1.
European Commission
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Commissioners swear an oath at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, pledging to respect the treaties and to be completely independent in carrying out their duties during their mandate. The Commission operates as a government, with 28 members of the Commission. There is one member per state, but members are bound by their oath of office to represent the general interest of the EU as a whole rather than their home state. One of the 28 is the Commission President proposed by the European Council, the current Commission is the Juncker Commission, which took office in late 2014. The procedural languages of the Commission are English, French and German, the Members of the Commission and their cabinets are based in the Berlaymont building in Brussels. The first Commission originated in 1951 as the nine-member High Authority under President Jean Monnet, the High Authority was the supranational administrative executive of the new European Coal and Steel Community. It took office first on 10 August 1952 in Luxembourg, in 1958 the Treaties of Rome had established two new communities alongside the ECSC, the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community. However their executives were called Commissions rather than High Authorities, the reason for the change in name was the new relationship between the executives and the Council. Some states such as France expressed reservations over the power of the High Authority, louis Armand led the first Commission of Euratom. Walter Hallstein led the first Commission of the EEC, holding the first formal meeting on 16 January 1958 at the Château of Val-Duchesse, Hallstein notably began the consolidation of European law and started to have a notable impact on national legislation. The three bodies, collectively named the European Executives, co-existed until 1 July 1967 when, under the Merger Treaty, the Rey Commission completed the Communitys customs union in 1968 and campaigned for a more powerful, elected, European Parliament. Despite Rey being the first President of the communities, Hallstein is seen as the first President of the modern Commission. The Malfatti and Mansholt Commissions followed with work on monetary co-operation, with that enlargement the Commissions membership increased to thirteen under the Ortoli Commission, which dealt with the enlarged community during economic and international instability at that time. Following the Jenkins Commission, Gaston Thorns Commission oversaw the Communitys enlargement to the south, the Commission headed by Jacques Delors was seen as giving the Community a sense of direction and dynamism. Delors and his team are considered as the founding fathers of the euro. The International Herald Tribune noted the work of Delors at the end of his term in 1992. He arrived when Europessimism was at its worst, although he was a little-known former French finance minister, he breathed life and hope into the EC and into the dispirited Brussels Commission. The successor to Delors was Jacques Santer, the entire Santer Commission was forced to resign in 1999 by the Parliament as result of a fraud and corruption scandal, with a central role played by Édith Cresson
2.
President of the European Commission
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The President of the European Commission is the head of the European Commission. The President of the Commission is responsible for allocating portfolios to members of the Commission and they determine the Commissions policy agenda and all the legislative proposals it produces. The President of the Commission also represents the EU abroad, together with the President of the European Council, the post was established in 1958. Each new President is nominated by the European Council and formally elected by the European Parliament, once appointed, he or she, along with the Commission, is responsible to Parliament. As of 2017, the current President is Jean-Claude Juncker, who took office on 1 November 2014 and he is a member of the European Peoples Party and is the former Prime Minister of Luxembourg. Juncker is the twelfth President and his First Vice-President is Frans Timmermans, in 1957 the present Commission was established by the Treaty of Rome, and it also replaced the High Authority and the Commission of Euratom in 1967. The Commissions first president was Walter Hallstein who started consolidating European law, national governments took little heed of his administration at first with the President having to stamp the Commissions authority early on. With the aid of the European Court of Justice the Commission began to be more seriously. These proposals led to a backlash from France. Hallstein knew the proposals would be contentious, and took charge of drafting them. However he did gain the support of Parliament through his proposals to increase its powers and he aimed to demonstrate how he thought the Community ought to be run, in the hopes of generating a wave of pro-Europeanism big enough to get past the objections of member states. However, in this it proved that, despite its past successes, France eventually withdrew its representative from the Council, triggering the notorious empty chair crisis. Although this was resolved under the Luxembourg compromise, Hallstein became the scapegoat for the crisis, the Council refused to renew his term, despite being the most dynamic leader until Jacques Delors. Hallsteins work did enable the Commission to be a real player, during the 1970s the presidents were involved in the major political projects of the day, such as the European Monetary Union. In 1970, President Jean Rey secured the Communitys own financial resources and in 1977, President Roy Jenkins became the first Commission President to attend a G7 summit on behalf of the Community. However, due to such as the 1973 oil crisis. However the Commission began to recover under President Jacques Delors Commission and he is seen as the most successful President, being credited with having given the Community a sense of direction and dynamism. The International Herald Tribune noted the work of Delors at the end of his term in 1992
3.
