Although the European Union consists of a large variety of institutions, the most important institution is the European Commission. Established in 1958 and based in Luxemburg and Brussels, this hybrid institution (executive and bureaucratic) “epitomizes supranationalism and lies at the center of the EU political system” (Dinan, 2010, p. 171). It has a substantial bulk of responsibilities and carries out these responsibilities with a vast number of constituents, acting as the executive for the EU. These responsibilities include anything from drafting and initiating policy to managing the financial framework of the EU, and can have a large impact on the other institutions of the EU. In order to “promote the general interests of the Union,” the Commission strives to unify the interests of the member states and is continually working for implementation and harmonization of EU law (Dinan, 2010, p. 191).
Although not the most popular, in the sense that “Europeans generally view the Commission as power-hungry, insensitive to their concerns, and subversive of national political systems,” the Commission carries out responsibilities that play a key role in EU policy on a daily basis (Dinan, 2010, p. 171-172). These responsibilities include drafting and initiating policy, supervising the enforcement of the acquis communautaire and other legislation, managing the budget, and representing the interests of the EU internationally. Given its core position within the structure of the EU (kind of as an overseer of the EU as a whole), the Commission has developed active relations with the other institutions in order to carry out these responsibilities. Although other institutions also play an active role in the implementation of EU policy, no othe...
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...itiate policy, supervise the enforcement of the acquis communautaire and other legislation, manage the budget, and represent the interests of the EU internationally. Although it may not have the final say in arbiting law, it has quite a lot of influence on the Council and ECJ due to its knowledge on the acquis communautaire and EU law. Due to its high volume of responsibilities, the Commission must have a large number of experts in order to fulfill them. If anything about drafting or initiating law is in question, there will always be an expert that can answer it, whether it is a DG or advisory committee. Through this network of responsibilities and experts, the Commission has become the most important institution by being able to effectively “implement a range of EU policies and programs;” one of the most prominent goals of the European Union (Dinan, 2010, p. 202).
One of EUCOM's primary roles is to strengthen NATO's collective defense and assist its transformation since the fall of the Soviet Union. This is accomplished through building partner capacity to enhance transatlantic security. EUCOM supports American interests in Europe as outlined in the National Security Strategy:
The 19th century set the stage for different policies that lead to the extending of America’s power, which is defined as imperialism. Imperialism started for different reasons like the Americans wanting the U.S. to expand or explore the unknown land, or even some feared existing resources in U.S. might eventually dry up. The reason imperialism started doesn’t really matter, but more of what it caused. Imperialism lead to Cuban assistance, the addition of Hawaii and Alaska to America, and Yellow Journalism.
For its part, the Commission enjoys a powerful role but is widel... ... middle of paper ... ... s no elected head of state to give democratically controlled direction to the EU and concerns gain plausibility from the open role played by non-elected officials in Brussels, and the geographical and cultural distance between those regulators and the average European ‘person in the street’. The recent enlargement has at least altered the democratic legitimacy in a positive way. Each country has only one commissioner now and it is further on its way towards a constitution and a fairer weighted vote.
was facilitated by the decision taken by the European Commision (EC) in 1993 that all member
Peterson, J. and Shackleton, M. 2002. The institutions of the European Union. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
To understand the power struggle relating to foreign policymaking, it is crucial to understand what foreign policy entails. The Foreign Policy Agenda of the U.S. Department of State declares the goals of foreign policy as "to build and sustain a more democratic, secure, and prosperous world for the benefit of the American people and the international community." While this definition is quite vague, the actual tools of foreign policy include Diplomacy, foreign aid, and military force.
The EU is a union of sovereign European states who share sovereignty based on treaty. The union also possesses competences in policy sectors with exclusive jurisdiction in the area of Economic and Monetary Union while others are shared with Member States (MS), the other powers belong to MS as derived from the conferral of powers art 5(2) TEU, 2(1) TFEU art.3 & 4 TFEU additionally other powers have been offered by the decisions of the European Court for direct effect on citizens
Their main responsibility is to initiate and implement new programs, and they form a permanent executive that supervise the work of the EU, much in the way that a national cabinet operates. This power is displayed in article 211 of the Treaty Establishing the European Community, which states that, the Commission: 'Shall formulate recommendations or deliver opinions on matters dealt with in this treaty, if it expressly so provides or if the commission considers it necessary. ' The Commission is made up of a President and the College of Commissioners (the political arm), and the Direc... ... middle of paper ... ... ------------------------------------- [1] The Presidency of the Council is the driving force in the legislative and political decision-making process, organising and chairing all meetings and working out compromises to resolve any difficulties.
...re the member countries in EU. When it comes to the evaluation of the policy by EU it can be said that policy is very good as the important meetings are held on short intervals and important decisions are made by taking poll from member countries.
How well has federalism worked in the United States? This is all a matter of opinion. Federalism has indeed been an active structure for government that fits in quite well with the changing American society. This particular system of government has been around for over two hundred years, and under all those years the separation of power under American federalism has changed numerous amounts of times in both law and practice. The United States Constitution does allow changes and amendments in the Constitution have assigned miscellaneous roles to the central and state governments than what originally intended. The suitable equilibrium between national and state powers is repeatedly an issue in American Politics.
The European Commission is mandated with the responsibility of proposing new legislations and there after, the Council and the European Parliament partakes the procedure of passing the proposed legislation into law. The two institutions work hand in hand to debate on the proposed law although in some cases, the Council of the European Union handles the task by itself. The laws of the European Union are categorised into Directives and Regulations and the rules and procedure on how to go about the decision-making process are prescribed in the Treaties. Thus, every proposal by the European Commission is guided by a subject treaty article titled the legal basis wherein the procedures outlined are consultation, assent and co-decision .
...ation of specialized commissions to regulate and control the industry. The United States and the European Union have similar vested interests in stability and terrorism prevention and trade. Some of the Consequences of the EU and the United States interaction for international politics are, in most cases that going into conflicts may ultimately delay the effectiveness of the nation-states ability to influence as a world leader.
At present, there are approximately 3,000 different interest groups that are formally recognized by the European Union (Kirchner 2011). These interest groups represent a variety of interests and vary in the amount of influence that they actually have on the policy making process. These groups represent the interest of multiple sectors of both social and economic life within the European Union. Interests range from AGRICULTURE to BIG BUSINESS to HUMANITARIAN AID. In a truly pluralist nature, these groups are competing, either directly or indirectly, with each one another to have an influence in the legislation that is produced by the European Union. It is without a doubt that these interest groups within the European Union play an important part of the decision-making process. The blossoming interest group community within the European Union has both beneficial and detrimental impacts on the democratic quality of the European legislative process. By providing a background of interest groups and their influence in the decision-making process and comparing the role of interest groups within the European Union to those within the United States I will demonstrate the positive and negative qualities of interest group participation in the democratic process. In this paper, I will argue that interest groups are indeed a double-edged sword in affecting the democratic quality of European Union legislation.
Despite the international system being anarchical, it is not in a state of total chaos due to a number of significant factors such as those above. It is obvious that the current international system is highly influenced by many significant factors and some are more prominent than others. With the continued existence of international anarchy it is up to the States and the International Organisations to continue to make the decisions that are in their own best interest and to maintain order and an ever-improving way of life.
The European parliament (also referred as Europarl or the EP) is directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union (EU) . It’s responsible for making legislative actions across the entire EU and it’s described as the most powerful legislatives in the world .