The European Union The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 member states which are located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht in 1993 upon the foundations of the European Communities. With over 500 million citizens, the EU combined generated an estimated 28% share (US$ 16.5 (EU) is governed by seven institutions. Article 13 of Treaty on European Union The Maastricht Treaty was signed on 7 February 1992 in Maastricht, the Netherlands after final negotiations on 9 December 1991 between the members of the European Community and entered into force on 1 November 1993 during the Delors Commission. It created the European Union and led to the creation of the euro. The Maastricht Treaty has been lists them in the following order: the European Parliament The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union (EU). Together with the Council of the European Union (the Council), it forms the bicameral legislative branch of the EU and has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world. The Parliament and Council form the highest, the European Council The European Council is the institution of the European Union responsible for defining the general political direction and priorities of the Union. It comprises the heads of state or government of EU member states, along with its President and the President of the Commission. The High Representative takes part in its meetings, which are chaired by, the Council of the European Union The Council of the European Union is the principal decision-making institution of the European Union (EU). It is also called Consilium as a Latin-language compromise (the Council); the European Commission The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union, the Court of Justice of the European Union The Court of Justice of the European Union is the institution of the European Union which encompasses the whole judiciary. Seated in Luxembourg, it has three sub-courts; the European Court of Justice, the General Court and the Civil Service Tribunal, the European Central Bank The European Central Bank is the institution of the European Union (EU) tasked with administrating the monetary policy of the 16 EU member states taking part in the Eurozone. It is thus one of the world's most important central banks. The bank was established by the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1998, and is headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany. The and the Court of Auditors.^[1]

History

Most EU institutions were created with the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community The European Coal and Steel Community was a six-nation international organisation serving to unify Western Europe during the Cold War and create the foundation for the modern-day developments of the European Union. The ECSC was the first organisation to be based on the principles of supranationalism (ECSC) in the 1950s. Much change since then has been in the context the shifting of the power balance away from the Council and towards the Parliament. The role of the Commission has often been to mediate between the two or tip the balance.^[2] However the Commission is becoming more accountable to the Parliament: in 1999 it forced the resignation of the Santer Commission The Santer Commission was the European Commission in office between 23 January 1995 and 15 March 1999. The administration was led by Jacques Santer^[3] and forced a reshuffle of the proposed Barroso Commission The Barroso Commission is the European Commission that has been in office since 22 November 2004 and is due to serve until 2014. Its president is José Manuel Barroso, who presides over 26 other commissioners . On 16 September 2009 Barroso was re-elected by the European Parliament for a further five years and his Commission was approved to take in 2004.^[4] The development of the institutions, with incremental changes from treaties and agreements, is testament to the evolution of the Union's structures without one clear "master plan". Some such as Tom Reid of the Washington Post The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation said of the institutions that "nobody would have deliberately designed a government as complex and as redundant as the EU".^[5]

Establishment

The first institutions were created at the start of the 1950s with the creation of the ECSC, based on the Schuman declaration The Schuman Declaration is a governmental proposal by then-French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman to create a new form of organization of States in Europe called a supranational Community. Following the experiences of two world wars, France recognized that certain values such as justice could not be defined by the State apparatus alone. It, between six states A Member State of the European Union is any one of the 27 sovereign states that have acceded to the European Union since its inception in 1951 as the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). From an original membership of six states, there have been six successive enlargements, the largest occurring on 1 May 2004, when ten states joined. The EU. The ECSC was designed to bring the markets of Coal Coal is a readily combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock normally occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure. Coal is composed primarily of carbon along with variable and Steel Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten. Carbon and other elements act as a hardening agent, preventing, the materials needed to wage war, under the control of a supranational Supranationalism is a method of decision-making in multi-national political communities, wherein power is transferred or delegated to an authority by governments of member states. The authority, subject to supranational democratic institutions and with a legal procedure can therefore institute a supranational rule of law above the constituent authority with the aim of encouraging peace and economic development. It established the first institutions. At its core was an independent executive On the study of political science the executive branch of government has sole authority and responsibility for the daily administration of the state bureaucracy. The division of power into separate branches of government is central to the republican idea of the separation of powers called the "High Authority The High Authority was the executive branch of the former European Coal and Steel Community . It was created in 1951 and disbanded in 1967 when it was merged into the European Commission" with supranational powers over the Community. The laws made by the Authority would be observed by a Court of Justice in order to ensure they were upheld and to arbitrate.^[6]

