READING TASK
A. Find the following information in the text below
1. Three crucial roles of the European Parliament.
2. The year when the first direct elections for the European Parliament were held.
3. The two stages of the Parliament’s work.
4. The places where meetings are held and administration offices are located.
5. The EU main decision body.
6. The number and names of different Council’s configurations.
7. The key Council’s responsibilities.
8. The role of the Permanent Committee.
THE EUROPEAN UNION INSTITUTIONS (I)
Decision-making at European Union level involves various European Institutions, in particular
the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission. The Court
of Justice upholds the rule of European law and the Court of Auditors checks the financing of the
Union’s activities.
The European Parliament’s origins go back to the 1950s. Since 1979, members of the
European Parliament (MEPs) have been directly elected by the citizens they represent.
Parliamentary elections are held every five years and every EU citizen who is registered as a
voter is entitled to vote. Thus, the Parliament expresses the democratic will of the Union’s citizens and
it represents their interests in discussions with the other EU institutions.
The European Parliament works in France, Belgium and Luxembourg. The monthly plenary
sessions, which all MEPs attend, are held in Strasbourg (France), the Parliament’s seat. Parliamentary
committee meetings and any additional plenary sessions are held in Brussels, while Luxembourg is
home to the administrative offices (the “General Secretariat”).
The Parliament has three main roles:
1. It shares with the Council the power to legislate. The fact that it is a directly elected body helps
guarantee the democratic legitimacy of European law.
2. It exercises democratic supervision over all EU institutions, and in particular the Commission. It has
the power to approve or reject the nomination of Commissioners and it has the right to censure the
Commission as a whole.
3. It shares with the Council authority over the EU budget and can therefore influence EU spending. At
the end of the procedure, it adopts or rejects the budget in its entirety.
Parliament’s work is divided into two main stages:
➢ Preparing for the plenary session. This is done by the MEPs in the various parliamentary
committees that specialise in particular areas of EU activity. The issues for debate are also
discussed by the political groups.
➢ The plenary session itself. At these sessions, Parliament examines proposed legislation and
votes on amendments before coming to a decision on the text as a whole.
Other items on the agenda may include Council or Commission “communications” or questions
about what is going on in the European Union or the wider world.
The Council of the European Union, formerly known as the Council of Ministers, is the EU’s main
decision-making body. It represents the member states and its meetings are attended by one minister
from each of the EU’s national governments. Which ministers attend which meetings depends on what
subjects are on the agenda. If, for example, the Council is to discuss environmental issues, the meeting
will be attended by the Environment Minister from each EU country and it will be known as the
“Environment Council”.
Altogether, there are nine different Council configurations: General Affairs and External Relations;
Economic and Financial Affairs; Justice and Home Affairs; Employment, Social Policy, Health and
Consumer Affairs; Competitiveness (internal market, industry and research); Transport,
Telecommunications and Energy; Agriculture and Fisheries; Environment; and Education, Youth and
Culture.
Each Minister in the Council is empowered to commit his or her government. In other words, the
minister’s signature is the signature of the whole government. Moreover, each minister in the Council
is accountable to his or her national parliament and to the citizens that parliament represents. This
ensures the democratic legitimacy of the Council’s decisions
The Council has six key responsibilities:
1. to pass European laws.
2. to coordinate the broad economic policies of the member states.
3. to conclude international agreements between the EU and one or more states or international
organizations.
4. to approve the EU’s budget, jointly with the European Parliament.
5. to develop the EU’s common foreign and security policy.
6. to coordinate cooperation between the national courts and police forces in criminal matters.
In Brussels, each EU member has a permanent team (‘representation’) that represents it
and defends its national interest at EU level. The head of each representation is, in effect, his
or her country’s ambassador to the EU. These ambassadors (known as ‘permanent
representatives’) meet weekly within the Permanent Representatives Committee (Coreper).
The role of this committee is to prepare the work of the Council, with the exception of
agricultural issues.
The Presidency of the Council rotates every six months. In other words, each EU country
in turn takes charge of the Council agenda and chairs all the meetings for a six-month period,
promoting legislative and political decisions and brokering compromises between the
member states.
(adapted from “How the European Union Works”,
published by the European Commission, 2003)
B.Finish the sentences with appropriate information
1. Parliamentary elections are held ________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
2. The Parliament expresses ______________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
3. The Parliament represents _____________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
4. _____________________________________________________________
__________________________________________ are held in Strasbourg.
5. The Parliament has the power to _______________________________
_______________________________________________________________
6. The Council of the European Union represents ____________________
_______________________________________________________________
7. Each minister in the Council is accountable to _____________________
________________________________________________________________
8. Each EU member has a permanent team __________________________
________________________________________________________________
C. Which of the following adjectives can precede the nouns elections and democracy
1. parliamentary ____________________
2. constitutional ____________________
3. free ____________________
4. fair ____________________
5. multi-party ____________________
6. local ____________________
7. democratic ____________________
8. genuine ____________________
9. general ____________________
10. party ____________________
11. Western ____________________
12. political ____________________
13. true ____________________
14. early ____________________
15. direct ____________________
16. indirect ____________________
