The European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the Commission together make EU laws and regulations. The European Council draws up guidelines for the EU’s work. The European Court of Justice interprets EC law and the Court of Auditors audits the accounts.

• EU institutions

The EU is a large negotiating machine that has to balance the interests of many different stakeholders. The EU Member States, the European Parliament, the Commission and the people affected by the decisions, all have opinions on what the EU should do. To deal with this, the EU has fixed rules for how decisions are made.

• How the EU makes decisions

The EU budget for 2009 is around EUR 116 billion, which corresponds to about one percent of the EU countries’ GNP. Most of the budget is spent on agricultural support and environmental measures. The EU has no right to collect taxes, so the budget is financed by contributions from the Member States.

• EU budget

The basic rules for the work of the EU are decided in the treaties, inter-governmental agreements which the EU countries have signed with each other. On the basis of the treaties, the EU adopts laws which apply in different ways throughout the Union.

• EU laws

The European Union has 27 Member States. These are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK.

Article 49 of the Treaty of European Union states that any European state which respects the principles on freedom, democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and the rule of law may apply to become a member of the Union.

• Member States