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Question 2: (essay word count:2577)
European Union, a sui generis economic and political union which involving 28
European countries that embrace much of the continent together. It commences after the
second World War to foster economic co-operation, with an idea that to prevent potential
war among each other by trading between the nations. EU has grown become a "single
market" which allowed people and goods to move around, basically as if the member states
were one country.1 Notwithstanding, because of the unique nature of EU law, EUs
institution does not rigorously apply the traditional separation-of-power mode of state
governance, that is, legislature, executive and judiciary. Rather, the institutions overlap
between the functions of each other. 2 There are total 7 EU institutional frameworks3, that
is, the court of auditors, European central bank, Court of Justice of European Union, the
Council, the European Council, the European Parliament and the European Commission. 4
European Commission is the primary administrative body of EU. European
Commission is the primary administrative body of EU. The Commission can be traceable to
the establishment of "Coal and Steel Community" which set up in 1951. Where it was at first
part of executive branch, originally name as the "High Authority". It is now known as
European Commission after the Coal and steel Community was disbanded. In the beginning,
it only had 9 members but its size has grown with enlargement to currently 28 following its
latest enlargement in 2013, where there is one Commissioner per country. Prior to 2004, 5
of the larger states, that is Italy, UK, Spain, France and Germany had had two
Commissioners. This was changed to one representative for each country following an
agreement at the Niece Summit in 2000 that from January 2005 all member states would
have just one Commissioner per country.5
It sometimes be considered as the engine of European integration, not just because
of its almost exclusive right to initiate legislation in socioeconomic policy areas, also because
of its culture, history, composition and European instead of the national outlook. The
Commission represents the first supranational organisation as it doesnt have an
international or domestic political equivalent. 6The Commission has 28 individual
commissioners, by one from each Member State appointed for a 5 years period of office.
The member of commission are expected to have certain qualities, that is, possess the

1
'The EU In Brief - European Union Website, The Official EU Website - European Commission' (European Union
website, the official EU website - European Commission, 2016) <https://europa.eu/european-union/about-
eu/eu-in-brief_en> accessed 10 December 2016.
2
Alex Hunt, 'What Is The European Union?' [2016] Brexit: All you need to know about the UK leaving the EU
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-32810887> accessed 12 December 2016.
3
Treaty Of European Union, Article 13
4
Damian Chalmers and Gareth Davies, European Union Law (3rd edn, Cambridge University Press 2014).
5
'The European Commission Law European Essay' (Uniassignment.com, 2016)
<http://www.uniassignment.com/essay-samples/law/the-european-commission-law-european-essay.php>
accessed 13 December 2016.
6
'Functions Of The Eu Commission | Law Teacher' (Lawteacher.net, 2005) <http://www.lawteacher.net/free-
law-essays/european-law/functions-of-the-eu-commission.php> accessed 13 December 2016.
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general competence and their independence must beyond the reasonable doubt in order to
emphasize the independent nature of European Commission.7
Besides, European Commission is the representative of the interest of EU. This can
be seen in Article 17 TEU, which provide the pivotal role of Commission in the integration
process, scilicet, to facilitate the general interest of the Union. According to Article 178, the
distinct functions of the Commissions in order to fulfil its role is, guardian of treaties,
executive power, policy making and legislative power.
As guardian of Treaty, the commissions possess a wide-ranging of enforcement and
supervisory power. In other words, Commission have to ensure the implementation of EU
law by Member States is rigorously and uniformly , though it is probable for the member
states to apply other means to execute their EU law rights in the national courts.9 It has the
right to adopt infringement action in opposition to the member state which have not fulfil
their responsibilities under EU law. European commission is greatly dependent on whistle
blowing to be made aware of the potential violations of EU law.10 It may bring the member
state before the ECJ for breaching EU law. This power has been widely used by the
commission. European commission also under duty to monitor the compliance by member
state with judgement of ECJ. It can refer those member states which considered to be failed
to conform to the EU law, back before the court to have them amerced.11 The first fine
imposed on a member state was in the case of Commission of the European Communities v
Hellenic Republic12, when ECJ ordered Greek government to pay 20,000 each day of
continued non-compliance in regard to the disposal of toxic and dangerous waste.
Its major broad-ranging supervisory powers are, arguably, over Eurozone countries
in the area of fiscal and economic policy. Albeit, generally, it is for the Council to deal with
this area, it is on the basis of the commission finding that states have violent the restriction
of EU pertaining to their public finances or more general state of their economy. It is also for
the commission to denote whether the nations have redress the situation, and finally, for it
to give suggestion in regard to the sanctions level. These extent of authority give it some

