3.1.1. The corporate mission of the Commission

Corporate mission:

• What is the vision of the institution?
• In what business are we really in? Which are the key problems we want to resolve?
• Who are the key stakeholders?
• Which corporate philosophy do we pursue in the long run?

The Commission does not really allow for any form of comparison with national administrations given its unique powers and nature.

At its origin, when the predecessor organisation, the European Community for Coal and Steel was established through the Paris Treaty in 1951, there was a clear vision to prevent further wars and to unite former enemies by political and economic integration among European countries.

While the vision of preventing war in Europe has lost its initial relevance and rather serves as a historic reference these days, the concepts of political and economic integration are still at the core of the Commission`s corporate mission. Over time, the European Commission has evolved into the focal point of the EU system and has become the law-making and executive bureaucratic arm of the European Union. Put simply, the Commission is charged with thinking, acting and delivering European solutions to address national policy problems.¹⁹

This does not happen in a vacuum but in a closely-knit network of stakeholders. When preparing new policy initiatives for the European Union, the Commission needs to balance external and internal interests. It listens to the other EU institutions, in particular the European Council and the European Parliament, national governments, policy think tanks, interest groups and public opinion. Thus, its key stakeholders are the 27 European Member States and ultimately the more than 500 million European citizens.

¹⁹ See Hardacre, A.: How the EU institutions work, UK 2011, pp.12 - 46