16. The European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions:

This chapter investigates the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and the Committee of the Regions (CoR), two bodies established in 1957 and 1992, respectively. Both Committees are consultative; their rationale is to provide expertise to EU legislators and to represent functional respectively territorial interests. These organs share a number of similarities with regard to their legal basis and policymaking influence. Both have pursued diverse activities beyond their official mandates in a quest to find their own identities and exercise voice in the EU system. This chapter analyses these committees with regard to their development, membership, and activities, illustrating how both embraced timely topics and seek to involve themselves in the larger debate on the future of Europe. Thereby, they contribute to the EU’s development as a complex, multilevel, and multichannel democracy.

3. The institutions of the European Union

This chapter discusses the role and composition of the institutions of the EU. These include the European Council, the Council, the Commission, the European Parliament, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and the General Court, the Court of Auditors, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), the Committee of the Regions (COR), the European Investment Bank and the European Central Bank. This chapter also discusses the EU’s associated bodies or agencies as well as their respective roles and the ways in which they interrelate with the EU institutions.

The role of the committee of the regions (Cor) to implement the Green Deal at the local level: an overview of Italy

<abstract> <p>The contribution focuses on the role of cities in the implementation of the so-called Green Deal, the ambitious program proposed by the European Commission, in accordance with the objectives set by the Paris Agreements, to implement the use of clean energy resources, favour the circular economy, restore biodiversity and reduce pollution. The Plan, which for the seven-year period 2021-2027 has a budget of economic resources of 100 billion Euro, aims to involve in transcalar perspective all territorial and administrative levels of the Member States and thus contribute to the achievement, in 2050, of climate neutrality. The main objective of the work is then to concentrate, with descriptive intent, on the policies that, in Italy, are being activated at local level in coherence with the European perspectives. In particular, reference will be made to the initiatives proposed and sponsored in Italy by the Committee of the Regions of which a critical overview is proposed. A further reflection will be dedicated to how digital innovation is called to support the macro-policies of energy transition in the EU.</p> </abstract>

Critical raw materials as a part of sustainable development

The presented article deals with the issue of critical raw materials in the European Union with an emphasis on sustainable development and also barite, as an only one critical raw material mined in Slovakia. The article points out in detail the deposits of individual critical raw materials within the European Union. They clearly profile the European area´s dependence on imports of critical raw materials in accordance with the Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on the European Union's list of critical raw materials. Based on a defined Herfindahl-Hirschman index, which is clearly methodologically described, the article also points to the exploitation of critical raw materials in the European Union, what is in consideration of sustainable development crucial because some inventions are fundamentally dependent on them, as is their production on world markets. This article deals with critical raw materials in the EU, because it is in this area that we would like to experience the 4th industrial revolution, which is characterized by "new products" with a short life cycle, products with the least possible impact on the environment, i.e. innovations that are often impossible without important raw materials. Is it at all possible to talk about sustainable development with such raw material sources in European Union?

2. The Union institutions

This chapter focuses on the institutions responsible for executing the different tasks of the European Union (EU). The main seven institutions are complemented by two advisory bodies, the Committee of the Regions and the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), which are responsible for gathering inputs for use in decision-making. The initial institutions of the Commission, Council, European Parliament, and Court of Justice of the EU were expanded to seven to include the European Council, Court of Auditors, and the European Central Bank in 2009 with the entry into force of the Maastricht and the Lisbon Treaties. This chapter also describes the roles and responsibilities of the institutions, including the Council of Ministers of the European Union, the European Parliament, and the European Court of Justice (CJEU).

2. Institutions of the Union: composition and powers

This chapter examines the institutions within the European Union (EU), their powers and the relationship between the institutions. The main EU institutions are the European Parliament, the Council, the European Council, the Commission (including the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy), the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Central Bank and the Court of Auditors. There are also other bodies, including: the European Ombudsman, the Economic and Social Committee (ECOSOC), the Committee of the Regions and COREPER. The chapter explains that these institutions and bodies are given different powers and are subject to important rules (for instance, the usual rule of qualified majority voting in the Council), and that they are required to work together in order to provide the checks and balances within the Union legal order, or the so-called institutional balance.

12. The Institutional Architecture

This chapter examines the pattern of European Union (EU) institutions and the formal rules that govern them. It first considers the Treaties that form the founding ‘constitutional’ documents of the EU, from the Treaty of Paris to the Treaty on Stability, Co-ordination and Governance in the economic and monetary union (EMU), before turning to the main institutions involved in the processes of decision making, namely: the European Commission, the Council of the European Union, and the European Parliament, plus two consultative committees, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. The chapter proceeds by analysing the Union method of decision making, focusing on the budgetary and legislative procedures, as well as the process on the Common Foreign and Security Policy. It also discusses the implementation of EU decisions once they have been made, and concludes with some reflections on the post-Lisbon institutional architecture of the EU, including differentiated integration.