European Union

To understand how European politics works, it is best to start with the European Union and look at the various institutions that contribute to its unique political system.

The European Union (EU) is not a federation like the United States. Nor is it simply an organisation for co-operation between governments, like the United Nations. It is, in fact, unique. The countries that make up the EU (its ‘member states’) remain independent sovereign nations but they pool their sovereignty in order to gain a strength and world influence none of them could have on their own.

Pooling sovereignty means, in practice, that the member states delegate some of their decision-making powers to shared institutions they have created, so that decisions on specific matters of joint interest can be made democratically at European level.

The European Union (EU) is made up of 27 countries and has been evolving over the past 50 years. The member states are:

Germany, France, Italy, UK, Spain, Poland, Romania, Netherlands, Belgium, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Portugal, Austria, Bulgaria, Sweden, Denmark, Ireland, Lithuania, Slovakia, Finland, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Malta.

It is important to understand how the following institutions work together to create the political dimension of the EU. Click on the links to find out more about them:

The European Council defines the general political direction and priorities of the EU. Because of the Lisbon Treaty, it became an institution on Dec 1st 2009. Its President is Herman Van Rompuy.

The EU’s decision making process involves three main institutions:

· the European Parliament which represents the EU’s citizens and is directly elected by them;

· the Council of Ministers (sometimes also called the Council of the European Union) which represents the individual member states;

· the European Commission which seeks to uphold the interests of the Union as a whole

It is helpful to think of these last three bodies working together as a triangle, because none can do its job without the other two. Click here for more information on how they work together.