The EU Today: Institutions, Euro, and Brexit

The European Union's institutional architecture rests on three principal bodies that share legislative and executive functions in a system without direct precedent among international organizations. The European Commission, based in Brussels and composed of one Commissioner per member state, holds the near-exclusive right to propose new EU legislation, manages the Union's budget, and enforces treaty obligations, acting as an executive body whose members swear to act independently of national governments. The Council of the European Union brings together ministers from each member state, organized by policy area, to negotiate and adopt legislation alongside Parliament, while the European Council, formalized as an EU institution by the 2007 Lisbon Treaty, brings together heads of state or government to set the Union's overall political direction. The European Parliament, directly elected by EU citizens every five years since 1979, shares legislative and budgetary power with the Council and elects the Commission's president, giving voters a direct, if partial, check on the Union's executive leadership.