THEEUROPEANUNIONANDITSINSTITUTIONS

Answerthefollowingquestions;firstdiscussinpairs:

1. WhatdoyouknowabouttheEuropeanUnionanditsinstitutions?2. Doyouknowwhoisrepresentedinthepicturesbelow?

http://ec.europa.eu/ec_portal/2014/images/news/img-commission.jpg

SomeinformationaboutEU(uptoDecember2014)

Readthefollowingtext:

THEEUROPEANCOMMISSION

The European Commission (EC) is the executive body of the European Union responsible forproposinglegislation,implementingdecisions,upholdingtheEUtreatiesandmanagingtheday-to-day business of the EU. Commissioners swear an oath at the European Court of Justice inLuxembourg,pledgingtorespectthetreatiesandtobecompletelyindependentincarryingouttheirdutiesduringtheirmandate.

The Commission operates as a cabinet government, with 28 members of the Commission(informallyknownas"commissioners").Thereisonememberpermemberstate,butmembersareboundbytheiroathofofficetorepresentthegeneralinterestoftheEUasawholeratherthan their home state. One of the 28 is the Commission President (currently Jean-ClaudeJuncker) proposed by the European Council and elected by the European Parliament. TheCouncil of the European Union then nominates the other 27members of the Commission inagreementwiththenominatedPresident,andthe28membersasasinglebodyarethensubjectto a vote of approval by the European Parliament. The current Commission is the JunckerCommission,whichtookofficeinlate2014.

The term Commission is used either in the narrow sense of the 28-member College ofCommissioners(orCollege)ortoalsoincludetheadministrativebodyofabout23,000Europeancivil servants who are split into departments called directorates-general and services. TheprocedurallanguagesoftheCommissionareEnglish,FrenchandGerman.TheMembersoftheCommission and their "cabinets" (immediate teams) are based in the Berlaymont building inBrussels.

The European Commission derives from one of the five key institutions created in thesupranationalEuropeanCommunitysystem,followingtheproposalofRobertSchuman,FrenchForeignMinister,on9May1950.Originatingin1951astheHighAuthorityintheEuropeanCoaland Steel Community, the Commission has undergone numerous changes in power andcompositionundervariouspresidents,involvingthreeCommunities.

Swearonoathat:to have formally promised to tell the truth

Topledge:to make a serious or formal promise to give or do something

Working in pairs, write a short summary about the European Commission and its functions

Readthefollowingtext:

THEEUROPEANPARLIAMENT

TheEuropean Parliament(EP) is thedirectly electedparliamentaryinstitutionof theEuropeanUnion(EU). Together with theCouncil of the European Union(the Council) and theEuropeanCommission, itexercisesthelegislativefunctionoftheEU.TheParliamentiscomposedof751(previously766)members,whorepresentthesecondlargestdemocraticelectorateintheworld(aftertheParliamentofIndia)andthelargesttrans-nationaldemocraticelectorateintheworld(375millioneligiblevotersin2009).

Ithasbeendirectlyelectedeveryfiveyearsbyuniversalsuffragesince1979.

Although the EuropeanParliamenthas legislativepower that theCouncil andCommissiondonotpossess,itdoesnotformallypossesslegislativeinitiative,asmostnationalparliaments.

It likewise has equal control over theEU budget. Finally, theEuropean Commission, theexecutive body of the EU, is accountable to Parliament. In particular, Parliament elects thePresidentoftheCommission,andapproves(orrejects)theappointmentoftheCommissionasawhole. Itcansubsequently forcetheCommissionasabodytoresignbyadoptingamotionofcensure.

ThePresidentoftheEuropeanParliament(Parliament'sspeaker)isMartinSchulz(S&D),electedin January 2012. He presides over a multi-party chamber, the two largest groups beingtheGroup of the European People's Party(EPP) and theProgressive Alliance of Socialists andDemocrats(S&D).Thelastunion-wideelectionswerethe2014elections.

The European Parliament has three places of work–Brussels(Belgium),the city ofLuxembourg(Luxembourg)andStrasbourg(France).Luxembourg ishometotheadministrativeoffices (the 'General Secretariat').Meetings of thewhole Parliament ('plenary sessions') takeplaceinStrasbourgandinBrussels.CommitteemeetingsareheldinBrussels.

TheParliament,liketheotherinstitutions,wasnotdesignedinitscurrentformwhenitfirstmeton 10 September 1952. One of the oldest common institutions, it began as theCommonAssemblyof theEuropeanCoalandSteelCommunity(ECSC). Itwasaconsultativeassemblyof78appointedparliamentariansdrawnfromthenationalparliamentsofmemberstates(seedualmandate),havingnolegislativepowers.

