Directorate-General for Legal Service (European Commission)
Encyclopedia
The Directorate-General for Legal Service is a Directorate-General
of the European Commission
.
The Legal Service provides comprehensive in-house assistance to the European Commission and all its departments. Its resources have to be deployed to cover all Commission activities and areas of responsibility. In each area, it must be able to assist the Commission in its functions of drafting legislation and conducting international negotiations, as guardian of the treaties and in the exercise of the implementing powers conferred on it by the Community legislator or by the Treaties.
The service is responsible for ensuring all proposals made have a legal basis, if it finds a technical fault in any proposal then the proposal must be modified or dropped. The legal service may only be overruled by the College of Commissionners. As the service is under the President's
remit, some argue it can be useful in allowing the President a way of sinking undesirable proposals from his colleagues as there is usually some technicality the service can raise - although they have been challenged in the European Court of Justice
with some minimal success.
Directorate-General
A Directorate-General is a branch of an administration dedicated to a specific field of expertise.* The European Commission: Commission Directorates-General are each headed by a European Commissioner;* The European Patent Office: EPO Directorates-General;...
of the European Commission
European Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
.
The Legal Service provides comprehensive in-house assistance to the European Commission and all its departments. Its resources have to be deployed to cover all Commission activities and areas of responsibility. In each area, it must be able to assist the Commission in its functions of drafting legislation and conducting international negotiations, as guardian of the treaties and in the exercise of the implementing powers conferred on it by the Community legislator or by the Treaties.
The service is responsible for ensuring all proposals made have a legal basis, if it finds a technical fault in any proposal then the proposal must be modified or dropped. The legal service may only be overruled by the College of Commissionners. As the service is under the President's
President of the European Commission
The President of the European Commission is the head of the European Commission ― the executive branch of the :European Union ― the most powerful officeholder in the EU. The President is responsible for allocating portfolios to members of the Commission and can reshuffle or dismiss them if needed...
remit, some argue it can be useful in allowing the President a way of sinking undesirable proposals from his colleagues as there is usually some technicality the service can raise - although they have been challenged in the European Court of Justice
European Court of Justice
The Court can sit in plenary session, as a Grand Chamber of 13 judges, or in chambers of three or five judges. Plenary sitting are now very rare, and the court mostly sits in chambers of three or five judges...
with some minimal success.