ABSTRACT
The European Economic Community was formally changed to the European Community (EC) under the Maastricht Treaty, or Treaty on European Union, although in practice the term EC had been used for several years to describe the three Communities together. In December 2001 the European Council adopted the Declaration on the Future of the European Union, which aimed to reform EU institutions to ensure the smooth functioning of the Union after enlargement. The Treaty of Rome was duly renamed the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, with references to the European ‘Community’ changed to the ‘Union’. The European Parliament has three main roles: sharing with the Council of the European Union the power to legislate; holding authority over the annual Union budget, including the power to adopt or reject it in its entirety; and exercising a measure of democratic control over the executive organs of the EU, the Commission and the Council.