During the negotiations, two supervisory institutions were put forward to counter balance the power of the High Authority. The "Common Assembly" proposed by Jean Monnet Jean Omer Marie Gabriel Monnet is regarded by many as a chief architect of European Unity. Never elected to public office, Monnet worked behind the scenes of American and European governments as a well-connected pragmatic internationalist to act as a monitor, counterweight and to add democratic legitimacy was composed of 78 national parliamentarians.^[7] The second was the Council of Ministers, pushed by the smaller states also to add an intergovernmental An intergovernmental organization, sometimes rendered as an international governmental organization and both abbreviated as IGO, is an organization composed primarily of sovereign states , or of other intergovernmental organizations. Intergovernmental organizations are often called international organizations, although that term may also include element and harmonise national polices with those of the authority.^[8]

Changes

In 1957 the Treaties of Rome The Treaties of Rome are two of the treaties of the European Union signed on 25 March 1957. Both treaties were signed by The Six: Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany established two, similar, communities creating a common market (European Economic Community The European Economic Community (also referred to as simply the European Community, or the Common Market in the English-speaking world) was an international organization that existed between 1957 and 1993 which was created to bring about economic integration (including a single market) between Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the) and promoting atomic energy co-operation (Euratom The European Atomic Energy Community is an international organisation which is legally distinct from the European Union (EU), but has the same membership, and is governed by the EU's institutions). The three institutions shared the Court of Justice and the Parliament, however they had a separate Council and High Authority, which was called the Commission in these Communities. The reason for this is the different relationship between the Commission and Council. At the time the French government was suspicious of the supranationalism and wanted to limit the powers of the High Authority in the new Communities, giving the Council a greater role in checking the executive.^[8][9][10]

The three communities were later merged in 1967, by the Merger Treaty The Merger Treaty was a European treaty which combined the executive bodies of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) and the European Economic Community (EEC) into a single institutional structure, into the European Communities. The institutions were carried over from the European Economic Community (making the Commission of that community the direct ancestor of the current Commission).^[9] Under the Treaties of Rome, the Common Assembly (which renamed itself the Parliamentary Assembly, and then the European Parliament) was supposed to become elected. However this was delayed by the Council until 1979. Since then it gained more powers via successive treaties.^[2][7] The Maastricht Treaty The Maastricht Treaty was signed on 7 February 1992 by the members of the European Community in Maastricht, the Netherlands. On 9–10 December 1991, the same city hosted the European Council which drafted the treaty. Upon its entry into force on 1 November 1993 during the Delors Commission, it created the European Union and led to the creation of also gave further powers to the Council by giving it a key role in the two new pillars Between 1993 and 2009, the European Union legally consisted of three pillars. This structure was introduced with the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993, and was eventually abandoned on 1 December 2009 with the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, when the EU obtained a consolidated legal personality of the EU which were based on intergovernmental principles.^[8]

