EU institutional framework
“The Union shall have an institutional framework which shall aim to promote its values, advance its objectives, serve its interests, those of its citizens and those of the Member States, and ensure the consistency, effectiveness and continuity of its policies and actions.” (Treaty on European Union, 1992)
Figure 1.5 shows the seven main institutions of the EU and their principal responsibilities. The four decision-making bodies are the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council of the European Union (sometimes referred to simply as ‘the Council’), and the European Commission. They are supported by the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Central Bank and the European Court of Auditors.
They are further supported by:
- nine specialist bodies (such as the European External Action Service)
- 30 EU agencies (such as the European Medicines Agency) which carry out specific legal functions
- four inter-institutional services that support the work of the EU institutions, agencies and bodies: the services cover recruitment, staff learning and development, IT and publishing.
For more details, click here.
In all, around 60,000 EU civil servants and other staff serve 450 million Europeans (which is a small ratio of civil servants to population given comparable ratios for member state governments and the UK). See below for more details on EU staffing levels.
The Brexit FactBase section on sovereignty and law discusses the law-making process and the Court of Justice of the European Union in more detail.
Please note that the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights are not EU institutions (see separate section).
Figure 1.5: EU institutions
Source: Types of institutions and bodies
European Central Bank
The ECB is an official EU institution at the heart of the Eurosystem (the monetary authority of the eurozone) and the Single Supervisory Mechanism. It has more than 5,000 employees and trainees from all over Europe work for the ECB in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. They perform a range of tasks in close cooperation with the national central banks within the Eurosystem and, for banking supervision, with the national supervisors within the Single Supervisory Mechanism.
The ECB’s President is Christine Lagarde and the Vice-President is Luis de Guindos. The main decision-making body is the Governing Council, which consists of the six members of the Executive Board plus the governors of the central banks of the euro area countries.
Twenty-one of the 27 Member States have the euro (€) as the official currency. The most recent joiner to the euro was Bulgaria on 1 January 2026, having become Member State in 2007. Before that, Croatia joined the euro in in 2023, having become a Member State in 2013.
Of the six countries outside the euro, Denmark (which joined with the UK in 1973) has an opt out. The other five joined the EU from 19 to 31 years ago:
- Sweden (1995)
- Czechia (2004)
- Hungary (2004)
- Poland (2004)
- Romania (2007)
For more details on the ECB please visit its website.
European Court of Auditors
The European Court of Auditors (ECA) examines the accounts of the Union. The ECA reports to the European Parliament and to the European Council. To be effective, the Court of Auditors, like any other audit institution, must remain independent of the institutions and bodies that it audits.
The ECA:
- operates as a collegiate body of 27 members, one from each EU country. The ECA is supported by highly qualified staff originating from all member states. The auditors frequently audit the other EU institutions, the member states and other beneficiary countries.
- cooperates closely with supreme audit institutions in the member states. The ECA’s work largely concerns the EU budget for which the Commission retains overall responsibility. Its management of over 80% of expenditure is shared with national authorities.
- is free to: select its audit topics, the specific scope and approach to be followed. It decides how and when to present the results of its selected audits. It chooses the publicity to be given to its reports and opinions.
- has no judicial powers. However, its work brings irregularities, weaknesses and cases of suspected fraud to the attention of the EU bodies responsible for taking action, including the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF).
Sign-off of EU accounts
The ECA signed off on the 2024 accounts as reliable (‘true and fair’) – something it has done for each of the 18 years since and including 2007.
The ECA issued a clean opinion on revenue for 2024 but an adverse opinion on expenditure. For EU budget spending, the ECA estimated a mid-point error of 3.6% which is greater than its materiality threshold of 2%.
Error in this context does not mean fraud or waste. It means spending that does not follow the rules. Errors tend to occur mainly where payments from the EU budget reimburse costs subject to complex rules and eligibility criteria, such as in rural development and cohesion. According to the ECA, the most common error types continue to be those linked to ineligible projects and costs, as well as failure to respect public procurement rules.
The ECA has a legal responsibility to report fraud to the European Anti-Fraud Office. The ECA’s audit of 2024 expenditure identified seven cases of suspected fraud.
Table 1.1 shows the error trend which rose to 5.6% in 2023 before declining in 2024.
| Table 1.1: Estimated level of error for the EU budget as a whole (2016‑2024) | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
| 3.1% | 2.4% | 2.6% | 2.7% | 2.7% | 3.0% | 4.2% | 5.6% | 3.6% |
Source: 2024 EU audit in brief and earlier
EU staffing levels
Around 53,000 people staff the main seven EU institutions described above (up from 49,000 in 2017).
- The European Commission employs around 33,000 people (2024 data), divided into departments known as Directorates General (DGs), roughly equivalent to ministries. Each covers a specific policy area or service such as trade or environment, and is headed by a Director-General who reports to a Commissioner.
- In the European Parliament, just under 8,500 people (December 2023) work in the general secretariat and in the political groups. In addition, there are Members of Parliament and their staffs.
- The Council of the European Union employs 3,135 staff (March 2025) in the general secretariat.
- The Court of European Justice employs about 2,300 people (2024).
- The European Court of Auditors employs about 1,000 auditors and staff (2025)
- The European Central Bank has a further 5,000 staff.
By way of comparison, the UK civil service employed 516,000 full-time equivalent civil servants at March 2025 up from 389,000 in March 2017. In addition, some county councils are major employers, for example, Kent County Council employed over 20,000 staff and contractors in 2024/25 (excluding education).