Jean-Claude Juncker
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Jean-Claude Juncker is a Luxembourgish politician. Since 2014, Juncker has been President of the European Commission, from 1995 to 2013, he was the 23rd Prime Minister of Luxembourg, and from 1989 to 2009, he was the Minister for Finances. From 2005 to 2013, Juncker served as the first permanent President of the Eurogroup, in 2014, the European Peoples Party had Juncker as its lead candidate, or Spitzenkandidat, for the Presidency of the Commission in the 2014 elections. This marked the first time that the Spitzenkandidat process was employed, the EPP won 220 out of 751 seats in the Parliament. On 27 June 2014, the European Council officially nominated Juncker for the position, and on 15 July 2014 and he succeeded Jose Manuel Barroso as President on 1 November 2014. During his leadership, Britain voted to leave the European Union in 2016, Juncker is the first President that prior to the election has campaigned as a candidate for the position, a process introduced with the Treaty of Lisbon. Juncker was born in Redange, Luxembourg, and spent the majority of his childhood in Belvaux and he studied at the Roman Catholic école apostolique at Clairefontaine on the edge of Arlon in Belgium, before returning to Luxembourg to study for his Baccalaureate at the Lycée Michel Rodange. He joined the Christian Social Peoples Party in 1974 and he studied Law at the University of Strasbourg, graduating with a Masters in Law in 1979, and although he was sworn into the Luxembourg Bar Council in 1980, he never practised as a lawyer. Juncker is fluent in his language of Luxembourgish, along with French, German. Following Junckers graduation from the University of Strasbourg, he was appointed as a Parliamentary Secretary and he later won election to the Chamber of Deputies for the first time in 1984 and was immediately appointed to the Cabinet of Prime Minister Jacques Santer as Minister of Labour. This led to his given a chairmans role at a number of meetings of the Council of the European Communities. Shortly before the 1989 election Juncker was seriously injured in a road accident. His eventual promotion to Prime Minister seemed at this time inevitable, Juncker at this time also accepted the position of Luxembourgs representative on the 188-member board of Governors of the World Bank. Juncker was re-elected to the Chamber in 1994, maintaining his ministerial role, Juncker relinquished his post at the World Bank at this time, but maintained his position as Minister for Finance. Junckers first term as Prime Minister was focused on a platform of international bilateral ties to improve Luxembourgs profile abroad. The press dubbed Juncker the Hero of Dublin for achieving a consensus between the two. He also instigated the Euro 11, an group of European finance ministers for matters regarding his Economic. For all of these initiatives, he was honoured with the Vision for Europe Award in 1998, after the 2004 election, the Luxembourg Socialist Workers Party became the second largest party again, and Juncker again formed a coalition with them
4.
Member state of the European Union
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The European Union comprises 28 member states. Each member state is party to the treaties of the union and thereby subject to the privileges. Unlike members of most international organisations, the states of the EU are subjected to binding laws in exchange for representation within the common legislative. Member states must agree unanimously for the EU to adopt policies concerning defence, subsidiarity is a founding principle of the EU. In 1957, six core states founded the EUs predecessor, the European Economic Community, the remaining states have acceded in subsequent enlargements. On 1 July 2013, Croatia became the newest member state of the EU, Enlargement of the Union is also contingent upon the consent of all existing members and the candidates adoption of the existing body of EU law, known as the acquis communautaire. There is disparity in the size, wealth and political system of member states, while in some areas majority voting takes place where larger states have more votes than smaller ones, smaller states have disproportional representation compared to their population. No member state has withdrawn or been suspended from the EU, in June 2016, the UK held a referendum on membership of the EU, resulting in 51. 89% of votes cast in favour to leaving. Prime Minister Theresa May invoked Article 50 on 29 March 2017 to formally initiate the withdrawal process, notes Enlargement is, and has been, a principal feature of the Unions political landscape. The EUs predecessors were founded by the Inner Six, those willing to forge ahead with the Community while others remained skeptical. It was only a decade before the first countries changed their policy and attempted to join the Union, French President Charles de Gaulle feared British membership would be an American Trojan horse and vetoed its application. Applying in 1969 were the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark, Norway, however, declined to accept the invitation to become a member when the electorate voted against it, leaving just the UK, Ireland and Denmark to join. But despite the setbacks, and the withdrawal of Greenland from Denmarks membership in 1985, in 1987, the geographical extent of the project was tested when Morocco applied, and was rejected as it was not considered a European country. The year 1990 saw the Cold War drawing to a close, meanwhile, the members of the former Eastern Bloc and Yugoslavia were all starting to move towards EU membership. Ten of these joined in an enlargement on 1 May 2004 symbolising the unification of East. Bulgaria and Romania joined in 2007, the year 2013 saw the latest member, Croatia, accede to the Union, and the EU has prioritised membership for the rest of the Balkans – namely Western Balkans. Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Turkey are all formal, turkish membership, pending since the 1980s, is a more contentious issue but it entered negotiations in 2005. According to the Copenhagen criteria, membership of the European Union is open to any European country that is a stable, free market liberal democracy that respects the rule of law and human rights
5.