The 2009 Lisbon Treaty The Treaty of Lisbon is a treaty that was signed by the European Union (EU) member states on 13 December 2007, and entered into force on 1 December 2009. It amends the Treaty on European Union (TEU, Maastricht; 1992) and the Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC, Rome; 1957). In this process, the TEC was renamed to Treaty on the brought nearly all policy areas (including the budget) under the codecision procedure (renamed "ordinary legislative procedure"), hence increasing the power of the Parliament The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union (EU). Together with the Council of the European Union (the Council), it forms the bicameral legislative branch of the EU and has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world. The Parliament and Council form the highest. The rules for the distribution of seats in the parliament were also changed to a formula system.^[11][12] The High Representative The High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy is the main co-ordinator of the Common Foreign and Security Policy within the European Union. The position is currently held by Javier Solana and is based in the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union merged with the European Commissioner for External Relations The Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy is a member of the European Commission with responsibility over the Commissions external representation in the world and the European Union's Neighbourhood Policy. The responsibility is shared though between other posts . It is often more commonly known simply the and joined the Commission. The appointment of the Commission President The President of the European Commission is the most powerful office in the European Union, as the head of the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union. The President is responsible for allocating portfolios to members of the Commission and can reshuffle or fire them if needed. He determines the Commission's policy agenda became dependent upon the last EU elections Elections in the European Union take place every five years by universal adult suffrage. 736 MEPs are elected to the European Parliament which has been directly elected since 1979. No other body is directly elected although the Council of the European Union and European Council is largely composed of nationally elected officials. The Council of Ministers The Council of the European Union is the principal decision-making institution of the European Union (EU). It is also called Consilium as a Latin-language compromise adopted more qualified majority voting The procedures for Voting in the Council of the European Union are described in the treaties of the EU. The Council of the European Union was instituted under this name in the Maastricht Treaty. The voting procedures defined there were changed in subsequent treaties to accommodate the growing number of member states in the EU and are currently and the European Council The European Council is the institution of the European Union responsible for defining the general political direction and priorities of the Union. It comprises the heads of state or government of EU member states, along with its President and the President of the Commission. The High Representative takes part in its meetings, which are chaired by was made a distinct institution with a permanent president. The Court of Justice had some minor renaming and adjustments. In addition, the central bank became a full institution.^[11][12]

Political institutions

There are three political institutions which hold the executive and legislative power of the Union. The Council represents governments, the Parliament represents citizens and the Commission represents the European interest.^[13] Essentially, the Council, Parliament or another party place a request for legislation to the Commission. The Commission then drafts this and presents it to the Parliament and Council, where in most cases both must give their assent. Although the exact nature of this depends upon the legislative procedure The legislature of the European Union is principally divided between the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, with the power to initiate laws being held by the European Commission. National parliaments also have a minor delaying power in use. Once it is approved and signed by both chambers it becomes law.^[14] The Commission's duty is to ensure it is implemented by dealing with the day-to-day running of the Union and taking others to Court if they fail to comply.^[13]

Parliament

The European Parliament shares the legislative A legislature is a type of deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend, and repeal laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law. Legislatures are known by many names, the most common being parliament and congress, although these terms also have more specific meanings. In parliamentary systems of government, and budgetary authority of the Union with the Council. The Parliament's President The President of the European Parliament presides over the debates and activities of the European Parliament. He or she also represents the Parliament within the EU and internationally. The President's signature is required for enacting most EU laws and the EU budget (its speaker The term speaker is a title often given to the presiding officer of a legislative body. The speaker's official role is to moderate debate, make rulings on procedure, announce the results of votes, and the like. The speaker decides who may speak and has the powers to discipline members who break the procedures of the house. The speaker often also) is Jerzy Buzek Professor Jerzy Buzek [ˈjɛʐɨ ˈbuzɛk] (born 3 July 1940) is a Polish engineer, academic lecturer and politician. He was Prime Minister of Poland from 1997 to 2001 and has been a member of the European Parliament since 13 June 2004. On 14 July 2009, he was elected as President of the European Parliament. He succeeded Hans-Gert Pöttering (EPP The European People's Party is a centre-right European political party. Founded in 1976, the EPP has 72 member-parties from 39 countries, 13 EU and 6 non-EU heads of government, 10 European Commissioners (including the President), and the largest group in the European Parliament with 265 members), who was elected from the Parliament's members in 2009.^[15]Its 736 members A Member of the European Parliament is the English name for a person who has been elected to the European Parliament, one of the European Union's two legislative bodies. MEPs are the European Union's equivalents of a country's national legislators in either the lower house or unicameral parliaments, often known as MPs or Deputies. The name of MEPs are elected every five years by universal suffrage Universal suffrage consists of the extension of the right to vote to adult citizens (or subjects) as a whole, though it may also mean extending said right to minors and non-citizens. Although suffrage has two necessary components, the right to vote and opportunities to vote, the term universal suffrage is associated only with the right to vote and and sit according to political allegiance A political spectrum is a way of modeling different political positions by placing them upon one or more geometric axes symbolizing independent political dimensions. They represent nearly 500 million citizens Citizenship of the European Union was introduced by the Maastricht Treaty signed in 1992, and in force as of 1993. It exists alongside national citizenship and provides additional rights to nationals of Member States of the European Union (the world's second largest democratic electorate) and form the only directly elected body in the Union. Despite forming one of the two legislative chambers In government, bicameralism is the practice of having two legislative or parliamentary chambers. Thus, a bicameral parliament or bicameral legislature is a legislature which consists of two chambers or houses. Bicameralism is an essential and defining feature of the classical notion of mixed government. Bicameral legislatures tend to require a of the Union, it has weaker powers than the Council in some sensitive areas, and does not have legislative initiative Legislative initiative is usually attributed to parliaments, which in most countries have the right to make law proposals, alone or sharing this right with governments. It does, however, have powers over the Commission which the Council does not. It has been said that its democratic nature and growing powers have made it one of the most powerful legislatures in the world.^[14][16][17]

