However, the scope and the activity of the European Court differentiate it from any other mechanism of applying the justice inside the European Union. There is the issue of the activity of the Court. This mechanism was designed to enable both the European Union and the member states to have a viable and legitimate environment to discuss and resolve their differences. More precisely, the European Court of Justice has a mandate to apply and insure the respect of the Communitarian law. In this sense, it is clear that the simple existence of a special system of law that regulates the relations inside the EU is an element of supra nationality. The European law comprises the particular treaties of the EU as well as the case law of the European Court of Justice. However, the activity of the Court is essential for pointing out its role inside the Union. It is an element of uniformity of the procedures and rules all the member countries must abide by and follow in order to benefit from the positive effects of the European integration. Therefore, it can be said that from the point-of-view of the communitarian law the Court of justice is a federalist concept.
Another important element related to the Court of Justice is its practical composition. In this sense, although the judges are designated by the member states and are of different nationalities, the status of member of the European Court of Justice forces them to have an impartial role in the ongoing processes at the European level. Therefore, the entire structure of the European Court is designed to protect and defend the rights and interests of the European Union in its relation to the states.
The discussion over the extent to which some institutions are more supranational and others are more intergovernmental cannot be dealt with in a decisive manner. This is largely due to the fact that there must be made a distinction between the composition of these institutions and their actual scope and activities. The entire structure of the European Union is a complex mechanism in which the supranational elements are mixed with intergovernmental ones; therefore, it cannot be said which one is more or less intergovernmental.
Concerning the European Commission, in essence it is a supranational structure. It has commissioners that represent the interests of the European Union in the face of the member states. In this sense, "the European Commission was envisaged by the early federalists as the EU's sole executive and the motor of European integration, acting for the greater good where national governments feared to tread, wary of sacrificing their own powers and interests. In theory, it has the sole right of legislative initiative and is still the EU executive" (Ash, 2005). Therefore, it can be said that the precise reason for the creation of the Commission was to embody in its actions the communitarian goals of the European Union. Nonetheless, the situation of the commissioners is rather debatable because they are appointed by the member states, rather than elected by a European structure. More precisely, the fact that each state has the right and obligation to appoint a representative for the Commission is a relevant fact for the way in which the EU combines the issue of intergovernmental with its supranational valence. In theory, this method of considering the composition of the Commission would suggest an equal and fair distribution of power. However, there have been cases in which an important country of the EU received a certain portfolio inside the Commission and it triggered suspicions over the potential influence the political factor had in determining the position of the respective Commissioner and the respective country. Therefore, it can be said that even the delimitations of the functions of the Commissioners is an issue which most often is discussed at the intergovernmental level.
Moreover, there is also the matter of the democratic deficit inside the European Union, a topic which is often associated with the composition of the Commission, an institution which is designed to express the power of the European Union. In this sense, it is considered that for a mechanism which must take into account a fair distribution of power, the Commission lacks democracy. Thus, in relation to the Commission "there are concerns that as such it is insufficiently democratic. This situation has improved recently with the Parliament now approving each individual Commissioner and scrutinizing the Commission more closely, but some suggest a more radical democratization, with a directly elected President who might be able to choose...
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