The Council of Europe is a separate intergovernmental organization, based in Strasbourg and we are its members. It is interested especially in the protection of human rights and freedoms. The Council of the EU is one of the institutions of the EU.
Just as the numbers of areas of co-operation grew, also the number of Member States grew. From the original number of six, it became nine when the UK, Ireland and Denmark joined in 1973, then ten when Greece joined in 1981, twelve with Spain and Portugal (1986) and finally fifteen with Austria, Finland and Sweden (1995).


The European Parliament represents the peoples of the EU. With 626 Members of Parliament from 15 Member States it is the largest multinational parliament in the world. Its basic role is to legislate and control.
The Council of the EU, or the Council of Ministers, as it is also called, represents the interests of the individual Member States.The 15 representatives of EU Member States meet to legislate, co-ordinate the plicies and make political decisions.
There is one more council – the European Council which consists of the Heads of States and Governments, i.e. the highest representatives of member States.
The European Commission is the driving force of the EU, it makes legislative proposals and manages the EU´s money. It has 20 members.
The role of the European Court of Justice is to make sure that EU law is applied and interpreted in the same way in all Member States.
The Court of Auditors is there to check if the money was spent according to the rules.