President of the European Commission

Abstract: The Corruption Scandal of the European Commission and its possible effects on the institutional balance and the question of legitimacy I. Defining Corruption The first chapter is an attempt to define corruption. It is important to divide overlapping and complicated terms such as corruption, scandal and fraud. Corruption is defined as an illegal transaction, where both actors benefit from their special position in the market or the government. Scandal is the public reaction to allegations

Koninginnegracht 23F, 2535RS The Hague The Honorable Jan Peter Balkenende Minister President Herengracht 12-D, 2717DC Middelburg Dear Minister President, As a staff member of the Directorate-General of the European Commission I have been appointed to describe to you the composition and the powers of the Commission in the European Union. In the following paragraph I will describe the body of the Commission divided in three pillars: First you have the College of the Commissioners, then the

making is divided amongst the Commission and the Council? Or should the EU have a single institution where either the Commission or the Council has a more dominant and superior leadership role? Simon Hix defines this dual executive model as ‘a separation of powers’ (Hix and Hoyland 2011). In order to understand whether this separation is good or bad we must outline the power each institution has and inevitably their role in the formation of policy-making in the European Executive. Over the course of

This essay seeks to identify, define and offer practical solutions to tackling the democratic deficit which in the European Union (EU). Apart from the economic issues plaguing the EU, which is most discussed topic, the issue of its democratic deficiency remains undebated. Democracy deficit in the EU in its ordinary meaning means that there is gap between the EU institutions and citizens in the member states of the EU. Recommendations have been put forward to bridge the gap between the EU’s institutions

able to reduce the democratic pressure and if after these changes does the European Union still lack democratic accountability. We shall look at all the main insinuations and discuss the changes that were brought in and how these may have or haven’t contributed to make the union free form its democratic pressure. The Lisbon Treaty was signed by the member states on the 13 of December 2007, it amended the existing European Union (EU) and the treaties the ratification process turned out to be longer

structure and the very nature of European Union, and pronounced that it suffers from a democratic deficit. It has been argued that, the European Union is not firmly made to democratic pressures and that it gives a privileged position to the national executives, allowing them to escape proper parliamentary scrutiny. “The European Union has been further described as not transparent, and distant from its citizens. Looking in details the institutions within the European Union (EU), analyzes their powers

he European Union consists of many institutions and through these parts, it functions itself. While it has a highly federalized government-like-framework (EU Parliament), simultaneously, it also has loose intergovernmental institutions (Council of European Union and the European Council). It is a complex hybrid organization, falling somewhere between the intergovernmental cooperative United Nations, and the federal government of United States of America. The chief constituting bodies are namely,

The European Court of Justice is the main governing body for the EU and enforcer of the laws over all of its member states. The functions of the European Court of Justice is to enforce Community law, to tackle disputes between member states and the European council and between the member states themselves, and also to protect the rights of all European individuals. The court consists of three courts, Court of Justice of the EU, General court and the EU civil service tribunal which are all located

Introduction To fully appreciate the position of the European Council within the European Union we first took a brief look at how the European Union came about. The European project first started soon after the second world with the creation of the ECSC (European Coal and Steel Community) to harmonise relations between the Nations of Europe and to prevent any further conflicts of the scale of the wars that had preceded its creation. The new spirit of cooperation aimed to bring about a new era of

The United States Federal System and the current Federal System for the European Union have many similarities and differences. The traditional division of the functions of a federal government are the legislative, executive and the judicial branch. The United States is made up all three branches separately to “check” potential abuses and balance each of the branches. The European Union also has three main political institutions that constitute the executive and legislative branches, as well as the