European Union Essay

Submitted By jessicaelysee
Words: 618
Pages: 3

There are many different types of council and courts that help make the European Union function as a whole. Without all of these councils and departments the European Union would fail and not be able to sustain itself. These different councils set up rules, laws, enforce the rules and laws and try to be as fair for all countries within the European Union. The European Commission proposes legislation and help implements decisions. The current President of the European Commission is Jose Manuel Barroso from Portugal. There are 27 people from every country in the European Union that are on the European Commission and together they work to help create and pass laws while working with European Parliament and the Council of the European Union. Each member of the European Commission has a specific specialty that makes them more unique and concentrated on the commission.
The European Council is the body that provides guidelines for EU states. It is made up of state heads or prime ministers of the EU states. The council meets twice every six months and is currently headed by Belgian Prime Minister, Herman Van Rompu.
The 754 member European Parliament is elected by EU voters every 5 years and elects President of the European Commission. Their roles are to pass European laws with the council, evaluated the effectiveness of EU institutions and adopting the EU budget with the Council.
The European Central Bank is the bank for the Euro. The Central Bank and national banks of other countries make up the Eurosystem.
The European Court of Justice contains one judge from every EU state who is elected every 6 years, resolves conflicts between national legal systems, and checks to make sure EU law is practiced equally among the states. The five most common cases involve interpretation of EU law, failing to apply EU law in the individual state, not fulfilling an EU obligation, violating EU human rights treaties, and lawsuits against EU decisions and actions.
The European Monetary System was created in 1991 to integrate the European markets into one big market. It coordinates economic policies amongst state members, and advises and assists with individual fiscal policies, especially in regards to debts and deficits. The Euro is the second largest currency in use as of now and one euro is equal to $1.27. It has surpassed the US dollar in value since 2002 and is used by 330 million