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EU Institutions
European Commission
Three key players
The European Parliament
- voice of the people
Martin Schulz, President of
of the European Parliament
The European Council and the Council
- voice of the Member States
Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council
The European Commission
- promoting the common interest
José Manuel Barroso, President
of the European Commission
The EU institutions
European Council (summit)
European Parliament
Court of
Justice
Court of
Auditors
European Investment Bank
Council of Ministers
(The Council)
European Commission
Economic and Social
Committee
Committee of the Regions
Agencies
European Central Bank
How EU laws are made
Citizens, interest groups, experts: discuss, consult
Commission: makes formal proposal
Parliament and Council of Ministers: decide jointly
National or local authorities: implement
Commission and Court of Justice: monitor implementation
131
230
Romania
34
30
20
9
Netherlands
Belgium
Slovenia
Cyprus
0.3
43
Denmark
Malta
43
Estonia
3
49
Slovakia
Luxemburg
62
56
Latvia
63
Lithuania
Croatia
68
83
Austria
Ireland
92
Portugal
77
93
Hungary
Czech Republic
111
Bulgaria
Greece
244
United Kingdom
Italy
Finland
Poland
Germany
Sweden
Spain
France
295
305
313
357
410
506
544
How big are the EU countries?
Surface area in 1 000 km²
The European Commission – promoting
the common interest
28 independent members,
one from each EU country
4Proposes new legislation
4Executive organ
4Guardian of the treaties
4Represents the EU on the international stage
The European Commission
Promoting the Common Interests
Role: Executive arm of the EU that proposes laws, polices agreements
and promotes the Union
Members: : A college of Commissioners, one from each Member State
Location: Brussels, Belgium
Role
•The Commission is the politically independent institution that
represents and upholds the interests of the EU as a whole.
•In many areas is the driving force and the sole authority that
proposes legislation, implements programs of action (policies)
and carries forward decisions of the European Parliament and
Council
•It represents the Union to the outside world, sans CFSP
What is the Commission?
• Government of sorts of the EU: 28 commissioners
• It has one President
• Several Vice-Presidents
• The High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
• Staff
Appointing the Commission
• A new Commission is appointed every five years, within six
months of the elections to the European Parliament. The
procedure is as follows:
• The Member State governments propose a new Commission
President, who must be elected by the European Parliament.
• The proposed Commission President, in discussion with the
Member State governments, chooses the other members of the
Commission.
• The new Parliament then interviews all proposed members and
gives its opinion on the entire ‘College’. If approved, the new
Commission can officially start work the following January.
What the Commission Does
• Proposing New Legislation
• Under the EU Treaty, the Commission has the ‘right of
initiative’. In other words, the Commission alone is
responsible for drawing up proposals for new European
legislation, which it presents to Parliament and the Council.
These proposals must aim to defend the interests of the
Union and its citizens, not those of specific countries or
industries
• Implementing EU Policies and the Budget
• As the European Union’s executive body, the Commission is
responsible for managing and implementing the EU budget and the
policies and programmes adopted by Parliament and the Council.
Most of the actual work and spending is done by national and local
authorities but the Commission is responsible for supervising it.
• The Commission handles the budget under the watchful eye of the
Court of Auditors. Both institutions aim to ensure good financial
management. Only if it is satisfied with the Court of Auditors’ annual
report does the European Parliament grant the Commission discharge
for implementing the budget
• Enforcing European Law
• The Commission acts as ‘guardian of the treaties’. This means that,
together with the Court of Justice, it is responsible for making sure EU
law is properly applied in all the Member States. If it finds that any EU
country is not applying a Union law, and therefore not meeting its
legal obligations, the Commission takes steps to put the situation
right
• Enforcement Procedure
• First, it launches a legal process called the ‘infringement procedure’.
This involves sending the government an official letter explaining why
the Commission considers this country is infringing EU law, and
setting it a deadline for sending the Commission a detailed reply. If
this procedure fails to correct matters, the
• Commission then refers the issue to the Court of
• Justice, which has the power to impose penalties. The Court’s
judgments are binding on the Member States and the EU institutions.
• Representing the Union on the International Stage
• The High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy is a
Vice-President of the Commission and has responsibility for external
affairs. In matters concerning foreign affairs and security, the High
Representative works with the Council. However, in other areas of
external action the Commission plays the leading role — in particular
in the areas of trade policy and humanitarian aid. In these areas, the
European Commission acts as an important spokesperson for the
European Union on the international stage. It enables the 27 Member
States to speak with one voice in international forums such as the
World Trade Organisation.
• Staff
• The Commission’s staff is organised into departments, known as
directorates-general (DGs) and services (such as the Legal Service).
Each DG is responsible for a particular policy area — for example, the
Trade DG and the Competition DG — and is headed by a DirectorGeneral who is answerable to one of the Commissioners.
•
•
•
•
• EUROSTAT
Eurostat is the Statistical Office of the European Union and part of the
Commission.
