Which is the more powerful institution, the commission or the council of ministers?

The first 200 words of this essay...

Which is the more powerful institution, the commission or the council of ministers?

The creation of the European Union has transformed the political, economic and social course of Western Europe. The European Union is the world's biggest trading bloc and has brought economic growth and prosperity as well as peace to the region. However, strangely enough for a body with so much influence it does not have a constitution. Indeed the EU institutions cannot easily be compared with elementary forms of governing in the member states. Instead, there is a complicated tangled web dividing the five institutions and as well 'the conflicting forces of intergovernmentalism and supranationalism are pulling each of them in different directions.1' Among the institutions they are responsible for developing and adopting laws and policies. More recently the national governments of the member states have transferred significant powers to these institutions amounting almost to a confederal government of Europe. I will be focusing on two of the institutions in the European system of government, the Commission and the Council of Ministers and assessing which is the more powerful institution.

The European Commission is responsible for initiating the laws and policies in the European