The political bodies of the European Union

The European Parliament

The European Parliament is an institution of the governing body of the European Union (EU). It convenes on a monthly basis in Strasbourg, France; most meetings of the separate parliamentary committees are held in Brussels, Belgium, and its Secretariat is located in Luxembourg. The European Parliament was founded in 1958 as the European Parliamentary Assembly, and its members were chosen by the parliaments of the nations belonging to the three treaty organizations that were later merged to form what is now the EU.

Since 1979, the members sent by each nation have been directly elected by its citizens for five-year terms. Once elected, members are grouped according to political party or faction rather than nationality. Its expansion over the years has followed that of the EU; the Treaty of Lisbon (ratified 2009) sets its membership at 751. The parliament was for many years a consultative body, but its powers have been expanded. Those powers remain largely negative ones, exercised mainly through its ability to refuse to grant approval or otherwise act as required; it may not initiate legislation.

The final vote on legislation proposed by the European Commission, as well as amendments proposed by the parliament, is shared with or belongs to the Council of the European Union. The aspect of EU government over which the parliament has the most direct influence is the EU budget, which it may amend or reject and on which it generally has the final vote. It also must approve the slate of nominees for the European Commission.

The Commission of the European Union

European Commission (EC) is an institution of the European Union (EU) invested with executive powers; it also is the main EU institution that initiates legislation. Located in Brussels, Belgium, it was founded in 1967 when the three treaty organizations comprising what was then the European Community were officially merged; previously, each organization was governed by a separate commission. The commission is composed of 27 members-one from each EU nation, but under the Lisbon Treaty (ratified 2009) its membership will be reduced beginning in 2014. Members are appointed by European Council and serve four-year terms; the commission membership must be approved by the European Parliament. One member serves as president and six serve as vice presidents.

A large administrative staff, numbering some 25,000, is divided among many committees and administrative agencies. The commission implements the provisions of the EU's governing treaties and carries out legislation enacted by the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament. In keeping with the objective of the founding treaties, the commission initiates EU policy on the economy in particular but, increasingly, also on environmental and foreign and security affairs. The legislation it proposes is subject to amendment and approval by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union. It was under the presidency of Jacques Delors (1985-95) that the commission put forward  the  Single European Act (1987) and the Treaty of European Union (1992; also known as the Maastricht Treaty), both of which provided for a significant expansion of the EU's powers. In 1995, Jacques Santer of Belgium became president of the commission.

The entire commission resigned in 1999 amid accusations of financial mismanagement, corruption, fraud, and nepotism, and a new set of commissioners, with Romano Prodi of Italy as president, was appointed later the same year. In 2004, José Manuel Barroso succeeded Prodi as president.

The European Council

The European Council initially emerged as a series of summits, starting 1969 in The Hague, between the heads of government and heads of state of the European Community (EC). 1974 these political leaders agreed to meet 3 times each year. They took the title of the European Council. It was not until the Single European Act (1986) that the European Council came to have a treaty basis. It coordinates the various elements or ‘pillars’ of the European Union (EU) established by the Treaty on European Union (1992). However, the European Council remains outside the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, and therefore arguably outside the EU, narrowly defined.

The original model of the Community envisaged a technocratic integration of the states of Europe, bypassing the high politics of the member states. As a result, the heads of government and heads of state had no role in the EC. The European Council developed in response to the crisis in the legislative system of the European Community which began in the mid-1960s and resulted in a blight on the growth of the EC. The Council provided the reasons for the development of new consumer, environmental, and social policies, as well as initiating attempts at monetary union and foreign policy cooperation. Paradoxically the European Council played a key role in ‘relaunching’ the Community in the 1970s, while shifting initiative from the supranational Commission to the leaders of the member states.

The Council of Ministers of the European Union

The Council should not be confused with the ministerial cabinet of some countries such as France, nor with the European Council (regular EU summit meeting). It is responsible for approving European Union legislation and is composed of the ministers of the national states under a presidency which rotates among members semi-annually. This arrangement implies that European integration requires member states' agreement to proceed. In this sense it is paradoxically both a basic constraint on the Commission and European Parliament's pro-integration ambitions, and the main driving force behind what has been achieved. The idea that integration is ‘imposed from Brussels’ has therefore little grounding in reality. Important as the Council is in terms of decision-making, however, it does not fully control the agenda: it can only act on a proposal of the Commission, and approval on an increasing number of matters takes place in ‘co-decision’ with the parliament.

The Council passes legislation with a voting system weighted approximately to the square root of the member states' populations. The Commission is responsible for implementation in cooperation with member states. The actual personnel of the Council changes with the issue under discussion: finance ministers for budget, agriculture ministers the CAP, etc. The foreign ministers, as the senior council, meet at least once a month. The issue of voting has not surprisingly been controversial in the operation of the Council. The various EU treaties assigned unanimity to certain Council decisions, and qualified majority voting to others. In 1966 the Luxembourg Compromise established unanimity as the accepted practice if any member claimed that vital national interests were at stake, and this was often abused. The Single European Act and subsequent Treaties of Maastricht, Amsterdam, and Nice have redefined and reinforced the role of majority voting, particularly with respect to Single Market issues, thus enhancing the supranational qualities of the EU. Voting procedure is also important in the context of upcoming eastward enlargement as growing diversity of membership may paralyse decision-making where unanimity remains the norm.