Europe has no president because it is a continent.
But the European Union has an executive body.
The European Commission (formally the Commission of the European Communities) is the executive body of the European Union. Alongside the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, it is one of the three main institutions governing the Union.
Its primary roles are to propose and implement legislation, and to act as 'guardian of the treaties' which provide the legal basis for the EU. The role of the European Commission has many parallels with the executive body of a national government, but also differences (see below for details).
The Commission consists of 27 Commissioners, one from each member state of the EU supported by an administrative body of about 23,000 European civil servants divided into departments called Directorate-General. The term "the Commission" is generally used to refer both to the administrative body in its entirety, and to the team of Commissioners who lead it.
Unlike the Council of the European Union, the Commission is intended to be a body independent of member states. Commissioners are therefore not permitted to take instructions from the government of the country that appointed them, but are supposed to represent the interests of the citizens of the EU as a whole.
The Commission is headed by a President (currently José Manuel Durão Barroso). Its headquarters are located in Brussels, in a building known as the Berlaymont, and its working languages are English, French and German.
2007-02-15 01:14:39
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answer #1
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answered by Anonymous
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There is not, nor has there ever been, a President of Europe.
2007-02-15 08:18:44
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answer #2
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answered by rdenig_male 7
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