you have heard about the European Union
but what about the European Commission
are the European Council or what about
to the European Parliament yes the U is
a very complex system so complex that
even the form a US Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger reportedly once asked
who do I call if I want to call Europe
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as the name suggests the European Union
is a political and economic union of 28
European countries the genesis of EU can
be traced to the aftermath of the two
world wars which were responsible for
millions of deaths and a devastated
European economy in 1958 six founding
countries Belgium Germany France Italy
Luxembourg and the Netherlands came
together to form the European Economic
Community the idea was that with
increased economic cooperation they
would be less likely to be drawn into
conflict
what started as a purely economic
partnership has evolved over the last
sixty years into other policy areas -
these include security climate and
Foreign Relations to represent this
broader remit the European Economic
Community became the European Union in
1993 so how does the EU work well one
big thing to note is that there is no
single leader of the European Union
instead these responsibilities are
spread across seven institutions but we
are going to focus on the three main
ones the European Commission the
European Parliament and the Council of
the European Union let's start with the
European Commission this is the engine
room of the U the executive body that
proposes new laws every member state has
its own commissioner but they're
supposed to be politically independent
bound by a promise to represent the
interests of the you before their home
countries each commissioner is in charge
of a specific portfolio sim
to a government Cabinet of Ministers
this institution is based in the Belgian
capital Brussels now the European
Parliament it is based here in Brussels
but also in the French city of
Strasbourg where its members meet 12
times per year this is where lawmakers
vote on laws presently
it has 751 members of the European
Parliament or MEP s
from 28 member states however with the
UK s departure from the EU that number
is set to come down to 705 importantly
this is the only European institution
that directly represents EU citizens
every five years citizens elect their
representatives to the European
Parliament finally let's look at the
Council of the European Union it's mega
of Ministers from the different EU
Member States ministers with similar
roles whether it be overseeing finance
education or defense meet regularly to
discuss amend and adopt laws the Council
of the European Union together with
European Parliament are the main
decision-making bodies of vu but don't
confuse the Council of the European
Union with European Council the leaders
of EU also meet in this building for
quarterly summits discussions here often
happen at the highest level which is why
you will see heads of state like the
Chancellor of Germany and president of
France meeting up in Brussels other
important European bodies include the
European Court of Justice the court of
Auditors and the European Central Bank
based in Luxembourg the ECJ ensures
European law is interpreted and applied
in the same way across the EU kind of
like the US Supreme Court also in
Luxembourg is the court of Auditors
it acts like the Union CFO responsible
for looking after the community budget
and then there is the European Central
Bank in Frankfurt
which sends monetary policy in the
zone yes that's right the euro zone not
the you this is another important
distinction currently only 19 of the 28
EU Member States form the euro zone
while the remaining nine are still using
their own national currencies the EU is
a complex political arrangement critics
say that it will not survive due to the
many differences of opinion between and
within each country and with tens of
thousands of people across dozens of
nationalities working for the U it's
institutions have also been criticized
for its bureaucracies and complexities
saying it makes it hard to get things
done at the same time this arrangement
has lasted more than 60 years and has so
far achieved its main aim avoiding war
between the neighboring countries
hi guys thank you so much for watching
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