European Council

The European Council is the group of heads of state or government of the EU member states. It meets four times a year to define the Union's policy agenda and give impetus to integration. The President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, is the person responsible for chairing and driving forward the work of the institution, which has been described as the highest political body of the European Union.^[18]

Council

The Council of the European Union (informally known as the Council of Ministers or just the Council) is a body holding legislative and some limited executive powers and is thus the main decision making body of the Union. Its Presidency rotates between the states every six months, but every three Presidencies now cooperate on a common programme. This body is separate from the European Council, which is a similar body, but is composed of national leaders: see below.^[19]

The Council is composed of twenty-seven national ministers (one per state). However the Council meets in various forms depending upon the topic. For example, if agriculture is being discussed, the Council will be composed of each national minister for agriculture. They represent their governments and are accountable to their national political systems. Votes are taken either by majority or unanimity with votes allocated according to population. In these various forms they share the legislative and budgetary power of the Parliament, and also lead the Common Foreign and Security Policy.^[19]

Commission

The European Commission is the executive arm of the Union. It is a body composed of one appointee from each state, currently twenty-seven, but is designed to be independent of national interests. The body is responsible for drafting all law of the European Union and has a monopoly over legislative initiative. It also deals with the day-to-day running of the Union and has a duty to uphold the law and treaties (in this role it is known as the "Guardian of the Treaties").^[13]

The Commission is led by a President who is nominated by the Council (in practice the European Council) and approved by Parliament. The remaining 26 Commissioners are nominated by member-states, in consultation with the President, and has their portfolios assigned by the President. The Council then adopts this list of nominee-Commissioners. The Council’s adoption of the Commission is not an area which requires the decision to be unanimous, their acceptance is arrived at according to the rules for qualified majority voting. The European Parliament then interviews and casts its vote upon the Commissioners. The interviews of individual nominees are conducted separately, in contrast to Parliament’s vote of approval which must be cast on the Commission as a whole without the ability to accept or reject individual Commissioners. Once approval has been obtained from the Parliament the Commissioners can take office.^[20] The current President is José Manuel Barroso (EPP), his commission was elected in 2004 and is set to be reelected in 2010.^[13]

Acts and procedures

There are a number of types of legislation which can be passed. The strongest is a regulation, an act or law which is directly applicable in its entirety. Then there are directives which bind members to certain goals which they must achieve. They do this through their own laws and hence have room to manoeuvre in deciding upon them. A decision is an instrument which is focused at a particular person/group and is directly applicable. Institutions may also issue recommendations and opinions which are merely non-binding declarations.^[21]

The ordinary legislative procedure is used in nearly all policy areas and provides an equal footing between the two bodies. Under the procedure, the Commission presents a proposal to Parliament and the Council. They then send amendments to the Council which can either adopt the text with those amendments or send back a "common position". That proposal may either be approved or further amendments may be tabled by the Parliament. If the Council does not approve those, then a "Conciliation Committee" is formed. The Committee is composed of the Council members plus an equal number of MEPs who seek to agree a common position. Once a position is agreed, it has to be approved by Parliament again by an absolute majority.^[14][22] There are other special procedures used in sensitive areas which reduce the power of Parliament.

Non-political institutions

European Central Bank

The European Central Bank is the central bank for the eurozone (the states which have adopted the euro) and thus controls monetary policy in that area with an agenda to maintain price stability. It is at the centre of the European System of Central Banks which comprises all EU national banks. The bank is governed by a board comprising of national bank governors and a President, currently Jean-Claude Trichet.^[11][23]

Court of Justice of the European Union

The Court of Justice of the European Union is the EU's judicial branch. It is responsible for interpreting EU law and treaties. It comprises the main chamber: Court of Justice, the General Court and the Civil Service Tribunal.

Court of Auditors

The final institution is the European Court of Auditors, which despite its name has no judicial powers. Instead, it ensures that taxpayer funds from the budget of the European Union have been correctly spent. The court provides an audit report for each financial year to the Council and Parliament. The Parliament uses this to decide whether to approve the Commission's handling of the budget. The Court also gives opinions and proposals on financial legislation and anti-fraud actions.^[24]

The Court of Auditors was set up in 1975. It was created as an independent institution due to the sensitivity of the issue of fraud in the Union (the anti-fraud agency, OLAF, is also built on its independence). It is composed of one member from each state appointed by the Council every six years. Every three years one of them is elected to be the president of the court, who is currently Vítor Manuel da Silva Caldeira.^[24]

Comparisons

While the EU's system of governance is largely unique, elements can be compared to other models. One general observation on the nature of the distribution of powers would be that the EU resembles the federalism of Germany. There, powers are predominantly shared (states can exercise federal powers where the federation has not already exercised them) between the levels of government, and the states participate strongly with decision making at the federal level. This is in contrast with other federations, for example the United States, where powers are clearly divided between the levels of government, and the states have little say in federal decision making.^[25]

The EU's institutional set up is also somewhat similar to the government of Switzerland (which is not a member state). The Swiss consensus-driven system is seen as successfully uniting a state divided by language and religion, although the EU was not directly modelled on the Swiss system despite bearing a number of similarities. The European Commission has similarities to the Swiss Federal Council in that both have all-party representation and are appointed on the basis of nationality rather than popularity. The President of the Federal Council rotates between its members each year, in a fashion similar to that of the EU's Council Presidency or the presidency of the European Council. Due to this system of presidency Swiss leaders, like those of the EU, are relatively unknown with national politics viewed as somewhat technocratic resulting in low voter turnout, in a similar fashion to that of the European Parliament. Other parallels include the jealously guarded powers of states, the considerable level of translation and the choice of a lesser city as the capital.^[26]

Further more, executive power in the EU isn't concentrated in a single institution. It becomes clearer under the Lisbon Treaty with the division of the European Council as a distinct institution with a fixed President. This arrangement has been compared to the dual executive system found in the French republic where there is a President (the Council President) and Prime Minister (the Commission President). However, unlike the French model, the Council President does not hold formal powers such as the ability to directly appoint and sack the other, or the ability to dissolve Parliament. Hence while the Council President may have prestige, it would lack power and while the Commission President would have power, it would lack the prestige of the former.^[27]

The nature of the European Parliament is better compared with the United States House of Representatives than with the national parliaments of the European Union. This is notable in terms of the committees being of greater size and power, political parties being very decentralised and it being separated from the executive branch (most national governments operate a parliamentary system). A difference from all other parliaments is the absence of a Parliamentary legislative initiative. However, given that in most national parliaments initiatives not backed by the executive rarely succeed the value of this difference is in question. Equally, its independence and power means that the European Parliament has an unusually high success rate for its amendments in comparison to national parliaments; 80% average and 30% for controversial proposals.^[28]

The composition of the council can only be compared with the quite unique and unusual composition of the German upper house, the Bundesrat. Membership of the Bundesrat is limited to members of the governments of the states of Germany and can be recalled by those governments in the same manner as the EU's Council. They retain their state role while sitting in the Bundesrat and if their term ends when they are recalled by their state governments (who are solely responsible for their appointment) or they cease to sit in their state government. Hence they also are not elected at the same time and the body as a whole cannot be dissolved like most parliaments. As government representatives, members do not vote as individual members but in state blocks, rather than political alignment, to their state governments' agreed line.^[29] Each state has unequal voting powers based on population, with an absolute majority required for decisions. Likewise, the presidency rotates equally between members, though each year rather than every six months like in the EU Council.^[30] However, unlike the EU's Council, the Bundesrat does not vary its composition depending on the topic being discussed.^[29] They both bear similar criticisms, because of the interference, of executives in the legislative process.

