Topic summary
EU institutions
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Institutions of the European Union.
History
Most EU institutions were created with the establishment of the European Community in 1958. Much change since then has been in the context of shifting the balance of power away from the council and towards the Parliament. The role of the commission has often been to mediate between the two or tip the balance. However, the commission is becoming more accountable to the Parliament: in 1999 it forced the resignation of the Santer Commission and forced a reshuffle of the proposed Barroso Commission in 2004. The development of the institutions, with incremental changes from treaties and agreements, is testament to the evolution of the Union's structures without one clear "master plan." Some observers like Tom Reid of The Washington Post said of the institutions that "nobody would have deliberately designed a government as complex and as redundant as the EU."