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The European Commission
Together with the European Parliament and the European Council, the European Commission is one of the tree main institutions of the European Union.
Composition and organisation
The EU-Commission is composed of 27 Commissioners, one for each member state.
The Treaty of Lissabon had actually foreseen that from 2014 on only two-thirds of the Member States should have one commissioner according to the rotation principle. Since the the Treaty also allows that each of the 27 Member States can still have one commissioner, in future the number of commissioner will not be reduced and each Member State will have its own Commissioner.
Member state governments together appoint the new president of the Commission; the decision must be ratified by the Parliament. The designed president - working only with national governments - puts together the team of commissioners, which have to be confirmed both by the European Council and by the European Parliament. The Parliament thoroughly questions each candidate Commissioner, and issues an opinion about her. After the approval by the Parliament, which must accept or reject the Commission as a whole, the Commission is appointed by the Council by qualified majority.
Each commissioner is responsible for a specific department.
The commission is divided in Directorate-Generals, which can be compared to ministries of a country's government. Each Directorate-General is lead by a director-general, which handles the administrative functions and answers to a commissioner. The policy areas of each Directorate-General do not coincide with the areas of responsibility assigned to the members of the Commission, so more than one Commissioner may supervise a Directorate General.
The president of the European Commission for the next 5 years is José Manuel Barroso.
The Commission is politically accountable to the Parliament; it outlines its policies during meetings of the Parliament and answers orally or in writing to questions of the members of parliament (MPs). The Parliament can withdraw confidence from the Commission, hence forcing it to resign. A confidence vote cannot be taken for single commissioners but the president of the Commission can request for a commissioner to resign if the other commissioners support the decision.
The Commission has its headquarters in Brussels, but also maintains offices in Luxemburg. It is represented in every member state and has delegations in many capitals worldwide.
The Commission meets once weekly, generally each Wednesday in Brussels.
The Commission employs ca. 23.000 administrative functionaries.
Tasks:
The EU-Commission has 4 main tasks:
Submitting proposals for new legislation, which are addressed by the Parliament or the Council.
Implementation of EU policies and management of the budget.
Control over the correct application of European legislation; this task is shared with the European Court of Justice.
Diplomatic representation of the European Union ("one voice" for all member states).
Legislative proposals:
The Commission has legislative initiative, meaning that it is the only institution empowered to propose new legislation. In doing so it acts solely in the name of the European Union and its citizens, that is, it does not pursue county-specific or industry-specific aims. The Commission's proposals are then addressed either by the Parliament or by the Council.
The Commission is in constant communication with its advisory councils and with national governments, in order to provide legislative drafts that are balanced and advantageous to European citizens.
The Directorate-Generals are responsible for drawing up legislative proposals, on which the Commission then votes during its meetings. If the proposal receives at least 14 out of 27 votes, the proposal is accepted and is forwarded to the Parliament or the Council.
The commission acts according to the subsidiarity principle. This means that proposals for new legislation are submitted at EU level only if they cannot be handled at a lower institutional level (e.g. at national or regional levels).
Application of EU policies:
The Commission is the executive branch of the European Union and is responsible for the administration and implementation of the budget. The majority of expenditures is managed through national and regional bodies, but the Commission maintains a supervising role - along with the European Court of Justice.
Moreover, the Commission administers the political measures approved by the Parliament, promotes the competitiveness of the internal market and implements EU-programs, such as the "Erasmus" student exchange program.
Guardian of the treaties:
One essential function of the Commission is its role as "Guardian of the Treaties". Together with the Court of Justice it watches over the correct application of European Law.
The Commission can issue an "Infringement Procedure" whereby a letter is sent to the government of a member state that lists the alleged infringements of EU Law and sets a deadline by which the state must take a stance on the matter(s).
If no reply is received from the state's government, or if the infringement of EU-Law continues, the Commission forwards the case to the European Court of Justice (ECJ).
For further information regarding the European Commission please see
http://ec.europa.eu/index_en.htm
status 11-2009
n. 63
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