ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the European Commission, which is granted with legislative, executive and even some judicial powers, but appears as a kind of government of the European Union (EU). The European Council constitutes the synthesis of the two major tensions underlying the European integration – supranationalism and intergovernmentalism. The Lisbon Treaty states that the European Council provides the EU with the necessary impetus for its development and shall define the general political directions and priorities thereof. The question of the Commission's nature remains the subject of recurring debate among both EU practitioners and scholars. Some see it as an embryonic supranational government in a political system affected by an on-going process of "parliamentarization". Others defend the idea that it remains an executive body of an essentially administrative and technocratic nature – a kind of Secretariat General implementing decisions adopted by the Parliament and the Council under the aegis of the European Council.
