The Structure of the EU System of Government

This paper identifies the essential structure of the EU system of government by focusing on the nature of the relationship executive-legislature (i.e. on how the confidence scheme works), considering both the legal framework and the actual practice. As a brief analysis of the traditional general models shows, the new approach suggested here simplifies the study of regime types, but at the same time, it is able to capture the main distinctive features of systems that belong neither to presidentialism nor to parliamentarism. As far as the EU is concerned, this perspective shows that, although the legal framework of the Treaties presents some elements of parliamentarism, the nature of interinstitutional relations is not parliamentary: if the role played by the European Council in the formation process of the Commission is not merely formal, its involvement entails a much more complex confidence scheme.