;

The European Monetary Institute, based in Frankfurt. Opened on January 1, 1994, it was the forerunner of the European Central Bank, which replaced it on January 1, 1999, with the advent of the single currency EURO;

European Environmental Protection Agency, based in Denmark;

EUROPOL, based in the Netherlands, wants to be the forerunner of a future common European police;

The Drug Observatory, based in Portugal;

Medicines Office (in the UK);

Permanent Education Foundation (in Italy);

Training Office for Eastern Countries (in Greece);

Office for Health and Labor Protection (in Spain);

Veterinary Inspection Office (in Ireland);

Committee of the Regions (based in Brussels, Belgium).