European Commission

The European Commission (formally the Commission of the European Communities) is the executive of the European Union. Alongside the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, it is one of the three main institutions governing the Union. Its primary roles are to propose and enact legislation, and to act as 'guardian of the treaties' which provide the legal basis for the EU. The role of the European Commission has many parallels with the executive body of a national government, but also differences (see below for details).

Commission decision-taking

Individual commissioners take responsibility for advancing the work of European Commission in their areas of interest, but any key decisions are generally taken collectively by the Commission as a whole. To make this possible, there are regular meetings of all the Commissioners, which have two types of agenda items http://europa.eu.int/comm/secretariat_general/meeting/index_en.htm:

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• A-item is an item that is not controversial and can be passed without discussion
• B-item still needs discussion before being accepted