European Commision
EU COMMISSION : STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONS The European Commission is a multicultural and multinational institution of the European Union based in Brussels, Belgium. ... The procedure for appointing the members of the Commission is the following: the governments of the member states nominee the President of the Commission and the European Parliament approves it. ... This prcess introduces a great democratic input in the appointment of the Commision. ... The Comissioners are usually high calibre polititians from the member states, many being prime ministers or senior ministers prior to their post on the European Commissioners. ... The relationship between the EP and the Commission is laid down in the Treaty of the European Union. ... The entire Commission may be forced to resign en masse by the European Parliament. The European Commission can be divided to a political and an administrative arm. ... The Commision is divided into Directorates-General (DG’s), 36 in number and organised according to policy, although some departments (legal and financial) cut across the whole organisation. ... The European Parliament dislikes comitology for the fact that the Parliament is unable to scrutinize the legislation passed in this way. ... He has meetings at certain times with the Council Presidency, the European Council and the European Parliament. ... In the European Commission we can identify two "constituencies", the Member states and the citizens. ... In the European Commission there are traits of intergovernmentalism. ... The ambitions of the Commission to gain more influence in European decision-making caused frequent conflict with the Council of Ministers, which saw the strengthening of the supranational Commission as a main threat to the souvereignity of the member states. ... The commission has an important task in the decision-making process as it has almost exclusive right of initiative in the European Community. It has described itself as the driving force behind European integration. ... Once a Commission proposal has been submitted to the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament, the three institutions work together. ... The European Parliament shares the power of co-decision with the Council in most areas and has to be consulted in others. ... It can institute legal proceedings against Member States or businesses that fail to comply with European law and bring them before the European Court of Justice.