News background： major institutions of the European Union

　　Xinhua News Agency, Brussels, November 30th　News background: major institutions of the European Union

　　Xinhua News Agency reporter Ren Ke

　　At the invitation of the Supreme Leader of president, President of the European Council Charles Michel will visit China on December 1st.

　　The predecessor of the European Union (EU) is the European Community established on July 1, 1967. At present, the EU has 27 member states and its headquarters is in Brussels. The main institutions of the European Union are: the Council of Europe, the Council of the European Union, the European Commission and the European Parliament.

　　The European Council is the highest decision-making body in the EU, which decides the overall policy of the EU and follows the principle of unanimous decision-making. The Council of Europe is composed of heads of state or government of EU member States, the President of the Council of Europe and the President of the European Commission.

　　The Council of the European Union is the institution that formulates and coordinates EU legislation and policies, and ministers of member governments attend different meetings according to the topics discussed. The Council of the European Union implements the rotating presidency system, which is held by the member countries in turn, once every six months. The presidency arranges and presides over the meetings of the Council at all levels, and the current rotating presidency is the Czech Republic.

　　The European Commission is the permanent executive body of the European Union, responsible for implementing the EU treaties and decisions made by the Council of the European Union. The president of the European Commission is decided by the Council of the European Union and the heads of government of member States, and needs the consent of the European Parliament. The current president of the European Commission is German Ursula von der Leyen.

　　The European Parliament is the EU’s supervisory, advisory and legislative body. Members of the European Parliament are directly elected, and the current Speaker of the European Parliament is Roberta Metsola of Malta.

　　In 2001, China and the European Union established a comprehensive partnership, and in 2003, they established a comprehensive strategic partnership. In 2013, the two sides published the Strategic Plan for China-EU Cooperation 2020. In 2021, China is the largest trading partner, the largest source of imports and the third largest export market of the European Union. The EU is China’s second largest trading partner, second largest source of imports and second largest export market. In 2021, China-EU trade totaled US$ 828.11 billion, a year-on-year increase of 27.5%, surpassing US$ 800 billion for the first time.