Itsdevelopment since its foundation is a testament to theevolutionof theUnion'sstructureswithout one clear "master plan". Some such as TomReid of theWashington Postsaid of theunion,"nobodywouldhavedeliberatelydesignedagovernmentascomplexandasredundantastheEU".EventheParliament'stwoseats,whichhaveswitchedseveraltimes,arearesultofvariousagreementsorlackofagreements.AlthoughmostMEPswouldprefertobebasedjustinBrussels, atJohnMajor's 1992 Edinburghsummit, France engineered a treaty amendment tomaintainParliament'splenaryseatpermanentlyatStrasbourg.

ThebodywasnotmentionedintheoriginalSchumanDeclaration.Itwasassumedorhopedthatdifficulties with the British would be resolved to allow theCouncil of Europe's Assemblytoperformthetask.AseparateAssemblywasintroducedduringnegotiationsontheTreatyasaninstitutionwhichwouldcounterbalanceandmonitor theexecutivewhileprovidingdemocraticlegitimacy.Its early importance was highlighted when the Assembly was given the task ofdrawing up the draft treaty to establish a European Political Community. In this, the AdHocAssemblywasestablishedon13September1952[18]withextramembersbutafterthefailureoftheproposedEuropeanDefenceCommunitytheprojectwasdropped.

Session of the Council of Europe's Assembly in the formerHouse of Europein Strasbourg inJanuary1967.WillyBrandt,GermanministerforForeignAffairs,isspeaking.

Despite this theEuropean Economic CommunityandEuratomwere established in 1958 bytheTreatiesofRome.TheCommonAssemblywassharedbyallthreecommunities(whichhadseparate executives) and it renamed itself theEuropean Parliamentary Assembly.[The firstmeetingwasheldon19March1958havingbeensetupinLuxembourg,itelectedSchumanasitspresidentandon13Mayitrearrangeditselftositaccordingtopoliticalideologyratherthannationality.This isseenasthebirthofthemodernEuropeanParliament,withParliament's50yearscelebrationsbeingheldinMarch2008ratherthan2002.

The three communitiesmergedtheir remaining organs as theEuropean Communitiesin 1967and the body was renamed to the current "European Parliament" in 1962.In 1970 theParliamentwasgrantedpoweroverareasoftheCommunity'sbudget,whichwereexpandedtothe whole budget in 1975.Under the Rome Treaties, the Parliament should have becomeelected.However,theCouncilwasrequiredtoagreeauniformvotingsystembeforehand,whichit failed to do. The Parliament threatened to take the Council to theEuropean Court ofJusticeleadingtoacompromisewherebytheCouncilwouldagreetoelections,buttheissueofvotingsystemswouldbeputofftillalaterdate.

Tomerge: to combine or join together, or to cause things to do this

Discussinpairsinordertoanswerthefollowingquestions:

1. WhatdoestheEuropeanParliamentrepreset?

2. Whatareitsfunction?3. HowaretheMEPselected?4. Wheredotheymeet?

Readthefollowingtext:

THECOUNCILOFTHEEUROPEANUNION

The Council of the European Union (often still referred to as the Council of Ministers, orsometimesjustcalledtheCouncil(Latin:Consilium))isthethirdoftheseveninstitutionsoftheEuropean Union (EU) as listed in the Treaty on European Union. It is part of the essentiallybicameral EU legislature (the other legislative body being the European Parliament) andrepresentstheexecutivegovernmentsoftheEU'smemberstates.ItisbasedintheJustusLipsiusbuildinginBrussels,Belgium.

TheCouncilmeets in 10different configurationsof 28nationalministers (oneper state). Theprecisemembershipoftheseconfigurationsvariesaccordingtothetopicunderconsideration;for example, when discussing agricultural policy the Council is formed by the 28 nationalministerswhoseportfolio includes thispolicyarea (with the relatedEuropeanCommissionerscontributingbutnotvoting).

ThePresidencyoftheCouncilrotateseverysixmonthsamongthegovernmentsofEUmemberstates,withtherelevantministersoftherespectivecountryholdingthePresidencyatanygiventimeensuringthesmoothrunningofthemeetingsandsettingthedailyagenda.Thecontinuitybetweenpresidenciesisprovidedbyanarrangementunderwhichthreesuccessivepresidencies,known as Presidency trios, share common political programmes. The Foreign Affairs Council(nationalforeignministers)ishoweverchairedbytheUnion'sHighRepresentative.

Itsdecisionsaremadebyqualifiedmajorityvoting inmostareas,unanimity inothers.Usuallywhereitoperatesunanimously,itonlyneedstoconsulttheParliament.However,inmostareastheordinarylegislativeprocedureappliesmeaningbothCouncilandParliamentsharelegislativeand budgetary powers equally,meaning both have to agree for a proposal to pass. In a fewlimitedareastheCouncilmayinitiatenewEUlawitself.

