3. Governmental Structure

Abstract

This chapter examines the internal composition, internal powers, and internal procedures of the European Parliament, the European Council, and the Council of Ministers. It begins by looking at the role of the separation-of-powers principle in the European Union. Unlike the US Constitution, the EU Treaties do not discuss each institution within the context of one governmental function. Instead, each institution has ‘its’ article in the Treaty on European Union, whose first section then describes the combination of governmental functions in which it partakes. The European Treaties have thus ‘set up a system for distributing powers among different [Union] institutions’. And it is this conception of the separation-of-powers principle that informs Article 13(2) TEU. The provision is thus known as the principle of interinstitutional balance.