7
Treaty of European Union, Article 17(3)
8
Treaty of European Union, Article 17(1):
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, and
other cases provided for in the Treaties, it shall ensure the Union's external representation. It shall initiate the
Union's annual and multiannual programming with a view to achieving interinstitutional agreements.
9
Catherine Barnard, European Union Law (1st edn, Oxford Univ Pr 2014).
10
John Peterson and Michael Shackleton, The Institutions Of The European Union (1st edn, Oxford University
Press 2002).
11
'The European Commission Law European Essay' (Uniassignment.com, 2016)
<http://www.uniassignment.com/essay-samples/law/the-european-commission-law-european-essay.php>
accessed 13 December 2016.
12
Commission of the European Communities v Hellenic Republic Case C-210/91, [1992] EUECJ C-210/91
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oversights over nearly every areas of welfare, economic and fiscal policy. Likewise, the
sanctions that it can recommend are enormous.13
For the Eurozone countries which seek for financial support from European Stability
Mechanism, the overseeing of Commission is even more intense. It was held that, all of the
financial support is subject to some conditions. Generally, the nations will undertake a
programme of action to cut back its borrowing needs and level of debts. In the course of this
event, alongside the European central bank, European Commission is commissioned, to
negotiate a Memorandum of Understanding with the state which sets out the time scale
and requirement for satisfying these requirements. It must also ensure these requirements
has been fulfilled.14
Regarding the executive power, the commission has almost monopoly on the
introduction of proposals for EU legislation. The power of proposal is the complete form of
the initiative power, on the ground that it is always constrain and exclusive in the authority
of making decisions. 15This means, the EU legislation will not be able to be adopted unless it
has been proposed by the Commission initially. This also applies to those non-legislative
acts. Yet, it of course cannot be forgotten that these proposed laws must then be agreed by
European Parliament and the Council.16
In relation with non-member countries, when a mission or authority is granted by
the Council or European Parliament, the Commission will have responsibility to negotiate
the international agreements under Articles 207 and 218 Treaty on the Functioning of the
European Union, which will then refer to the Council with a view to their conclusion. The
commission is given authority by member states to deal with international organization on
behalf of EU, for instance, World Trade Organization and United Nations. It is also a crucial
contact point between EU and the rest of the world. This can be seen that over 140 of
governments have open diplomatic missions in Brussels by the authorization of EU and EU
has opened not less than 130 offices in other parts of the world, which composed of
employees of EU Commission, the commission will examine the application for full or
associate member form aspirant member stats, and supervises the negotiations with an
applicant.17 Another celebrated example is the negotiations for accession to the European
Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.18 Pertaining to

13
'The EU In Brief - European Union Website, The Official EU Website - European Commission' (European
Union website, the official EU website - European Commission, 2016) <https://europa.eu/european-
union/about-eu/eu-in-brief_en> accessed 13 December 2016.
14
'The European Commission Law European Essay' (Uniassignment.com, 2016)
<http://www.uniassignment.com/essay-samples/law/the-european-commission-law-european-essay.php>
accessed 13 December 2016.
15
'The European Commission | EU Fact Sheets | European Parliament' (Europarl.europa.eu, 2016)
<http://www.europarl.europa.eu/atyourservice/en/displayFtu.html?ftuId=FTU_1.3.8.html> accessed 15
December 2016.
16
Treaty of European Union, Article 17(2)
17
John McCormick, The European Union (4th edn, Westview Press 2008).
18
Treaty of Union Article 6(2)
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the foreign and security policy it is the High Representative who negotiates the
agreements.19
Furthermore, European Commission possess a duty to ensure the revenue collection
and passed on by national authorities and the application of rates are correct. The
Commission also responsible for supervising and coordinating a majority of union expenses.
It will draft the budget spending for the year and this require the agreement of the council
and European Parliament.20
From the beginning of the process of European integration, the Commission plays a
predominant role in agenda setting, particularly in matters falling under the first pillar, in
initiating and preparing proposals for legal acts and non-legal decisions. In the view of the
founding treaties21, EU Commission, the most supranational institution, is the initiating
body. It has the right of legislative initiative and therefore also of political initiative.22 This
exclusive right to formally initiate legislation under the Community way is its most
significance prerogative.23 The Commission acts significantly in developing and devising the
policy of EU to facilitate forwarding of the agenda of interactionism. It is responsible to
commence and draw up the policy in several ways. At first, it determines the programme of
legislation for each year. Next, in major area, it possesses a monopoly over the power of
initiating the legislation. It also owns the financial initiatives power and commence the
budgetary process by outline the budget before the Council and European Parliament.
Finally, EU commission is under the obligation to stimulate policy debate more generally. A
notable example was the White Paper on the Completion of the Internet Market, which lay
out the timetable and agenda for completing the internal market by the end of 1992.
Normally, the Commission rarely bring forward the proposals of its own back,
Rather, it enjoy to be a gate-keeper, where various interest, industry, national governments
or Non-Government Organization come to it with legislative proposals. A breakdown of this
has only ever been provided for 1998, where the commission reckoned that 12% of its
proposals were task demand by the treaty where it enjoyed no discretion, 17% were
responding to the requisition of economic operators, EU institutions or national
governments, 31% were due to the international obligations and 35% were adapting
legislation to new scientific, economic or social data. There is only 5 % of the proposals were
taken at its own behalf.
This has led to a politicization of the Commission over the traditional civil service. It
becomes a marketplace for accommodating the interests and developing ideas, with various

