Rue de la Loi
Wetstraat 200
Brussels B-1049
Belgium
Contact: Philip Mikos
Head of Unit B/4
Environment and rural Development
Development Directorate-General
Telephone + 3222954601
Fax: +3222992543
Email:philip.MIKOS@cec.eu.int
Marco Morettini
www.europa.eu.int/

The European Commission (formally the Commission of the European Communities) is the executive of the European Union. Alongside the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, it is one of the three main institutions governing the Union. Its primary roles are to propose and enact legislation, and to act as 'guardian of the treaties' which provide the legal basis for the EU. The role of the European Commission has many parallels with the executive body of a national government, but also differences (see below for details).

The Commission currently consists of 25 Commissioners, one from each member state of the EU, supported by an administrative body of several thousand European civil servants. Each Commissioner takes responsibility for a particular area of policy, and heads a department called a Directorate General. The Commission is headed by a President (from November 2004,José manuel Durão Barroso of Portugal).

The term “the Commission” is generally used to refer both to the administrative body in its entirety, and to the team of Commissioners who lead it.

Member of the International Land Coalition 2003
Member of the Coalition Council 2003-05; 2005-07

Policy

The European Union's draft Land Policy Guidelines

ILC Commission € 1.5 million grant PDF