Tasks Article 17 TEU describes the tasks of the Commission as follows:
The Commission shall promote the general interest of the Union and take appropriate
initiatives to that end.
It shall ensure the application of the Treaties, and of measures adopted by the institutions
pursuant to them.
It shall oversee the application of Union law under the control of the Court of Justice of the
European Union.
It shall execute the budget and manage programmes.
It shall exercise coordinating, executive and management functions, as laid down in the
Treaties.
With the exception of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), and other cases
provided for in the Treaties, it shall ensure the Union’s external representation.
It shall initiate the Union’s annual and multi-annual programming with a view to achieving
inter-institutional agreements.
As the first of these items indicates, the Commission is the institution within the
EU that has the promotion of the general interest of the Union as its official task. To
fulfill its central role in legislative procedures, the Commission must ensure that the
treaties and other EU laws are applied. It has an important role in EU policy
making.
MembersOriginally, every Member State of the EU had at least one representa-
tive in the Commission, but the number of Member States has increased greatly,
and Article 5 TEU determines that the number of Commissioners in principle
equals to two-thirds of the number of Member States. Although the Commissioner
posts are still divided over the Member States, presently with still one Commis-
sioner for every Member State, Commissioners are not representatives of their
states: they are there to promote the general Union interest.
The Commission must answer to the European Parliament, and the Parliament
has the power to dismiss the Commission.
10.4.2 The European Parliament
Tasks The European Parliament (EP) has three main functions:
- It is involved in the legislative process.
- It must approve the annual EU budgets (Article 314 TFEU).
- It supervises the EU executive (the Commission and the two Councils).
These tasks are briefly described in Article 14, Section 1 TEU:
The European Parliament shall, jointly with the Council, exercise legislative and budgetary
functions. It shall exercise functions of political control and consultation as laid down in the
Treaties. It shall elect the President of the Commission.10 The Law of Europe 219