ngs together heads of state and
government and the president of the European Commission and meets at
least twice a year; its aim is to provide the impetus for the major
political issues relating to European integration and to issue
general policy guidelines

Legislative branch:
Council of the European Union (25 member-state ministers having 321
votes; the number of votes is roughly proportional to member-states'
population); note - the Council is the main decision-making body of
the EU; European Parliament (732 seats; seats allocated among member
states by proportion to population); members elected by direct
universal suffrage for a five-year term
elections: last held 10-13 June 2004 (next to be held June 2009)
election results: percent of vote - NA%; seats by party - EPP-ED
268, PES 202, ALDE 88, Greens/EFA 42, EUL/NGL 41, IND/DEM 36, UEN
27, independents 28

Judicial branch:
Court of Justice of the European Communities (ensures that the
treaties are interpreted and applied correctly) - 25 justices (one
from each member state) appointed for a six-year term; note - for
the sake of efficiency, the court can sit with 11 justices known as
the "Grand Chamber"; Court of First Instance - 25 justices appointed
for a six-year term

Political parties and leaders:
Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe or ALDE
[Graham R. WATSON]; Independence/Democracy Group or IND/DEM
[Jens-Peter BONDE and Nigel FARAGE]; Group of Greens/European Free
Alliance or Greens/EFA [Monica FRASSONI and Daniel Marc
COHN-BENDIT]; Socialist Group in the European Parliament or PES
[Martin SCHULZ]; Confederal Group of the European United Left-Nordic
Green Left or EUL/NGL [Francis WURTZ]; European People's
Party-European Democrats or EPP-ED [Hans-Gert POETTERING]; Union for
Europe of the Nations Group or UEN [Brian CROWLEY and Cristiana
MUSCARDINI]

International organization participation:
European Union: ASEAN (dialogue member), ARF (dialogue member),
EBRD, IDA, OAS (observer), OECD, WTO
European Commission: Australian Group, CBSS, CERN, FAO, G-10, NSG
(observer), UN (observer)
European Central Bank: BIS
European Investment Bank: WADB (nonregional member)

Diplomatic representation in the US:
chief of mission: Ambassador John BRUTON
chancery: 2300 M Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20037
telephone: [1] (202) 862-9500
FAX: [1] (202) 429-1766

Diploma