19
'The EU In Brief - European Union Website, The Official EU Website - European Commission' (European
Union website, the official EU website - European Commission, 2016) <https://europa.eu/european-
union/about-eu/eu-in-brief_en> accessed 13 December 2016.
20
Elspeth Berry, Matthew J Homewood and Barbara Bogusz, EU Law (2nd edn, Oxford University Press 2013).
21
Treaty Establishing the European Community
22
Christiansen Thomas, 'The European Commission' [2006] The European Executive Between Continuity and
Change.
23
Doreen K. Allerkamp, 'Political Leadership By The European Council' [2010] Who set the agenda <http://17
per cent were responding to request by national governments, EU institutions or economic operators>
accessed 15 December 2016.
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parties, both public and private, attempt to make influence on it. Besides agenda setter, the
commission also act as a veto player. Without the decision of commission to make a
proposal, nothing can be happened. This proposal, moreover, will formulate the terms of
legislation. It also provides a crucial influence for the Commission in the debate
subsequently. As it can revoke a proposal whenever necessary, parties cannot neglect its
views even after the proposal has been made. Nevertheless, its power should not be over-
estimated. Its influence is relying on several variables. Central is institutional context. In
areas where there is no need the unanimous vote by member states, EU commission can
play a role as a middleman between some actors and to outsmart others.24 In several areas,
it can influence the other institutions to accept its proposal as the lesser evil by threatening
other powers at its disposal, for instance, bringing a member states before ECJ, which would
bring some more serious consequences. There is also temporal dimension. Yet, the
influence of the commission will be weakened if it is impatient because it must be more
receptive to the views of other institutions. On the contrary, if the other institutions are
impatient with the measure taken, the power of the commission will increase.25
The last but not the least, EU commission possess a monopoly right to initiate draft
legislation. All of the legislative decision which the Council adopt must according to the
proposals of the Commission. This enable the Commission to act as a motor of integration,
stipulate the proposals for the development of the policies of EU and building steps towards
greater harmonisation. The Commission also develops the entire legislative plan of EU for
any given year, which is of real important in forming EU priorities. 26 However, it has been
excluded for several policy areas where the Treaty particularly demand European
Parliament or the Council to adopt the special legislative procedure, for instance, judicial
and police cooperation on civil and criminal matters and taxation. A particular legislative
procedure enables the Council to initiate legislation and adopt a measure following the
consultation with the European Parliament or with the Parliaments consent.
It was arguing that instead of direct legislative power, EU Commission has a more
significant quasi-legislative powers. These powers for the Commission are granted by EU
legislation to resort general rules, which, whilst not legislative in nature, have binding legal
effects. At the Treaty of Lisbon, the differentiation was made between 2 forms of quasi-
legislation, that is, implementing measures and delegated measures. When the uniform
conditions for the implementation of EU acts are in need, the implementing measures will
be able to adopt. Normally, implementing measures can only be adopted by EU commission
as well. Yet, the Council adopts such measures as for the foreign policy and potentially be an
exception in other case. Besides, the adoption of the implementing measure by the
Commission is controlled by the committees which composed of official of member states.

