European Commission: Tasks, Functions and Powers

1 If the European Union (EU) were to be described as a factory, the European Commission (‘Commission’) would be its ‘Kraftwerk’, a German word for a power plant. Headquartered in the Berlaymont and Charlemagne buildings in Brussels, the Commission with its 32,000 staff is arguably the world’s most powerful international administration (Kassim et al), and at the centre of the European Union’s political system. During its five-year term, each Commission proposes approximately 1,500 binding legal acts and adopts countless other measures, which impact not only the...