The treaty establishing the European Community was signed in Rome on 25 March 1957(the Treaty of Rome), and the Community came into being at the beginning of 1958. The main objective of the original six member states was to promote economic development by removing the barriers to trade between them. As they gradually succeeded in bringing this about they were joined by other countries.
The EU must make decisions about many areas of policy without, on the one hand, being bogged down in the process of consultation, or on the other neglecting the needs and views of member states and numerous lobbies and interest groups. Decisions must be made about what policy shall be (primary legislation) and how it should work in detail (secondary legislation). Several institutions are involved in this process, of which the two most important are the Commission and the Council. The European Commission is presided over by 20 Commissioners. They are appointed by agreement between the member governments, but are required to act in the interests of the EU and not individual member states. The Commission employs roughly 16,000 officials and they work in special services such as the legal department and the statistical office, or in Directorates General which are concerned with policy areas. Thus there is a Directorate General for Economic and Monetary Affairs, another for the EU Budget, another for the Environment etc. and each is the responsibility of one of the Commissioners. The Agriculture Directorate General is among the larger ones. The Commission is responsible for proposing primary legislation, it handles the day-to-day administration of EU laws and policies resulting from this primary legislation, and may enact secondary legislation in order to do so. It represents the EU in its relations with non-member states and other international bodies such as the World Trade Organisation. The Council of the European Union (The Council of Ministers) is the major legislative body of the EU and is the final decision-making body for all primary legislation. It consists of a minister from each member state, depending on the subject under discussion: agriculture ministers for agricultural matters, finance ministers for financial matters etc. The chair is held by an individual country for a six-month period and rotates from country to country in alphabetical order, according to the name of each country in its national language. The European Parliament represents the EU´s citizens and is directly elected by them for a period of five years. For most new law proposals the Council is required to receive the opinion of the European Parliament before making decision. The Parliament nominates a committee which produces a report on the proposal which may then be debated by a plenary session of the Parliament before becoming the Opinion which is passed on to the Council. The Parliament also has considerable indirect impact on the formulation of policy through its questioning of members of the Commission. Community law is thus primary and secondary legislation produced by the Council and the Commission, together with the law embodied in the Treaty of Rome and the various treaties of accession to the Community. It takes precedence over national law. It is the responsibility of the Court of Justice to decide whether or not EU legislation has been correctly applied, is being applied or is flawed. The Court of Auditors exists to audit the expenditure of the EU and to ensure that its finances are properly managed.
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