1. THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION

2. Structure
The Commission is the bureaucratic-executive arm of the EU, is headquartered in Brussels, and is primarily supranational in character. It is headed by a president nominated by the European Council (and approved by the European Parliament), and has five components:
The College of Commissioners.
The President of the Commission.
The directorates-general and services.
A network of advisory and executive committees.
The Secretariat General.

3. College of Commissioners
A group of 28 commissioners who head the European Commission.
Each is responsible for a different area of policy.
The College is supported by a staff of about 24,000.
Commissioners are chosen by the president from lists submitted by governments of member states. The European Parliament must approve all nominees.
Parliament can remove the Commission through a motion of censure (this almost happened in 1999, but the EP could not muster the necessary two-thirds majority).
Commissioners are expected to put European interests above those of their home state.

4. The President
Presidents are appointed by the European Council for renewable five-year terms, with the following responsibilities:
Convening and chairing College meetings.
Laying down guidelines for the Commission and deciding upon its organization.
Assigning themselves whatever duties and policy responsibilities interest them.
Representing the Commission in dealings with EU and non-EU institutions.
The character of the office varies according to the personality and
management style of the office-holder.

5. Directorates-General/Services
Responsible for generating and overseeing the implementation of laws and policies in particular areas.
DGs are staffed by a mix of full-time European bureaucrats and of national experts seconded by member-states on short-term appointments.
Each DG is headed by a director-general, usually someone who has worked their way up through the bureaucracy of their home country, and then through the ranks of the Commission.

6. Committees
The work of the Commission is monitored by several hundred committees and sub-committees, which take four different forms:
Advisory committees look at less politically sensitive issues and provide opinions to the Commission. They cannot block Commission actions.
Management committees focus on areas like agricultural and fisheries policy. They can refer measures to the Council, which can overrule the Commission.
Regulatory committees can refer measures to both the Council and the European Parliament.
Regulatory committees with scrutiny must allow the Council and EP to check proposed measures by the Commission before they are adopted.

7. Secretariat-General
The Secretariat-General is the internal bureaucracy of the Commission.
It provides technical services and advice; prepares the annual workload of the commission; organizes and coordinates the work of the DGs and services.
It is headed by a secretary-general who sits in on meetings of the Commissioners, directs Commission relations with other institutions, and works to ensure that the Commission runs smoothly.

8. Commission Functions
To ‘promote the general interest of the Union’, ‘ensure the application of the treaties’ and ‘oversee the application of Union law’ (Lisbon Treaty).
It achieves this mainly through powers of initiation and implementation, its responsibilities for managing the EU budget, and its responsibilities for managing the external relations of the EU.
The work of the Commission is often widely misunderstood, with critics claiming that it is too powerful, secretive and expensive. In fact, it can only do what member states permit it to do; is no more secretive than national bureaucracies; and its operating budget is moderate compared to that of most national bureaucracies.

9. The EU’s Legal Tools