About the European Commission

European Commission

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EUROPA
European Commission
About the European Commission

About the European Commission

The European Commission is the EU's executive body and represents the interests of Europe as a whole (as opposed to the interests of individual countries).
The term 'Commission' refers to both the college of commissioners and the institution itself – which has its headquarters in Brussels, Belgium with offices in Luxembourg. The Commission also has offices known as 'representations' in all EU member countries.

What we do

The Commission's main roles are to:

set objectives and priorities for action
propose legislation to Parliament and Council
manage and implement EU policies and the budget
enforce European Law (jointly with the Court of Justice)
represent the EU outside Europe (negotiating trade agreements between the EU and other countries, etc.).

Regular and emergency meetings

The commissioners meet once a week, usually on Wednesday, in Brussels.
When the Parliament holds its plenary sessions in Strasbourg, the Commissioners usually meet there. The agenda for each meeting is based on the Commission work programme.
Each item on the agenda is presented by the Commissioner responsible for the related policy area, and the whole team then takes a collective decision on it. The meetings and debates are not open to the public, but the agendas and minutes are available.
The Commission also meets when emergencies need to be addressed and when major issues are being discussed by the Council of Ministers.
How the Commission works
Commission rules of procedure .

1 President and 26 Commissioners

A new team of 27 Commissioners (one from each EU country) is appointed every five years.
The European Council nominates a candidate to be president of the Commission, who must be approved by a majority of members of the European Parliament. If the MEPs reject the candidate, the Council has one month to put forward another. The president-elect chooses the commissioners (and their policy area) from candidates put forward by EU countries.
The list of commissioners is then submitted for approval (by qualified majority) first to the Council of Ministers, then to Parliament. If Parliament approves, the new Commission is officially appointed by the Council.
The current Commission's term of office runs until February 2014, and its President is José Manuel Barroso from Portugal.

Directorates-General

23 000 staff members work in the Commission in departments, known as directorates-general (DGs) or services, each responsible for a particular policy area and headed by a Director-General, who reports directly to the President.
The DGs draft laws, but their proposals become official only once the College of Commissioners adopts them during its weekly meeting.
The Commission also administers a number of executive agencies.

Documents, statistics and surveys

Access to documents

Registers of documents from the Commission and other institutions, as well as archives, registers of comitology (committees of national representatives), expert groups and more