Its task is to provide the EU with statistics at European level that enable
comparisons to be made between countries and regions. This is a key task.
Democratic societies do not function properly without a solid basis of
reliable and objective statistics.
Eurostat statistics can answer many questions: is unemployment up or
down? Are there more CO2 emissions compared to 10 years ago? How
many women go to work? How is your country’s economy performing
compared to that of other EU Member States?
epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu
How the Commission Work
• It is up to the Commission President to decide which Commissioner
will be responsible for which policy area, and to reshuffle these
responsibilities (if necessary) during the Commission’s term of office.
• The President is also entitled to demand a Commissioner’s
resignation. The team of 28 Commissioners (also known as ‘the
College’) meets once a week, usually on Wednesdays in Brussels.
• Each item on the agenda is presented by the Commissioner
responsible for that policy area, and the College takes a collective
decision on it.
How the Commission Work
• It is the DGs that actually devise and draft the Commission’s
legislative proposals, but these proposals only become official when
‘adopted’ by the College at its weekly meeting. The procedure is
roughly as follows.
• The proposed legislation will then be discussed with all relevant
Commission departments and amended if necessary. It will then be
checked by the Legal Service
• Once the proposal is complete, the Secretary-General will put it on
the agenda for a forthcoming Commission meeting.
PRESIDENTS OF THE COMMISSION
Period of
office
1958-67
1967-70
1970-72
1972-73
1973-77
1977-81
1981-85
1985-95
1995- March
1999
March 1999 September 1999
September 1999
-18 November
2004
Walter Hallstein
Jean Rey
Franco Maria Malfatti
Sicco Mansholt
François-Xavier Ortoli
Roy Jenkins
Gaston Thorn
Jacques Delors
Country of
origin
West Germany
Belgium
Italy
Netherlands
France
United Kingdom
Luxembourg
France
Christian Democrat
Liberal
Christian Democrat
Socialist
UDR (Gaullist)
Labour
Liberal
Socialist
Jacques Santer
Luxembourg
Christian Democrat
Manuel Marín (Interim)
Spain
Socialist (PSOE)
Romano Prodi
Italy
Olive Tree coalition
(center-left alliance)
Portugal
Social Democrat (PSD)
President
José Manuel Durão
November 2004
Barroso
- present
Party
Civil servants working for the EU
Commission employs about 23 000 permanent civil
servants and 11 000 temporary or contract workers
Other EU institutions: about 10 000 employed
4 Permanent civil servant s
4 Select ed by open compet it ions
4 Come f rom all EU count ries
4 Salaries decided by law
4 EU administ rat ion cost s €15 per EU cit izen per year
How does the EU spend its money?
2013 EU budget: €150.9 billion
= 1.13% of gross national income
Citizens, freedom,
security and justice
1%
The EU as a global player:
including development aid
6%
Natural resources:
agriculture,
environment
40%
Other, administration
6%
Sustainable growth:
jobs, competitiveness, regional development
47%
Europe 2020 – Europe's growth strategy
EU leaders agreed in 2010 the overall strategy to get out of the
economic crisis by means of:
4 Smart growt h
Better education, more research, greater use of communication technologies
4 Sust ainable growt h
A resource - efficient, greener and more competitive economy
4 Inclusive growt h
More and better jobs, investment in skills and training, modernisation of
the labour market and welfare systems, spreading the benefits of growth to
all parts of the EU
4 Good economic governance
Better coordination of economic policy
The five targets for the EU in 2020
A greed in the Europe 2020 strategy:
4 Employment
75% of 20-64 year-olds to be employed
4 Research and innovation
3% of the EU's GDP to be invested in research
4 Climate change/energy
Greenhouse gas emissions 20% lower than 1990
20% of energy from renewables
20% increase in energy efficiency
4 Education
School drop-out rates below 10%
40% of 30-34–year-olds completing third-level education
4 Poverty
20 million fewer people in, or at risk of, poverty and social exclusion
Climate change – a global challenge
To stop global warming, EU leaders decided in 2007 to:
reduce greenhouse gas emissions
by 20% by 2020 (30% if other developed
4
countries do likewise)
4
improve energy efficiency by 20% by 2020
raise the share of renewable energy
to 20% by 2020 (wind, solar, hydro
power, biomass)
4
Europe's response to the economic crisis
2008: Worldwide financial crisis starts in the United States
Coordinated response from the EU's national governments, the
European Central Bank and the European Commission:
4 Commit ment t o t he euro and t o f inancial st abilit y
4 New crisis management t ools and ref orms of rules:
European Stability Mechanism: fund to help extraordinary economic difficulties
EU-wide financial supervisory authorities, new laws for stability of banks
4 Bet t er economic governance:
European Semester: annual procedure to coordinate public budgets
Euro+ pact, "Fiscal compact treaty” : mutual commitments to sound public
finances