{"id":285,"date":"2013-02-12T15:41:14","date_gmt":"2013-02-12T15:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hum.port.ac.uk\/europeanstudieshub\/?page_id=285"},"modified":"2017-04-18T09:24:00","modified_gmt":"2017-04-18T09:24:00","slug":"the-institutional-triangle","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/hum.port.ac.uk\/europeanstudieshub\/learning\/module-1-understanding-eu-institutions\/introduction-to-study-of-the-european-union-institutions\/the-institutional-triangle\/","title":{"rendered":"The Institutional Triangle"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_4016\" style=\"width: 729px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/hum.port.ac.uk\/europeanstudieshub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/governance-of-the-eu-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4016\" class=\"wp-image-4016 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/hum.port.ac.uk\/europeanstudieshub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/governance-of-the-eu-1.jpg\" alt=\"Governance of the EU infographic \" width=\"719\" height=\"601\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hum.port.ac.uk\/europeanstudieshub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/governance-of-the-eu-1.jpg 719w, https:\/\/hum.port.ac.uk\/europeanstudieshub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/governance-of-the-eu-1-300x251.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 719px) 100vw, 719px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-4016\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Governance of the EU info-graphic<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union are the three central legislative institutions of the European Union and are often referred to as the EU\u2019s \u2018institutional triangle\u2019. They are not the only institutions that have a role in EU decision-making but they are the three most important.<\/p>\n<p>All three play an integral part in the legislative and decision-making process of the EU, but in different ways.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/hum.port.ac.uk\/europeanstudieshub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/instution_triangle.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-4039\" src=\"http:\/\/hum.port.ac.uk\/europeanstudieshub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/instution_triangle-284x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"284\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hum.port.ac.uk\/europeanstudieshub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/instution_triangle-284x300.png 284w, https:\/\/hum.port.ac.uk\/europeanstudieshub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/instution_triangle.png 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 284px) 100vw, 284px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A key thing to remember about these three institutions is that they represent different interests in the EU bureaucracy.<\/p>\n<p>Put simply:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The\u00a0<strong>European Commission<\/strong>\u00a0represents the interests of the\u00a0<strong>EU as a whole<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The\u00a0<strong>European Parliament<\/strong>\u00a0represents the interests of\u00a0<strong>European Citizens<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The Council of the European Union<\/strong>\u00a0(often referred to as just the Council or the Council of Ministers) represents the\u00a0<strong>member state governments<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There are other EU institutions we should also consider:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The\u00a0<b>European Council<\/b>\u00a0gives the impetus and directions to European integration<\/li>\n<li>The\u00a0<b>Committee of Regions &amp; The Economic and Social Committee<\/b>\u00a0are advisory bodies<\/li>\n<li>The\u00a0<b>European Court of Justice<\/b>\u00a0settles disputes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The EU institutional structure could therefore be represented like this:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/hum.port.ac.uk\/europeanstudieshub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/institutionrolesindecisionmaking_diagram-01.jpg\" alt=\"institutionrolesindecisionmaking_diagram-01\" width=\"627\" height=\"370\" \/><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Let\u2019s watch a video in order to explore further what institutions are and what they do:<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=VvIPSY_Sbfg<\/p>\n<p>As you noticed, the video suggests interdependencies between the institutions. We will be studying them further and we will analyse the role of each institution separately so you understand well how they work. We will also look at the internal set-up to identify the main actors. At the end of the unit, you should come back to the graph below and re-think the functioning of the EU institutions.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/hum.port.ac.uk\/europeanstudieshub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/organisational_chart-01.jpg\" alt=\"organisational_chart-01\" width=\"660\" height=\"499\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union are the three central legislative institutions of the European Union and are often referred to as the EU\u2019s \u2018institutional triangle\u2019. They are not the only institutions that have a role in EU decision-making but they are the three most important. All three<\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more-wrapper\"><a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/hum.port.ac.uk\/europeanstudieshub\/learning\/module-1-understanding-eu-institutions\/introduction-to-study-of-the-european-union-institutions\/the-institutional-triangle\/\" title=\"Read More\"> <span class=\"button \">Read More<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1647,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-285","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Institutional Triangle - European Studies Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hum.port.ac.uk\/europeanstudieshub\/learning\/module-1-understanding-eu-institutions\/introduction-to-study-of-the-european-union-institutions\/the-institutional-triangle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Institutional Triangle - European Studies Hub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union are the three central legislative institutions of the European Union and are often referred to as the EU\u2019s \u2018institutional triangle\u2019. They are not the only institutions that have a role in EU decision-making but they are the three most important. 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