European Union Institutions

Content about European Union Institutions from the publication “The ABC of European Union law” (2010, European Union) by Klaus-Dieter Borchardt.

1. The Union shall have an institutional framework which shall aim to promote its values, advance its objectives, serve its interests, those of its citizens and those of the Member States, and ensure the consistency, effectiveness and continuity of its policies and actions.

Context of European Union Institutions in the European Union

The Union’s institutions shall be:

– the European Parliament,

– the European Council,

– the Council,

– the European Commission (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Commission’),

– the Court of Justice of the European Union,

– the European Central Bank,

– the Court of Auditors.

More about European Union Institutions in the European Union

2. Each institution shall act within the limits of the powers conferred on it in the Treaties, and in conformity with the procedures, conditions and objectives set out in them. The institutions shall practise mutual sincere cooperation.

Other Aspects

3. The provisions relating to the European Central Bank and the Court of Auditors and detailed provisions on the other institutions are set out in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

Details

4. The European Parliament, the Council and the Commission shall be assisted by an Economic and Social Committee and a Committee of the Regions acting in an advisory capacity.

Last Remarks

Another question arising in connection with the constitution of the European Union is that of its organisation. What are the institutions of the Union? Since the EU exercises functions normally reserved for States, does it have a government, a parliament, administrative authorities and courts like those with which we are familiar in the Member States? Action on the tasks assigned to the EU and the direction of the integration process was intentionally not left to Member States or to international cooperation. The EU has an institutional system that equips it to give new stimuli and objectives to the unification of Europe and to create a body of law that is uniformly devised and binding in all the Member States in the matters falling within its responsibility.

The main players in the EU institutional system are the EU institutions – the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council, the European Commission, the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Central Bank and Court of Auditors. The ancillary bodies in the institutional system of the EU are the European Investment Bank, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions.