Файл: 02_EU_institutions.pdf

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Æ

European Central Bank, which is respon-
sible for European monetary policy;

Æ

European Ombudsman, which investi-
gates complaints about maladministration 
by EU institutions and bodies;

Æ

European Data Protection Supervisor, 
which safeguards the privacy of your per-
sonal data.

In addition, specialised agencies handle 
certain technical, scientifi c or management 
tasks.

The powers and responsibilities of the EU 
institutions, and the rules and procedures they 
must follow, are laid down in the Treaties on 
which the EU is founded. The Treaties are 
agreed by the presidents and prime ministers 
of all the EU countries and then ratifi ed  by 
their parliaments.

The following chapters describe the Treaties, 
the EU institutions and the other bodies and 
agencies, explaining what each entity does 
and how they interact.  

The signing ceremony of the six-nation Treaty of Rome in 1957.

© EC

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The EU is founded on four Treaties:

Æ

The Treaty establishing the European Coal 
and Steel Community (ECSC), which was 
signed on 18 April 1951 in Paris, came into 
force on 23 July 1952 and expired on 23 
July 2002.

Æ

 The Treaty establishing the European 
Economic Community (EEC), which was 
signed on 25 March 1957 in Rome and 
came into force on 1 January 1958. It is 
often referred to as ‘the Treaty of Rome’.

Æ

The Treaty establishing the European 
Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), 
which was signed in Rome along with 
the EEC Treaty.

Æ

The Treaty on European Union (EU), 
which was signed in Maastricht on 
7 February 1992, and came into 
force on 1 November 1993. It is often 
referred  to  as  ‘the  Maastricht  Treaty’.

The ECSC, EEC and Euratom Treaties 
created the three ‘European Communities’, 
i.e. the system of joint decision-making on 
coal, steel, nuclear power and other major 
sectors of the member states’ economies. 
The common institutions set up to manage 
this system were merged in 1967, resulting 
in a single Commission and a single Council 
of Ministers. 

The  EEC,  in  addition  to  its  economic  role, 
gradually took on a wide range of responsi-
bilities, including social, environmental and 
regional policies. Since it was no longer a 
purely economic community, the fourth 

Treaty (Maastricht) renamed it simply ‘the 
European Community’ (EC). As the ECSC 
Treaty approached expiry in 2002, respon-
sibilities for coal and steel were progressively 
merged into other Treaties.

At Maastricht, the member state governments 
also agreed to work together on foreign and 
security policy, and in the area of ‘justice and 
home affairs’. By adding this intergovernmen-
tal cooperation to the existing Community 
system, the Maastricht Treaty created a new 
structure with three ‘pillars’, which is political 
as well as economic. This is the European 
Union (EU).

The Treaties are the basis for everything 
the  EU  does.  They  have  been  amended 
each time new member states have joined. 
From time to time the Treaties have also 
been amended to reform the European 
Union’s institutions and to give it new areas of 

The Treaties

© EC

The European Union is founded on its Treaties. Its three 
‘pillars’ represent different policy areas with different 
decision-making systems.

THE TREATIES

THE EUROPEAN UNION

Community 

domain 

(most 

common 

policy 
areas)

Common 

foreign and 

security 

policy

Police and 

judicial 

cooperation 

in criminal 

matters

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© Picture-alliance/dpa/Zucc

hi

responsibility. This is always done by a special 
conference of the EU’s national governments 
(an ‘intergovernmental conference’ or IGC). 
Key intergovernmental conferences resulted 
in: 

Æ

The Single European Act (SEA), which was 
signed in February 1986 and came into 
force on 1 July 1987. It amended the EEC 
Treaty and paved the way for completing 
the single market;

Æ

The Treaty of Amsterdam, which was 
signed on 2 October 1997 and came into 
force on 1 May 1999. It extended the 
pooled sovereignty to more areas involving 
more citizens’ rights, and closer interaction 
on social and employment policies;

Æ

The Treaty of Nice, which was signed on 
26  February  2001  and  came  into  force 
on 1 February 2003. It further amended 
the other Treaties, streamlining the EU’s 
decision-making system so it could con-
tinue to work effectively even after further 
enlargements; 

Æ

The draft Constitutional Treaty, which was 
agreed and signed in October 2004, but 
has not come into force, because it was 
not ratifi ed by all EU countries.

