ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the EU. It explains how it works in terms of law-making, what the important bodies within the EU are and how they relate to each other. The EU makes laws to further the objectives agreed by all the member states when they joined, as set out in the Treaties. The principal objective of the EU is the harmonious development of the economic and social activities of member states. The Council is a committee, or rather a whole series of separate committees, of government ministers from all the member states. Various ministers from all the member governments meet formally in Brussels with their opposite numbers routinely and regularly, at approximately monthly intervals - the Economic, Agriculture, Home and Foreign ministers especially. Finally, the chapter examines the different ways in which they make law that will apply to companies in member countries.
