The Council of Ministers

The Council of Ministers is the most important decision-making body in the EU and its main task is to approve European laws.   Although it is a single institution, the Council can meet in a variety of configurations such as the General Affairs and External Relations Council (GAERC) and the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (Ecofin).    These councils are formed by ministers from each member state and are made up of ministers who usually have a national responsibility for the subject under discussion.     For example, if the proposed legislation concerned agriculture, the UK would send its Minister for Agriculture if it was to do with Finance and taxation then the Finance Minister would attend, for the UK that would be the Chancellor of the Exchequer.   The member state holding the Presidency is responsible for organising the business of the Council, assisted by a permanent secretariat based in Brussels.

The European Commission

The European Commission implements the agenda set by the European Council.

The Commission does this by developing and drafting legislation or other non-legislative measures and monitoring implementation.   The European Commission is the equivalent of our civil service and it is based in Brussels.   It is organised in 24 directorates, each led by a European Commissioner and each member state currently nominates one Commissioner, who has a particular area of responsibility for a five year term, such as agriculture or trade. The President of the European Commission oversees the work carried out by those commissioners.   The Commission acts as the guardian of the treaties, and has a duty to ensure that member states respect the treaties and community law, and that they implement adopted legislation.

The European Parliament

The European Parliament meets in Brussels and Strasbourg.    The members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are elected directly for a five-year term by the populations of the member states, in much the same way as we elect our parliament except that in the EU a system of proportional representation rather than first past the post is used.

The next elections for the European Parliament take place in 2009 and currently there are 732 MEPS of which the UK has 78, and once elected the MEPs sit in seven political groups rather than in national delegations.   Typically, as in our own Parliament much of their work is done in smaller committees of MEPs, which prepare reports for consideration by the full Parliament.   Members of the European Parliament consider most of the laws proposed by the Commission before submission to the Council of Ministers, monitor the actions of other EU bodies, approve the EU’s budget, and hold the Commission to account.  

One of the downsides of the European Parliament is an old treaty stipulating that the Parliament meets in both Brussels and Strasbourg, as you can imagine its a costly affair to transport all the documentation and MEP's from one place to another every month, so moves are afoot to change this. But don't hold your breath!