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Since the 1950s, the European Community (formerly the European Economic Community and today the European Union) has been governed by an institutional architecture with no equal in the world. None of the many international organizations created since the end of World War Two has had such a broad, complex and in-depth institutional functioning as the European Union, which in many respects resembles a “state in gestation.” EU member states made important transfers of sovereignty in almost every political area falling under the classic sovereign powers, whether it involved the economy, defence, or even internal policy. However, these transfers are less and less accepted by public opinion in these member states, whose citizens prefer by far the national framework as system of reference to a European framework deemed to be distant, opaque and incomprehensible. Consequently, scepticism with regard to the EU has quite clearly increased in all member states over the last twenty years, in other words since the Maastricht Treaty took effect on November 1, 1993. The institutional organization of the EU is based on a triangle consisting of the Council, Commission, and Parliament, whose functioning relies on other institutions with roles that are also crucial, such as the European Court of Justice, the European Court of Auditors, the European Central Bank, etc. The EU also has a group of institutions and inter-institutional bodies in charge of highly specific tasks, such as the European Central Bank (responsible for European monetary policy), the European External Action Service (assisting the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy), the European Economic and Social Committee (representing civil society, employers and employees), the Committee of the Regions (representing regional and local authorities), or the European Investment Bank (tasked with financing European investment projects and helping SMEs).
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