Locations

The institutions are not concentrated in a single capital city: they are instead based across three cities, Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg. The current arrangement was agreed in 1992 and attached to the Treaty of Amsterdam.^[31] The treaty states that the Commission and Council would be based in Brussels, the Courts in Luxembourg and the Parliament in Strasbourg. However some departments of the Commission and meetings of the Council take place in Luxembourg, while the Parliament has its committees and some sessions in Brussels and its secretariat in Luxembourg. Of the new institutions, the Central Bank is based in Frankfurt^[32] while the European Council is based in Brussels (but has some extraordinary meetings elsewhere).^[33]

Brussels' hosting of institutions has made it a major centre for the EU. Together with NATO it has attracted more journalists and ambassadors than Washington D.C.^[34] However the three-city agreement has come under some criticism, notably in regards to the Parliament due to the large number of people that move between the cities. The European Green Party estimated that the arrangement costs 200 million euro and 20,268 tonnes of carbon dioxide.^[35] Brussels is preferred by some due to the presence of other institutions and other groups while Strasbourg is supported due to its historical importance to European unity.^[36]

Other bodies and agencies

There are a number of other bodies and agencies of note that are not formal institutions. There are two advisory committees to the institutions which in some cases must be consulted: the Economic and Social Committee (EESC) advises on economic and social policy (principally relations between workers and employers) being made up of representatives of various industries and work sectors. Its 344 members, appointed by the Council for four-year terms, are organised into three fairly equal groups representing employers, employees and other various interests;^[37] while the Committee of the Regions (CoR) is composed of representative of regional and local authorities who hold an electoral mandate. It advises on regional issues. It has 344 members, organised in political groups, appointed every four years by the Council.^[38] There is also the European Investment Bank, which provides long term loans to help development and integration.^[39]

There are a number of specialised and decentralised agencies operated by the Commission, or sometimes the Council. They are set up by legislation or a treaty to deal with specific problems or areas. These include the European Environment Agency and Europol.^[40] In addition to these there are also three inter-institutional bodies: the Publications Office, the oldest one, which publishes and distributes official publications from the European Union bodies;^[41] and the two relatively new: the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO), a recruitment body which organises competitions for posts within Union institutions;^[42] and the European Administrative School, which provides specific training for the staff of Union institutions.^[43] Another body is the anti-fraud office OLAF whose mission is to protect the financial interests of the European Union.^[44] Two further posts are: the European Ombudsman deals with citizens grievances against the Union's institutions and is elected for five-year terms by the Parliament;^[45] the European Data Protection Supervisor ensures the institutions respect citizens' privacy rights in relation to data processing.^[45]

See also

• Brussels and the European Union
• List of the names of bodies of the European Union in its official languages
• European External Action Service

References

1. ^ "Consolidated versions of Treaty on European Union and of Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union" (PDF). Eur-lex.
2. ^ ^{a b} Hoskyns, Catherine; Michael Newman (2000). Democratizing the European Union: Issues for the twenty-first Century (Perspectives on Democratization. Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0719056666.
3. ^ Topan, Angelina (2002-09-30). "The resignation of the Santer-Commission: the impact of 'trust' and 'reputation'" (PDF). European Integration Online Papers. http://eiop.or.at/eiop/pdf/2002-014.pdf. Retrieved 2007-06-12.
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5. ^ Reid, Tom (2004). The United States of Europe. London: Penguin Books. p. 272. ISBN 0-141-02317-1.
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20. ^ http://europa.eu/institutions/inst/comm/index_en.htm
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