TheGeneralSecretariatoftheCounciloftheEuropeanUnion,alsoknownasCouncilSecretariat,assiststheCounciloftheEuropeanUnion,thePresidencyoftheCounciloftheEuropeanUnion,theEuropeanCouncilandthePresidentoftheEuropeanCouncil.TheSecretariat isheadedbythe Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union. The Secretariat is divided intosevendirectorates-general,eachadministeredbyadirector-general.

Writeyourwrittenanswerstothefollowingquestions:

1. WhochairsthemeetingsoftheCounciloftheEuropeanUnion?2. WhatarethemainfunctionsoftheCounciloftheEuropeanUnion?

Readthefollowingtext:

THEEUROPEANCOUNCIL

TheEuropeanCouncil,chargedwithdefiningtheEU'soverallpoliticaldirectionandpriorities,istheinstitutionoftheEuropeanUnion(EU)thatcomprisestheheadsofstateorgovernmentofthe member states, along with President of the European Council and the President of theEuropean Commission. TheHigh Representative of theUnion for ForeignAffairs and SecurityPolicyalsotakespartinitsmeetings.Establishedasaninformalsummitin1975,theEuropeanCouncilwasformalisedasaninstitutionin2009uponentryintoforceoftheTreatyofLisbon.ItscurrentPresidentisDonaldTusk.

WhiletheEuropeanCouncilhasnoformallegislativepower,itisastrategic(andcrisis-solving)body that provides the union with general political directions and priorities, and acts as acollectivepresidency.TheEuropeanCommissionremainsthesoleinitiatoroflegislation,buttheEuropeanCouncilisabletoprovideanimpetustoguidelegislativepolicy.

ThemeetingsoftheEuropeanCouncil,stillcommonlyreferredtoasEUsummits,arechairedbyitspresidentandtakeplaceatleasttwiceeverysixmonths;usuallyintheJustusLipsiusbuilding,theheadquartersof theCouncilof theEuropeanUnion inBrussels.Decisionsof theEuropeanCouncilaretakenbyconsensus,exceptwheretheTreatiesprovideotherwise.

ThefirstsummitsofEUheadsofstateorgovernmentwereheldinFebruaryandJuly1961(inParis and Bonn respectively). They were informal summits of the leaders of the EuropeanCommunityandwere starteddue to then-FrenchPresidentCharlesdeGaulle's resentmentatthe domination of supranational institutions (e.g. the European Commission) over theintegrationprocess,butpeteredout.Thefirstinfluentialsummitheld,afterthedepartureofDeGaulle,wasTheHaguesummitof1969,whichreachedanagreementontheadmittanceoftheUnited Kingdom into the Community and initiated foreign policy cooperation (the EuropeanPoliticalCooperation)takingintegrationbeyondeconomics.

The summits were only formalised in the period between 1974 and 1988. At the Decembersummit in Paris in 1974, following a proposal from then-French president Valéry Giscardd'Estaing, itwasagreedthatmorehigh level,political inputwasneededfollowingthe"emptychaircrisis"andeconomicproblems.TheinauguralEuropeanCouncil,asitbecameknown,washeld in Dublin on 10 and 11 March 1975 during Ireland's first Presidency of the Council ofMinisters.In1987,itwasincludedinthetreatiesforthefirsttime(theSingleEuropeanAct)andhadadefined role for the first time in theMaastrichtTreaty.At firstonlyaminimumof twomeetingsperyearwererequired,whichresultedinanaverageofthreemeetingsperyearbeingheld for the 1975-1995 period. Since 1996, the number of meetings were required to beminimumfourperyear.Forthelatest2008-2014period,thisminimumwaswellexceeded,byan averageof sevenmeetings beingheldper year. The seat of theCouncilwas formalised in2002, basing it in Brussels. Three types of European Councils exist: Informal, Scheduled andExtraordinary.Whilethe informalmeetingsarealsoscheduled1½year inadvance,theydifferfromthescheduledordinarymeetingsbynotendingwithofficialCouncil conclusions,as theyinstead end by more broad political Statements on some cherry picked policy matters. The

extraordinary meetings always end with official Council conclusions - but differs from thescheduledmeetingsbynotbeingscheduledmorethanayearinadvance,asforexamplein2001when the European Council gathered to lead the European Union's response to the 11Septemberattacks.

TickTRUE(T)orFALSE(F)tothesestatements.Workindividually:

1. TheEuropeanCouncilisasummitoftheEuropeanPresidentsorPrimeMinisters TF

2. TheymeeteverymonthTF

3. ItsroleistosetgeneralpoliticaldirectionsTF4. ThePresidentoftheEuropeanCouncilistheHighRepresentativeforForeignAffairsand

SecurityPolicyTF