24
Dionyssis G Dimitrakopoulos, The Changing European Commission (1st edn, Manchester University Press
2004).
25
Mark A Pollack, Obedient Servant Or Runaway Eurocracy? (1st edn, Center for International Affairs, Harvard
University 1995).
26
'A BRIEF GUIDE TO THE EUROPEAN UNION AND ITS LEGISLATIVE PROCESSES' (2011)
<https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/archive/european-union-legislative-process> accessed 16 December
2016.
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In short, the measures of implementation provide more uniformity to the implementation
and application of the EU legislation by laying out in greater detail its implications. While
delegated acts, which amend or supplement the elements of EU legislative act which is
inessential act can just be adopted by EU commission, even though it is subject to the
control of EU parliament and the Council.27
The rationale for these powers embrace that, they emancipate the other institution
so that they can spend more time on the issues which have a greater political significance.
Next, the legislative procedure is not quick enough in making an emergency decision and
finally, legislatures have no expertise nor a sufficiently long-term perspective of the issues.
Nevertheless, the widespread grant of such powers lead to the problems of democratic
accountability since it superseded the legislative process. It is concerning, for instance, if the
Commission is able to rewrite almost all the EU legislation through the power of delegation.
Likewise, if the parent legislation which was substantively empty granted the EU
commission the power effectively to determine its content through implementation.28
Therefore, the remit of the quasi-legislation is particularly important. The essential
elements which could not be delegated had been interpreted as only those elements which
give concrete shape to the fundamental guidelines of union policy. It was not until 2012,
therefore, that any piece of EU legislation was found illegal for granting the commission
excessive powers. This has been changed in the judgement of Parliament v Counci29l
(Schengen Borders Code). The EU legislation in question, the Schengen Borders Code (SBC)
is provided for monitoring the Union external frontiers to avoid the unauthorised transit. In
this respect, article 12(5) SBC authorized extra measures to be taken governing surveillance
which supplement or amend the legislation, though it was silent on what these were. In
2010, a decision was made under article 12(5) concerning the surveillance of maritime
frontiers. Two aspect has been challenged on the ground that it is too broad. The first
permit the officials to broad and examined the ships, detain those on board and return non-
EU nationals to their countries of origin. When a ship was in distress, the second governed
measures will then be taken. A priority was to be given, in such situation, to returning non-
EU nationals to their home state.30
As a conclusion, European Commission is an important institution in EU. It provides
guardian to ensure the member state have acted in line with the Treaties. It also possesses
the executive power, policy making and legislative power. European Commission also
consider as a supranational institution as its members seek to achieve what is in the best
interests of the EU. By looking these, we can conclude that although European commission
is not the highest decision-making authority within the institutions of EU as sometimes it
still subject to the control of The Council and European Parliament, yet it plays a vital role in
integration of EU.

27
Elizabeth E Bomberg and Alexander C-G Stubb, The European Union-- How Does It Work? (1st edn, Oxford
University Press 2003).
28
Damian Chalmers and Gareth Davies, European Union Law (3rd edn, Cambridge University Press 2014).
29
Parliament v Council Case C-355/10
30
Damian Chalmers and Gareth Davies, European Union Law (3rd edn, Cambridge University Press 2014).
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Bibliography
Websites:

'The EU In Brief - European Union Website, The Official EU Website - European

Commission' (European Union website, the official EU website - European Commission,
2016) <https://europa.eu/european-union/about-eu/eu-in-brief_en> accessed 10
December 2016
'Functions Of The Eu Commission | Law Teacher' (Lawteacher.net, 2005)
<http://www.lawteacher.net/free-law-essays/european-law/functions-of-the-eu-
commission.php> accessed 13 December 2016
'The European Commission | EU Fact Sheets | European Parliament'
(Europarl.europa.eu, 2016)
<http://www.europarl.europa.eu/atyourservice/en/displayFtu.html?ftuId=FTU_1.3.8.ht
ml> accessed 15 December 2016
'A BRIEF GUIDE TO THE EUROPEAN UNION AND ITS LEGISLATIVE PROCESSES' (2011)
<https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/archive/european-union-legislative-process>
accessed 16 December 2016
Journal Article:

Hunt A, 'What Is The European Union?' [2016] Brexit: All you need to know about the UK
leaving the EU <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-32810887> accessed 12
December 2016
Thomas C, 'The European Commission' [2006] The European Executive Between
Continuity and Change
K. Allerkamp D, 'Political Leadership By The European Council' [2010] Who set the
agenda <http://17 per cent were responding to request by national governments, EU
institutions or economic operators> accessed 15 December 2016
Books:

Barnard C, European Union Law (1st edn, Oxford Univ Pr 2014)

Chalmers D and Davies G, European Union Law (3rd edn, Cambridge University Press
2014)
Peterson J and Shackleton M, The Institutions Of The European Union (1st edn, Oxford
University Press 2002)
Berry E, Homewood M and Bogusz B, EU Law (2nd edn, Oxford University Press 2013)
Bomberg E and Stubb A, The European Union-- How Does It Work? (1st edn, Oxford
University Press 2003)
McCormick J, The European Union (4th edn, Westview Press 2008)
Pollack M, Obedient Servant Or Runaway Eurocracy? (1st edn, Center for International
Affairs, Harvard University 1995)
Dimitrakopoulos D, The Changing European Commission (1st edn, Manchester University
Press 2004)
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Cases:

Commission of the European Communities v Hellenic Republic Case C-210/91, [1992]

EUECJ C-210/91
Parliament v Council Case C-355/10, [2015]
EU Legislation:

Treaty of European Union

Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union
Treaty Establishing the European Community