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EU Basics FAQ: The European Commission
[QUESTIONSABOUTEU]
General information
The European Commission is the body with the formal and exclusive power to
initiate all EU legislation, and which is supposed to represent the interest
of the Union as a whole, both in the political processes within the EU as in
negotiations with the outside world. This means that it must take no
instruction from any of the member states' governments; it is accountable
only to the European Parliament (as well as, as any EU institution, to the
European Court). Also, it is the main body with a duty to look after correct
implementation of the treaties and subsequent legislation.
The Commission's members are nominated by their national governments and
must be acceptable to all the government leaders of the member states. Small
member states each have one Commissioner, while the larger ones (Germany,
France, Italy, UK, Spain) each have two. That makes a total of 20
Commissioners now.
Generally, every Commission is more or less balanced in party affiliation
(Britain always appoints a Tory and a Labour candidate, and the Benelux
countries used to see to it that one of their Commissioners was a
Socialist, one a Christian-Democrat and one a Liberal. This is, in fact, no
longer the case (at present, for instance, there are two Christian-Democrats
and one Socialist for the Benelux countries. In the previous Commission,
this was the same, though with partly different members).
The Directorates-General of the Commission
The Commission is a big organisation, whose tasks have been divided in
different departments or Directorates-General on the one hand, and some
supporting services on the other hand.
DG I External Economic Relations
DG IA External Political Relations
DG II Economic and Financial Affairs
DG III Industry
DG IV Competition
DG V Employment, Industrial Relations and Social Affairs
DG VI Agriculture
DG VII Transport
DG VIII Development
DG IX Personnel and Administration
DG X Information, Communication, Culture, Audiovisual
DG XI Environment, Nuclear Safety and Civil Protection
DG XII Science, Research and Development
DG XIII Telecommunications, Information Market and
Exploitation of Research
DG XIV Fisheries
DG XV Internal Market and Financial Services
DG XVI Regional Policies
DG XVII Energy
DG XVIII Credit and Investments
DG XIX Budgets
DG XX Financial Control
DG XXI Customs and Indirect Taxation
DG XXII Education, Training and Youth
DG XXIII Enterprise Policy, Distributive Trades, Tourism and
Cooperatives
DG XXIV Consumer Policy
Services
Secretariat-General of the Commission
Forward Studies Unit
Joint Research Centre
Inspectorate-General
Legal Service
Spokesman's Service
Joint Interpreting and Conference Service
Statistical Office (EUROSTAT)
Translation Service
Informatics Directorate
Security Office
European Community Humanitarian Office
Euratom Supply Agency
Office for Official Publications of the European Communities
Enlargement Task Force (TFE)
It might be worth pointing out that the relationship between the Commission
Members themselves and the staff of the European Commission is similar to
that between Government ministers and the permanent civil service, in the
sense that the former have no security of tenure, and inevitably with a
different number of Commission Members and DGs their portfolios don't
necessarily correspond directly to the DG structure.
Who is the President (chairman) of the European Commission?
The function of President (or chair) of the Commission has undoubtedly
become much more important in the last ten years. This has much to do with
the personal style of the man who has held the job for the last ten years,
the French socialist Jacques Delors, and the extension of the EU's powers
during his presidency. Mr. Delors predecessors were mainly considered top
civil servants, but the political profile of the function has become much
stronger.
These are the Commission presidents since the 1967 merger[1]:
1967-1970 Mr Jean Rey (Liberal, BE)
1970-1972 Mr Malfatti (Christian Democrat, IT)
1972 Mr Sicco Mansholt (Socialist, NL)
1973-1976 Mr Frangois Ortoli (Gaullist, FR)
1977-1980 Mr Roy Jenkins (Socialist [now LibDem], UK)
1981-1984 Mr Gaston Thorn (Liberal, LU)
1985-1994 Mr Jacques Delors (Socialist, FR)
1995-2000 Mr Jacques Santer (Christian Democrat, LU)
As Richard Corbett[2] writes,
+A new Commission is chosen every five years in the months followin
g the European parliamentary elections by a two-step procedure. In th
e first step, the European Council[3] (Heads of Governments of Member
States) choose a candidate for President of the Commission. This can
didate must be chosen by consensus, which is sometimes hard to reach.
The candidate is then presented to the European Parliament which tak
es a vote on the candidate, by a simple majority of those voting. Thi
s is formally a consultative vote, though it is hard to imagine a can
didature proceeding any further should Parliament's vote be negative.
In the second phase of the procedure, the Member States agree, afte
r consulting the President-designate, on the remaining members of the
Commission. The Commission as a whole then agrees itself on the allo
cation of portfolios among the members and on its programme, which it
presents to the European Parliament. The Commission may only take of
fice if it then obtains a vote of confidence from the European Parlia
ment (simple majority of those voting). Prior to the vote of confiden
ce, Parliament organizes public hearings with each of the candidates
who must appear before the parliamentary committee which corresponds
to their prospective portfolios.;
The EP approved Mr.Santer by a margin of only 22 votes on July 21st., 1994.
After the EP organised hearings for all other prospective members of the
Commission, the new Commission started work at the end of January, 1995.
Where can I find the European Commission on the net?
EMAIL CONNECTIVITY
NOTE: This section contains information that is no longer up-to-dat
e. It will be updated in the next version of the FAQ
Most people working at the European Commission should now be reachable
though the Internet at the address <given_name_initial.surname@mhsg.cec.be>.
The example of <J.Santer@mhsg.cec.be> is purely fictional because this
address system applies only to the Commission's staff (civil servants),
rather than the Commissioners (politicians). Indeed, rumour goes that the
authors of the Bangemann Report (on the information society) used faxes (not
e-mail) to exchange drafts and comments ;-)
Some of the DG's have their own Internet domain as well, but their users
should still be reachable under the scheme described above.
DATABASES AND INFOSYSTEMS
As of March 1995, the European Commission has set up its own general
WorldWideWeb-server under the name of +Europa;, in addition to some specific
WWW servers that had already been developed before. It was announced as
follows:
On 25 February 1995, during the +G7 Conference on the Information S
ociety;, the European Commission introduced a new on-line database of
information about the European Union, intended for the general publi
c and known as +Europa;. The main function of Europa, which can be fo
und on the World Wide Web with the URL http://www.cec.lu/[4] is to p
rovide information and guidance in clear everyday language on topics
of interest to consumers within the single market. However, it also c
ontains basic information about the European Institutions, and a coll
ection of some of the more grotesque so-called +euro-myths; put about
by eurosceptics, explaining how they arose and the reality behind th
em. Initially, Europa will be available in English only, but the EC p
lans to provide versions in other EU languages in due course.
___________________________________
Edited by Roland Siebelink & Bart Schelfhout[5]
corrections and suggestions welcome.
[Go to Table of Contents][6]
*** References from this document ***
[1] http://eubasics.allmansland.com/general.html#merger
[2] http://eubasics.allmansland.com/about.html#contr
[3] http://eubasics.allmansland.com/councils.html#eu-council
[4] http://www.cec.lu/
[5] mailto:eubasics@allmansland.com
[6] http://eubasics.allmansland.com/index.html
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