Æ

The Reform Treaty, which was agreed in 
principle in 2007, but will not come into 
force until it has been ratifi ed by all mem-
ber states.

© EC

A clean environment is just one area of many where EU member states have agreed 
that pooling sovereignty makes sense. 

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How the EU 
takes decisions

Decision-making at European Union level in-
volves various EU institutions, in particular:

Æ

the European Parliament (EP),

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the Council of the European Union, and

Æ

the European Commission.

In general, it is the European Commission 
that proposes new legislation, but it is the 
Council and Parliament that pass the laws. In 
some cases, the Council can act alone. Other 
institutions also have roles to play.

The main forms of EU law are directives and 
regulations. Directives establish a common 
aim for all member states, but leave it to na-
tional authorities to decide on the form and 
method of achieving it. Normally, member 
states are given one to two years to imple-
ment a directive. Regulations are directly 
applicable throughout the EU as soon as 
they come into force without further action 
by the member state.

The rules and procedures for EU decision-
making are laid down in the Treaties. Every 
proposal for a new European law must be 
based on a specifi c Treaty article, referred 
to as the ‘legal basis’ of the proposal. This 
determines which legislative procedure must 
be followed. The three main procedures are 
‘codecision’, ‘consultation’ and ‘assent’.

1. Codecision

Codecision is the procedure now used for 
most EU law-making. In the codecision pro-
cedure, Parliament shares legislative power 
equally with the Council.

If Council and Parliament cannot agree on a 
piece of proposed legislation, there will be 
no new law. The procedure provides for two 
successive ‘readings’ in each institution. If an 
agreement is reached in these readings, the 
law can be passed. If not, it will be put before 
a conciliation committee, composed of equal 
numbers of Council and Parliament represent-
atives. Once this committee has reached an 
agreement, the agreed text is sent again to 
Parliament and the Council so that they can 
fi nally adopt it as law. Conciliation is becom-
ing increasingly rare. Most laws passed in 
codecision are, in fact, adopted either at the 
fi rst or second reading as a result of good 
cooperation between the three institutions.

The diagram overleaf shows the procedure 
in greater detail. For further information, 
go to 

ec.europa.eu/codecision

© EC

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19. Council approves amended common position

1a. ESC opinion,

CoR opinion

1. Proposal from the Commission

2. First reading by the EP    opinion

4. First reading by the Council

3.  Amended proposal

          from the Commission          

5. Council approves all the

EP's amendments

7. EP has approved

the proposal without

amendments

9. Common position

of the Council

10. Communication 

from the Commission 

on common position

11. Second reading by the EP

12. EP approves

common position or

makes no comments

14. EP rejects

common position

16. EP proposes

amendments to

common position

17. Commission
opinion on EP's

amendments

6. Council can adopt the

act as amended

8. Council can

adopt the act

18. Second reading by the Council

21. Council does not approve the

amendments to the common position

22. Conciliation Committee is convened

20. Act adopted as amended

23. Conciliation procedure

24. Conciliation Committee agrees on a joint text

29. Conciliation Committee does not

agree on a joint text

25. Parliament and Council adopt the

act concerned in accordance with the

joint text

27. Parliament and

Council do not approve

the joint text

26. Act is adopted

28. Act is not adopted

30. Act is not adopted 

15. Act is deemed not to

be adopted

13. Act is deemed to

be adopted

(i) by a qualified majority if 
the Commission has delivered
a positive opinion

(ii) unanimously if the
Commission has delivered
a negative opinion

The codecision procedure

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