The organisational structure of the EU/EC may, with all its complexity, seem Byzantine to outsiders. However, once the basic outline and the fundamental difference between the intergovernmental EU and the supranational EC are understood, it will become easier to find one's way. In particular, with regard to the EC, one will recognise an interesting mix between the traditional traits of an international organisation and those of a state-like entity with typical separation-of-powers issues.

According to Article 7 of the Treaty Establishing the European Community (TEC), the EC possesses five ‘principal institutions’: the Council; the Commission; the European Parliament; the Court of Auditors; and the European Court of Justice. In addition, a number of other advisory institutions, such as the European Economic and Social Committee or the Committee of the Regions, serve the ‘organisation’ EC. While the ‘institutional triangle’, consisting of the Council, Commission and Parliament and largely responsible for the Community's legislation, will be described in some detail in this chapter, the Community courts, the European Court of Justice, the Court of First Instance as well as the new Civil Service Tribunal, will be explained in chapter 5 (Judicial Control within the Community).

This section aims at explaining the composition and internal decision making of the Community institutions, while their interaction in the context of European legislation will be analysed in chapter 3 (The Making of Community Law).