European Union
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The European Union is a political and economic union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe. It has an area of 4,475,757 km2, the EU has developed an internal single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states. Within the Schengen Area, passport controls have been abolished, a monetary union was established in 1999 and came into full force in 2002, and is composed of 19 EU member states which use the euro currency. The EU operates through a system of supranational and intergovernmental decision-making. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community, the community and its successors have grown in size by the accession of new member states and in power by the addition of policy areas to its remit. While no member state has left the EU or its antecedent organisations, the Maastricht Treaty established the European Union in 1993 and introduced European citizenship. The latest major amendment to the basis of the EU. The EU as a whole is the largest economy in the world, additionally,27 out of 28 EU countries have a very high Human Development Index, according to the United Nations Development Programme. In 2012, the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, through the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the EU has developed a role in external relations and defence. The union maintains permanent diplomatic missions throughout the world and represents itself at the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G7, because of its global influence, the European Union has been described as an emerging superpower. After World War II, European integration was seen as an antidote to the nationalism which had devastated the continent. 1952 saw the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community, the supporters of the Community included Alcide De Gasperi, Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, and Paul-Henri Spaak. These men and others are credited as the Founding fathers of the European Union. In 1957, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany signed the Treaty of Rome and they also signed another pact creating the European Atomic Energy Community for co-operation in developing nuclear energy. Both treaties came into force in 1958, the EEC and Euratom were created separately from the ECSC, although they shared the same courts and the Common Assembly. The EEC was headed by Walter Hallstein and Euratom was headed by Louis Armand, Euratom was to integrate sectors in nuclear energy while the EEC would develop a customs union among members. During the 1960s, tensions began to show, with France seeking to limit supranational power, Jean Rey presided over the first merged Commission. In 1973, the Communities enlarged to include Denmark, Ireland, Norway had negotiated to join at the same time, but Norwegian voters rejected membership in a referendum
6.
Luxembourg
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Luxembourg /ˈlʌksəmbɜːrɡ/, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east and its culture, people and languages are highly intertwined with its neighbours, making it essentially a mixture of French and Germanic cultures. It comprises two regions, the Oesling in the north as part of the Ardennes massif. With an area of 2,586 square kilometres, it is one of the smallest sovereign states in Europe, Luxembourg had a population of 524,853 in October 2012, ranking it the 8th least-populous country in Europe. As a representative democracy with a monarch, it is headed by a Grand Duke, Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg. Luxembourg is a country, with an advanced economy and the worlds highest GDP per capita. Luxembourg is a member of the European Union, OECD, United Nations, NATO, and Benelux, reflecting its political consensus in favour of economic, political. The city of Luxembourg, which is the capital and largest city, is the seat of several institutions. Luxembourg served on the United Nations Security Council for the years 2013 and 2014, around this fort, a town gradually developed, which became the centre of a state of great strategic value. In the 14th and early 15th centuries, three members of the House of Luxembourg reigned as Holy Roman Emperors, in the following centuries, Luxembourgs fortress was steadily enlarged and strengthened by its successive occupants, the Bourbons, Habsburgs, Hohenzollerns and the French. After the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, Luxembourg was disputed between Prussia and the Netherlands and this arrangement was revised by the 1839 First Treaty of London, from which date Luxembourgs full independence is reckoned. In 1842 Luxembourg joined the German Customs Union, the King of the Netherlands remained Head of State as Grand Duke of Luxembourg, maintaining a personal union between the two countries until 1890. At the death of William III, the throne of the Netherlands passed to his daughter Wilhelmina and this allowed Germany the military advantage of controlling and expanding the railways there. In August 1914, Imperial Germany violated Luxembourgs neutrality in the war by invading it in the war against France and this allowed Germany to use the railway lines, while at the same time denying them to France. Nevertheless, despite the German occupation, Luxembourg was allowed to maintain much of its independence, in 1940, after the outbreak of World War II, Luxembourgs neutrality was again violated when the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany entered the country, entirely without justification. A government in exile based in London supported the Allies, sending a group of volunteers who participated in the Normandy invasion. Luxembourg was liberated in September 1944, and became a member of the United Nations in 1945. Luxembourgs neutral status under the constitution formally ended in 1948, in 2005, a referendum on the EU treaty establishing a constitution for Europe was held
7.
