User:Blue-Haired Lawyer/sandbox
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[edit] Governance and politics
The political leadership in the EU is derived from the European Council which consisting in two senior politicians from each member state (normally the prime and foreign ministers). The European Council usually meet four times a year. It is headed by a rotating presidency, with every member state taking the helm of the EU for a period of six months during which they chair all meetings of the European Council and the Council of Ministers. The head of Government of the member state holding the presidency becomes the President of the European Union.[1] The member state holding the presidency typically uses it to drive a particular policy agenda such as economic reform, reform of the EU itself, enlargement or furthering European integration.
The EU is governed by a number of institutions, primarily the Council of the European Union the European Commission, and European Parliament. The Commission acts as the EU's executive arm and is responsible for the day-to-day running of the EU. It is currently composed of 27 commissioners, one from each member state. The President of the Commission and all the other commissioners are nominated by the Council. The President and then the Commission in its entirety, need to be confirmed by Parliament.[2]
The Council of the European Union (not be be confused with the European Council) forms one half of the EU's legislative branch. It is composed of the national ministers responsible for the area of policy being addressed.[3] In addition to its legislative functions, the Council also exercises executive functions in relations to the Common Foreign and Security Policy.
The other half of the EU's legislative branch is the European Parliament. The 785 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are directly elected by EU citizens every five years. Although members of parliament are elected in on a national basis, they sit according to political groups rather than their nationality. The institution has near-equal legislative powers with the Council in Community matters and has the power to reject or censure the Commission. The speaker of the Parliament, its president), is elected by its members every two and a half years.[4]
The EU is often described as being divided into three "pillars". Under this conception the European Community, upon which the EU was founded, forms the first pillar of the EU. The second pillar consists of the Common Foreign and Security Policy. The third pillar originally consisted of Justice and Home Affairs however owing to changes introduced by the Amsterdam and Nice treaties, it currently only consists of Police and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters. Broadly speaking the second and third pillars can be described as the intergovernmental pillars because the supranational institutions of the Commission, Parliament and the Court of Justice play less of a role or none at all, while the lead is taken by the intergovernmental Council (of ministers) and the European Council. Most activities of the EU come under the first, Community pillar. This is mostly economically orientated and the same supranational institutions which are, more or less, excluded from the second and third pillars, have more influence.[5]
