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Do you KNOW how the EU is governed? What are the important institutions? How they work together? You probably only have a vague idea how it works, but probably know more about US politics than about European politics. Do you know who is the European president? Trick question! There are around a dozen. This episode will look at how the European government works but also show many of its flaws. This is not to say that the EU is necessarily ruled poorly, but I will address many of the concerns average citizens have. And I think we can ALL agree that governments could be run more efficiently in general. Alright, so let’s start at the top. First off: The European Council. It is comprised of the 28 chancellors, presidents, and prime ministers of the European member states. At the council the European leaders meet 4 times per year to define the EU’s policy, to push forward European integration, and to serve as an ‘emergency brake’ where it can cancel EU plans if it convinces at least half the EU leaders to vote against that plan. So to whom does the European Council give direction? To the European Commission. The commission is responsible for drafting all the laws of the European Union. It is comprised of 28 commissioners, one for each country, who are in charge of one aspect of European law. There is a commissioner of Transport, a commissioner of Regional Policy, a commissioner of Research, Science, and Innovation, and so forth. In this way, the Commission acts like a cabinet: It’s led by a president, nominated by the European Council and approved by the European Parliament. The other 27 commissioners are chosen by each member country. This way, every member state has 1/28th say in creating the laws of the European Union. Okay, so what happens after the commission proposes a law? There are two options. First, if it concerns mostly policy within the European union then it gets send to the EU parliament to vote on, if the majority votes in favour, the law is adopted. The parliament functions much like a national parliament: there are political parties, the people vote for them, and they pass laws. So how are the seats in parliament determined? Well, every member state gets an amount of seats depending on the population of that country, with each country receiving at least 6 seats out of a total of 751 seats. So when there are election, each country is assigned 6 seats. The remining 583 are then divided depending on population. Latvia, for example, has 2 million people out of a total European population of 508 million. That’s 0,4%, meaning 2 extra seats on top of their guaranteed 6. This is done for every country and I’ll leave this here so you can see how many seats each country currently has. During elections, you vote for your national party. So let’s say a Latvian party received 50% of the votes then they get 4 seats in the European parliament. These 4 don’t sit alone but they form a party with likeminded parties from other countries. I will leave this here if you’re interested in the different EU parties and what they stand for. But what does the EU Parliament do? The parliament sets the budget for the EU institutions every year, oversees the other EU institution, and votes on laws. But there is the catch. [problem parliament-commission] So, the Commissions proposes a law, it sends that law to the parliament and that parliament decides to either pass it or to send it back to the commission with the adjustments they’d like to see. This creates a strange distribution of power: the commission is the one who create laws and parliament is the one who debates and votes on laws. This is different from US or British politics: there you make a laws, defend your law in parliament, and convince other parliamentarians to vote on your law. This is one of the main reasons the EU is thought of as undemocratic: the commission is selected by the member countries, not by the voters. There are 28 commissioners. So, if you’re a Slovak then you didn’t get a say in 27 out of the 28 commissioners. Not to mention that 28 commissioners are too many to be effective. And parliament continuously fails in bringing the Europeans closer to the European Union: turnout in European elections is low and falling, and voters tend to decide on national, not European issues. Far from acting as a parliament that controls spending, it has often behaved more as a lobby group whose main aim seems to be to spend more and to augment its own powers. But it’s not ALL bad. For example, the commission is quite an efficient institution, employing only around 33,000 people, about the same amount as a largish local council in one of the member states. And under the leadership of Jean-Claude Junker it has sharply reduced the amount of laws it proposes. And the EU parliamentarians are impressively well qualified for improving legislation and questioning the EU commission. It has passed many ground-breaking laws in the past such as reducing roaming charges, passing legislation that sets the EU up as a global power, and taking steps towards more gender equality in the EU. Okay, so internal European matters it get send to parliament. What if it’s not? Well, if it concerns foreign affairs or requires cooperation between the countries, then it gets send to the Council of Ministers. This is comprised of one minister from each EU country. Depending on what they will vote on there are different ministers present. If they have to vote on an agricultural law, there will only be agricultural ministers, if they vote on matters of finance, there will be 28 finance minister, and so forth. The council of ministers acts as a balance with the European parliament. Where parliament is a purely European institution with European goals, the council of ministers is comprised of people who have the best interest of their country in mind. Like the parliament, they get to decide on the European budget. The European Court of Auditors sees to it that the taxpayer’s money is spent effectively in the EU. The European Court of Justice is the judicial arm of the European Union. It is comprised of 28 judges, one from each of the member states. Its role is to see to it that the EU laws are applied in all states and to settle legal matters between institutions and countries. It is the highest court in the EU. lastly there are the European Central Bank and the Eurogroup, which we’ll get to next episode. The European parliament moves between Brussels and Strasbourg every month, costing 114 million euros every year. There is also the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of Regions. They bring together trade union and civil representatives together for monthly meetings to advise the council of ministers. They cost about 200 million Euro ever year, but nobody would miss them if they were to disappear tomorrow. Lastly, all the institutions just mentioned are spread over Brussels, Luxembourg, Strasbourg, and Frankfurt. This was done to assure that not one country can take the lead in the EU by having all the European institutions in one country. But it also means that you can’t communicate properly so EU officials have to move between cities a lot. And that is only inside the EU. Then there are countries outside who want access to the vast EU market but don’t want to adhere to all EU legislation, notably fishing regulations for Norway and Iceland and Banking regulations for Switzerland. They are part of the European Economic Area and Schengen, meaning that they can trade freely with the EU countries and you can move between them, never realizing you left the EU. But the countries don’t have any say in their rules, meaning that if the Schengen or EEA treaties are changed, they can either sign the treaty or leave. So here you have it, a complete overview of the important institutions and how they work. Next week we’ll delve into the Euro and the Euro crisis. It will be equally critical of the EU as this episode. If you liked this episode, press the like button and subscribe for more videos like this This video was made in collaboration with My Country? Europe. If you want to show your support for Europe, head over to their page to see what they are doing.