European Parliament election, 2014
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From 22 to 25 May 2014, elections to the European Parliament were held in the European Union. It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists and the European Alliance for Freedom declined to nominate candidates. Additionally, left-wing, eurosceptic, and nationalist parties gained ground at the expense of federalist groups, the Council of the European Union decided to hold the 2014 elections in late May instead of early June as had been the case with previous EP elections. The ongoing Eurozone crisis, an offshoot of the Great Recession, although it affected most EU member states, the hardest-hit economies were those of southern Europe, Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, along with Ireland. Among other reasons, harsh austerity measures significantly affected the public approval of EU leadership. The percentage of Greeks approving the EU leadership decreased from 32% in 2010 to 19% in 2013, while in Spain, overall, only four of the 27 members countries approved the EU leadership. Peter S. Goodman suggests that distrust about the treaties and conventions that hold together modern Europe appear at an all-time high. Europes establishment parties are expected to suffer their worst performance since 1979. The Economist estimated in January 2014 that anti-EU populists of the left, euromoney predicted anti-EU populists and nationalists winning around 150 seats in the parliament, almost 20% of the total. In Greece, the left-wing Coalition of the Radical Left consistently led the polling in the leadup to the election. In Italy the populist and anti-establishment Five Star Movement, according to the polls, was expected to be the second most popular party after the Democratic Party and this provision applied for the first time for the 2014 elections. The Common Candidate process of the Party of European Socialists was carried out according to the timetable, 1–31 October 2013. 6 November 2013, PES Presidency meeting to check the candidacies,1 December 2013 –31 January 2014, internal selection process within each member Party or organisation. February 2014, PES Election Congress to ratify the votes on the candidate, adopt the Manifesto, the PES Congress gathering in Brussels in November 2011 made the decision that it would select the PES candidate through internal primaries in each of its member parties and organisations. Member parties and organisations are free to determine their own voting process, possible candidates, José Luis Zapatero, Margot Wallström, Helle Thorning Schmidt, Frans Timmermans, Borut Pahor, Sergei Stanishev, Wouter Bos, José Sócrates, Werner Faymann, Pascal Lamy. Jyrki Katainen, Enda Kenny, Donald Tusk, Michel Barnier, while a compromise position was reached, the corresponding resolution was not passed due to disagreements on other points included in the resolution. The ALDE political party finally decided to discuss candidates at the partys pre-summit meeting at the margins of the 19–20 December European Council. Open to all inhabitants in the union over the age of 16 who support green values, other qualified candidates were Rebecca Harms and Monica Frassoni
8.
