Didactic Guide

1. Objectives

Once you have read the documentation and participated in the activities that we propose in Lesson 3, Knowing the European Union, you will be able to:

• Know who take the relevant choices in the European Union.
• Distinguish between who take the political decisions and who decides the content of the legislative measures.
• Know that existence a system for managing the decisions correctly achieved, from the legal point of view as well as regarding the budgeting needed.
• Valuing the difficult balance obtained in order to make effective that all the members of the European Union (States, Political Parties, groups of interest, citizens…), are able to participate in the allocation of decisions for the benefit of the common interest.

2. Key ideas

At the present Lesson you could find the following content:

• Which are the Institutions of the EU and which is the importance regarding each of them?
• Institutions in charge of making decisions:
• Parliament.
• Council (European Council and Council of the European Union).
• European Commission.
• The institution in charge of monitoring the European legality: 
• The European Court of Justice.
• Institutions in charge of the economic operation and monetary system of the EU:
• European Court of Auditors.
• European Central Bank.
• Which are the bodies that may interfere in taking decisions, in order to guarantee the respect of the rights of individuals of other tiers and groups with special interests:
• European Committee of the Regions
• European Economic and Social Committee

Among the contents, you will find different links that will allow you to deep into the composition, basis and particular objectives of each of these Bodies and Institutions. Consulting them will help you to enhance your understanding about the extraordinary Institutional system of the EU and will show you that in the EU all the interests and opinions have a place and that the decisions are taken always search for the protection of all of them.

3. Weekly challenge

This week we propose the following challenges:

• Knowing the European Union from the inside.
• Self-assessment quiz.

At Weekly´s Challenge Section, you have access to the description of each challenge, where you can know the objectives, course length, resources and the steps to developing the activities.