Why bother with Brussels? Glossary

Some words and terms used within the EU are not always clear to those outside the Brussels circle. Below is a short glossary of key words to help get you started, with links to two more comprehensive glossaries at the bottom of the page.

Cabinet - the private office of a Commissioner - note is is pronounced in the French way, so no 't'.

Chefs de cabinet - are key advisors who head up the various cabinet offices of Commissioners.

Codecision - the codecision process was introduced with the Maastricht Treaty in 1992. Is the process used for most EU law making, where Parliament and the European Council share law making power in certain fields. More information

Consensual decision making - because of the size of the EU, the number of countries, parties and interests, decisions made in the EU are generally reached through consensus rather than adversarial politics.

Directives - are EU laws that do not apply directly to member states, they are more general instructions leaving national parliaments to use their own national laws to achieve the desired result. This process is known as 'transposition'.

Interest representation - the European Commission refers to lobbying and advocacy as interest. Their definition is activities carried out with the objective of influencing the policy formulation and decision-making processes of the European institutions

Member state - one of the 27 European countries that are members of the European Union.

Proportional representation - is an electoral system in which the number of votes corresponds directly to the number of votes. MEPs are elected by this system.

Rapporteur - are people assigned by European Parliament Committees to write a report which usually includes a number of changes or amendments to a Commission's proposal.

Ratification - is the formal approval of an EU treaty or changes to a treaty by a member state.

Regulation - is EU law that becomes immediately enforceable across the whole EU at the same time. Regulation does not need to be interpreted or transposed into national law.

Qualified Majority Voting - is a system of voting which gives each country a vote that is weighted roughly by its size. More information

Subsidiarity - is the idea that issues should be dealt with at lowest possible level appropriate. Subsidiarity was formally established into EU law in 1992 with the Maastricht Treaty. More information

Supranational - is where individual national interests are transcended, or given up, by countries to share decision making power with others. The European Commission is an example of this in practice as it represents and upholds the interests of the EU as a whole being independent of national government.

Transposition - is the process in which EU Directives are interpreted by member states through national parliaments.