Principal Instiutions and Laws of the European Union

The European Union (EU) is a political economic union of 28 members. The founders are France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Italy, Netherlands, and Germany. The Maastricht treaty established the European Union in 1993. The EU aims to ensure the free movement of people, goods, services and capital and regional development. These 28 member states have successfully integrated because of their similar cultural lifestyles.

The European Union (EU) is economic and political union which is located in Europe in Brussels. It consists of 785 members representing the 492 million citizens of the 27 Member States of The European Union. Countries which join EU are Austria, Bulgaria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Portugal, Cyprus, Estonia, Luxembourg, Denmark, Finland, Slovakia, France, Italy, United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, Lithuania, Latvia, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Romania, Slovenia and Sweden. EU is elected every 5 years throughout all the Members States.

The predecessors can be linked back to 1951 with the originating organization, the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). In 1967, the ECSC became the European Community (Wikipedia, 2006).

European Law is very complex law , within EU law there is various different treaties which are in place. Two most significant treaties which have importance to the legislative process are The Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union.

Where does the power in the EU lie? Is it in the member States or the government? Or does the power lie in certain components of the EU such as, the Commission, the Council, the Parliament or the Court of Justice. There is no clear cut answer and the division of responses to this question from the class supports this.

The European parliament – the EU citizens elect a Member of Parliament, which Leads to subsequent legislation.

Treaty of Lisbon has provided that Union should uphold the representative democracy and thus, the legislative power is divided between the European Commission (‘the Commission’) which represents the interest of the European Union as a whole, the Council of Ministers (‘the Council’) which represents the Member States’ interests or their citizens and the European Parliament which represents its citizens’ interests. However, only 34% turned out to vote at the last EU election which implied a growing dissent in Europe. The EU is described as “undemocratic from the start”. The gist of the question is whether the EU law-making process is sufficiently democratic. EU’s democratic performance should be judged on the basis of subsidiarity, representativeness, accountability and engagement.

The European parliament is an elected parliamentary institution of the European union (EU) which was formed on November 1st 1993, they mainly focus on functions like legislation within the 28 member states that form up the European union to help sustain, control and create a political and economic community throughout Europe, the European parliament’s general role is to represent the citizens of the EU community.

6. The European Court of Justice can overrule all member states’ courts on which issues?

Everything we do or decide is influenced by politics. In the UK, there are many different levels of Government that have an impact on our lives. One of these levels is the European Union. The three main EU Institution are the European Commission, which promotes the common interest and the current president of the European Commission is Jose Manuel Barroso; the European Council and the Council, which is the voice of the Members States and the current president of the European Council is Herman Van Rompuy; the European Parliament that although is not part of the UK levels of government, it has a significant impact on European Union citizens. The European Parliament, together with the Council, debates and passes European laws and adopts the EU’s budget. The European Parliament has 736 members who represents all 27 members’ states of the EU. Its main role is to delegate legislation on issues such as transport, environment, equal opportunities and movement of workers and goods. In conclusion, the European Parliament is the voice of the people. The president of the European Parliament is Martin Schutz.

The European Union makes law for the countries; these laws come under various categories such as treaties; regulations; directives and decisions. Treaties (which are the only primary EU legislation) are binding agreements between the EU countries, setting objectives for EU, making guidelines for EU institutions, how decisions are made and finally deals with the relationship between EU and its member countries. Every action taken by the EU is founded on treaties. These are important because they help EU members become more efficient and prepare for new EU members and introduce new areas to cooperate. These are directly applicable meaning they automatically become laws for the EU member countries. An example of a treaty is the Treaty of Lisbon

The Council of the EU (the Council of Ministers) is responsible for deciding those legislative measures to be taken at EU level, rather than domestic level, and also for deciding the government ministers of member states. The Council of Ministers consists of ministers from the governments of the member states, each (supposedly*) representing the interests of their own country. The Presidency of the Council is held by each country for six months. July 2005 marked the beginning of the UK’s most recent Presidency.

The EU has four amount institutions: an controlling (the European Commission),two aldermanic bodies (the European Parliament, with associates (MEPs) elected by absolute vote in anniversary Member State, and the Council of Ministers, comprising national ministers from anniversary Member State) and a court.

There are two bodies responsible for the legislative tasks in the EU. First one is The Council of the European Union (officially the Council and commonly referred to as the Council of Ministers) is the principal decision-making institution of the European Union. The Council is composed of twenty-seven national ministers. The primary purpose of the Council is to act as one of the two chambers of the EU 's legislative branch. The Council is the main law-making body of the EU (on the initiative of the Commission and in co-decision with the European Parliament). The Council is based in Brussels, but meets at fixed intervals in Luxembourg. Second body responsible for legislative task is European Parliament. The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union. Its essential function is to express the will of the Union’s citizen in the Community decision-making process hand-in-hand with the Council, representing the interests of the Member States. Together with the Council of the European Union, it forms the bicameral

The European Commission is the Executive (governmental) body of the EU, initiating legislative proposals and also managing the EU’s budget (Europa, 2007). Each commission operates for a five-year period, with meetings taking place in Brussels every Wednesday. The Commission consists of a President of the Commission and twenty-eight commissioners (some vice presidents). Employees of the Commission are organised according to department (Directorates-General) and answer to a Commissioner. The Commission exists in order to represent the interests of the whole of the EU (thus arguably the whole of Europe), as opposed to individual Member States. The Commission represents the EU on a global basis and is the main participant in negotiations in areas such as trade. The appointment of Commissioners is the responsibility of the Parliament, with all having previously assumed senior positions in politics in their own country, usually within its national government. Proposals are drafted by the senior civil servant (Director-General. A proposal may be adopted if more than half of the Commissioners decide to adopt it. Once agreed, all Commissioners must give their unconditional support – similar to the collective responsibility held by the Scottish executives and the UK. The Commission works closely with both