The EU has been called a supra-national organization because it resembles both an international organization and a nation. It exercises some of the powers of sovereignty that have been voluntarily relinquished to it by its members.
The European Council consists of the leaders of the EU nations; it sets the organization's political priorities and deals with particularly sensitive issues. It gained formal status in 1992 and became an official organ in 2009.
The Council of the European Union consists of the ministers of the member nations. The ministers who attend each meeting change depending on the topic of the meeting. The organ performs the following functions:
The European Commission represents and upholds the interests of the EU as a whole. It drafts proposals for new European laws. It manages the day-to-day business of implementing EU policies and spending EU funds. The Commission has 27 commissioners, one from each EU country. Each commissioner is responsible for one area of policy. The Commission is responsible for:
The members of the European Parliament are elected every 5 years by the people of the EU. The Parliament is responsible for:
The Parliament and the Council share the responsibility for passing legislation. The laws are implemented by the European Commission and applied by the Court of Justice.
The EU has an excellent website named Europa. Europa has sections for each of the major bodies of the EU. The most important follow:
The EU Archive contains older documents, ie, Parliamentary documents from 1952 to 1999, Commission documents are those over 30 years old, etc.
The UC Libraries do not collect EU paper documents systematically. Use UCLID to find out what is available and where. Search for European Union as an author.
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