European Commission

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The European Commission (EC) is the executive branch of the 27-member European Union (EU) and is mainly responsible for proposing legislation to its parliament, implementing its decisions and administering its budget. The EC also produces research such as economic forecasts aimed at assisting the EU in its decision-making.

The Commish

The EC consists of 27 individuals (commissioners), one from each of the EU's member states, who are appointed every five years. They are charged with acting not in the interest of their own state but in the interest of the EU as a whole.[1] The term of the current EC and its president, José Manuel Barroso of Portugal, expires in October, 2009. The EC is located in Brussels, Belgium. The EC is divided into 24 separate 'super-ministries' known as Directorates-General, each supervised by an EU bureaucrat who reports directly to the EC. They administer policy areas ranging from agriculture and rural development to education and culture to transport and energy.[2] It also contains 12 separate offices that deal with a range of bureaucratic responsibilities such as humanitarian aid and European anti-fraud.

Latest news

The EC recently created a stir by releasing an economic report indicating that economic growth within the euro zone (states that have adopted the EU's common currency) will slow considerably and even stall completely until at least mid-2009 and in some cases longer.[3] The report prompted a debate within member states about whether co-ordinated, EU-wide action or national responses were the appropriate response to the forthcoming economic difficulties. The EC report also estimated that euro-zone GDP declined 0.2 percent in the second quarter of 2008, 0.1 percent in the third quarter and predicted a further contraction of 0.1 percent in the fourth, thereby meeting the technical definition of a recession.

References

  1. ↑ The European Commission. European Union. Retrieved on November 3, 2008.
  2. ↑ The Commission. University of California Berkeley. Retrieved on November 3, 2008.
  3. ↑ Euro Zone To Honor Budget Rules As Econ Faces Stall. Reuters. Retrieved on November 3, 2008.
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