Европейский учебный институтпри МГИМО (У) МИД России

The EU's decision-making process in general and the co-decision procedure in particular involve three main institutions:

• European Parliament (EP) represents the EU’s citizens and is directly elected by them;
• Council of the European Union represents the individual member states;
• European Commission seeks to uphold the interests of the Union as a whole.

This ‘institutional triangle’ produces the policies and laws that apply throughout the EU. In principle, it is the Commission that proposes new laws, but it is the Parliament and Council that adopt them.

Two other institutions have a vital part to play:

• Court of Justice upholds the rule of European law;
• Court of Auditors checks the financing of the Union’s activities.

The powers and responsibilities of these institutions are laid down in the Treaties, which are the foundation of everything the EU does. They also lay down the rules and procedures that the EU institutions must follow. The Treaties are agreed by the presidents and/or prime ministers of all the EU countries, and ratified by their parliaments.

In addition to its institutions, the EU has a number of other bodies that play specialised roles:

• European Economic and Social Committee represents civil society, employers and employees;
• Committee of the Regions represents regional and local authorities;
• European Investment Bank finances EU investment projects, and helps small businesses via the European Investment Fund;
• European Central Bank is responsible for European monetary policy;
• European Ombudsman investigates complaints about maladministration by EU institutions and bodies;
• European Data Protection Supervisor safeguards the privacy of people’s personal data;
• Office for Official Publications of the European Communities publishes information about the EU;
• European Personnel Selection Office recruits staff for the EU institutions and other bodies;
• European Administrative School task is to provide training in specific areas for members of EU staff.

In addition, a number of specialised and decentralised EU agencies have been established to support the EU Member States and their citizens. These agencies are an answer to a desire for geographical devolution and the need to cope with new tasks of a legal, technical and/or scientific nature.The EU's agencies are grouped into 4 different categories:

• Community agency is a body governed by European public law; it is distinct from the Community Institutions (Council, Parliament, Commission, etc.) and has its own legal personality. It is set up by an act of secondary legislation in order to accomplish a very specific technical, scientific or managerial task, in the framework of the European Union's "first pillar".
  
  
• Common Foreign and Security Policy agencies have been set up to carry out very specific technical, scientific and management tasks within the framework of European Union's Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) - the "second pillar" of the EU.
  
• Police and Judicial Cooperation in criminal matters agencies have been set up to help the EU Member States co-operate in the fight against organised international crime. This co-operation in criminal matters is the "third pillar" of the EU.
  
  
• Executive agencies are organisations established in accordance with Council Regulation (EC) No 58/2003 (OJ L 11, 16.1.2003) with a view to being entrusted with certain tasks relating to the management of one or more Community programmes. These agencies are set up for a fixed period. Their location has to be at the seat of the European Commission (Brussels or Luxembourg).