Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 7

Law - Essay Example It has a role as the legal guardian of the EU, since it protects the treaties that are the legal framework for the union. It has twenty-eight members from member countries who serve a five-year term in office. Member countries submit their list of qualified commissioners to the European Parliament for approval1. After appointment, the commissioners do not undertake any other duties whatsoever other than the delegated duties. This is the largest institution of the union and it represents all the major political parties in the European Union. It has a democratic setting, which allows citizens to elect their representatives to this parliament. According to the treaty of Lisbon, the member states are set to reduce from 766 to 751 in the year 20142. The major function of this parliamentary body is to air matters of public interest in the European Union. At the sittings of this institution, each member states gets a chance to air the challenges faced by their countries. This parliamentary body also vets the EU budget and has powers to reject it or amend some of its expenditure. Representatives serve a five-year term after which they are free to vie for re-election. Since it is the largest parliament in the world, which represents over 500million citizens it plays an important role in European integration. In the beginning, the role of the parliament was purely for advisory purposes, but in recent years, the treaties of Amsterdam and Nice led to a more active role for the parliament as mentioned above. It is also important to the EU since it monitors actions by the other institutions, which have to defend their actions before parliamentary committees3. This body carries out the legislative duties of the EU. For a while, it was the sole legislative body until the European parliament received such powers. Although the parliament has such powers, they are not as