European People's Party
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The European Peoples Party is a European political party. A transnational organisation, it is composed of political parties. Founded by primarily Christian democratic parties in 1976, it has broadened its membership to include liberal-conservative parties and parties with other centre-right political perspectives. The EPP has been the largest party in the European Parliament since 1999 and it is also by far the largest party in the current European Commission. The President of the European Council, President of the European Commission, many of the Founding fathers of the European Union were also from parties that later formed the EPP. Outside the EU the party also controls a majority in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the EPP has alternated with its centre-left rival the Party of European Socialists as the largest European political party and parliamentary group. In the late 1990s the Finnish politician Sauli Niinistö negotiated the merger of the European Democrat Union, of which he was President, in October 2002 the EDU ceased its activities after being formally absorbed by the EPP at a special event in Estoril, Portugal. In recognition of his efforts Niinistö was elected Honorary President of the EPP the same year, the manifesto called for, Creation of new jobs, continuing reforms and investment in education, lifelong learning, and employment in order to create opportunities for everyone. Avoidance of protectionism, and coordination of fiscal and monetary policies, increased transparency and surveillance in financial markets. Making Europe the market leader in green technology, increasing the share of renewable energy to at least 20 per cent of the energy mix by 2020. Family-friendly flexibility for working parents, better care and housing, family-friendly fiscal policies. A new strategy to attract skilled workers from the rest of the world to make Europe’s economy more competitive, more dynamic and more knowledge-driven. The EPP operates as an international non-profit association under Belgian law according to its by-laws, the Presidency is the executive body of the party. It decides on the political guidelines of the EPP and presides over its Political Assembly. The Presidency is composed of the President, ten Vice-Presidents, the Honorary Presidents, the Secretary General, the Chairperson of the EPP Group in the European Parliament, the Presidents of the Commission, the Parliament and the Council, and the High Representative are all ex officio Vice-Presidents. The Political Assembly is composed of designated delegates from EPP member parties, associated parties, member associations, the Political Assembly meets at least three times a year. The Congress is the highest decision-making body of the EPP, the Congress elects the EPP Presidency every three years, decides on the main policy documents and electoral programmes, and provides a platform for the EPPs heads of government and party leaders. EPP leaders meet for the EPP Summit a few hours before each meeting of the European Council in order to formulate common positions and it also invites individual Commissioners to the EPP Summit meetings and to EPP Ministerial meetings
9.
European Council
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The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy also takes part in its meetings. Established as a summit in 1975, the European Council was formalised as an institution in 2009 upon the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon. Its current President is Donald Tusk, while the European Council has no formal legislative power, it is a strategic body that provides the union with general political directions and priorities, and acts as a collective presidency. The European Commission remains the sole initiator of legislation, but the European Council is able to provide an impetus to guide legislative policy, decisions of the European Council are taken by consensus, except where the Treaties provide otherwise. The European Council officially gained the status of an EU institution after Lisbon treaty in 2000, before that, the first summits of EU heads of state or government were held in February and July 1961. The summits were only formalised in the period between 1974 and 1988, the inaugural European Council, as it became known, was held in Dublin on 10 and 11 March 1975 during Irelands first Presidency of the Council of Ministers. In 1987, it was included in the treaties for the first time and had a role for the first time in the Maastricht Treaty. At first only a minimum of two meetings per year were required, which resulted in an average of three meetings per year being held for the 1975-1995 period, since 1996, the number of meetings were required to be minimum four per year. For the latest 2008-2014 period, this minimum was well exceeded, the seat of the Council was formalised in 2002, basing it in Brussels. Three types of European Councils exist, Informal, Scheduled and Extraordinary, some meetings of the European Council are seen by some as turning points in the history of the European Union. For example,1969, The Hague, Foreign policy and enlargement,1974, Paris, Creation of the Council. 1985, Milan, Initiate IGC leading to the Single European Act,1991, Maastricht, Agreement on the Maastricht Treaty. 1992, Edinburgh, Agreement to retain at Strasbourg the plenary seat of the European Parliament,1993, Copenhagen, Leading to the definition of the Copenhagen Criteria. 1997, Amsterdam, Agreement on the Amsterdam Treaty,1998, Brussels, Selected member states to adopt the euro. 1999, Cologne, Declaration on military forces,1999, Tampere, Institutional reform 2000, Lisbon, Lisbon Strategy 2002, Copenhagen, Agreement for May 2004 enlargement. 2007, Lisbon, Agreement on the Lisbon Treaty,2009, Brussels, Appointment of first president and merged High Representative. The Treaty of Lisbon made the European Council a formal institution distinct from the Council of the EU, as an outgrowth of the Council of the EU, the European Council had previously followed the same Presidency, rotating between each member state. Following the ratification of the treaty in December 2009, the European Council elected the then-Prime Minister of Belgium Herman Van Rompuy as its first permanent president
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