10.4.4 The European Council
Tasks Where the task of the Commission is to promote the general interest of the
Union, the members of the European Council represent their national states in
negotiations and decision making, which determines the general course of develop-
ment of the EU. As Article 15, Section 1 TEU circumscribes it:
The European Council shall provide the Union with the necessary impetus for its develop-
ment and shall define the general political directions and priorities thereof. It shall not
exercise legislative functions.MembersThe members of the European Council are the Heads of State
(or government) of the Member States; they are usually Prime Ministers, sometimes
Presidents. These Heads of State are supplemented by the President of the European
Council (who is not one of the Heads of State) and the Chair of the Commission
(Article 15, Section 2 TEU). The current President of the European Council is
Herman van Rompuy.
The President of the European Council should not be confused with the President of the
European Commission.EurosummitsThe European Council meets at least twice in every 6 months.
These meetings are called the “Euro summits.”
10.4.5 The Court of Justice of the European Union
The EU has its own Court of Justice, which is called the “Court of Justice of the
European Union” (CJEU). This court is seated in the city of Luxembourg.
The European Court of Human Rights, which is seated in Strasbourg, deals with the
application of the European Convention of Human Rights. The ECtHR is a court connected
to the Council of Europe (see Sect. 10.1.1) and is a different organization to the CJEU.
The CJEU consists of three courts: the (European) Court of Justice (ECJ), the
General Court (GC), and the European Union Civil Service Tribunal. The latter
court only deals with internal staffing disputes of the EU and will not be
discussed here.
Both the ECJ and the GC consist of 28 judges, each from a different Member
State. The judges are effectively appointed by their respective national
governments for a mandate of 6 years.
Tasks The tasks of the two courts are manifold, but two important ones are
- To give preliminary rulings concerning the interpretation of the TEU and the
TFEU, and the validity and interpretation of acts of the institutions, bodies,
offices and agencies of the EU (Article 267 TFEU).
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