The European Commission: an engine or a brake on European integration? I.

Abstract

The European Union, created by the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 is not a classic international organization, nor is it a federal state, but somewhere between the two categories. More than the first because the Member States have transferred part of their sovereignty to it, and the second because it has not transferred all their sovereignty. The same special public law situation exists in the case of the EU institutional system, and in particular the European Commission. The study presents the history of the European Commission, the changes in its tasks and competences, its organizational structure and functioning, and the specificities of its legal status. Looking for - and believing to find - the answer to what the title suggests: is the Commission the engine of integration, or is it more of a brake? The work - for reasons of length - consists of two parts. The second part will appear in the next issue.