Give the basic institutional elements of the EU today. Which of these elements have changed since the founding

Question

Give the basic institutional elements of the EU today. Which of these elements have changed since the founding of the ECSC and how?

Answer 1

Well, first of all, today's situation will change next year with the Treaty of Lisbon, but in any case...

In a nutshell:

Just like any state, you have an executive branch , a legislative branch and a judiciary branch. You have the Commission, which is the executive, the Council and the European Parliament which are the two institutions of the legislative branch, and the European Court of Justice as the judiciary (with the Court of Auditors as well).

When ECSC was first founded by the Treaty of Paris in 1951, the European Parliament was only a consultative assembly for the ECSC, but you still had the basic structure that you have today (Council was Special Council of Ministers, Commission was High Authority). With the Merger Treaty, ECSC, Euratom and European Community (customs union) were merged, and the three institutions now handled all three topics. The European Parliament was composed at that time of national parliamentarians. Today, the members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are directly elected, and the EP is no longer only consultative, but can make decisions in certain areas.

So in short, among the three main institutional elements of the EU today, the European Parliament is the one that has changed the most.