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citizens. A special online instrument, the “European Citizen’s Initiative,”
was introduced for EU citizens, enabling them to become initiators
of a legislative amendment. In order to initiate such an amendment,
one million EU citizens should vote electronically through a special
“European Citizen’s Initiative” website: https://ec.europa.eu/citizens-
initiative/public/welcome.
Business-processing in the European Commission or
How the European Commission Operates
As has already been explained, the European Commission is run by
a well-organized structural hierarchy which consists of directorates
general (DG), directorates, units and sub-divisions. The structural
organogram of the commission is public and easily accessible at:
https://ec.europa.eu/info/departments_en.
The structural sub-units of the Commission are mainly organized
geographically. For example, the Directorate General for Agriculture is
divided into several Directorates. The Directorate D1 in this Directorate
General, among others, includes the unit for EU enlargement countries
and EU neighboring states. On the above-mentioned website, one may
find the contact information of any official in any directorate general.
From an organizational point of view, foreign policy is an exception
as the European Commission and the European External Action
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Service (EEAS) , the latter created in 2010, both take part in foreign
policy implementation. In 2010, the EEAS replaced the Directorate
General for External Relations (DG RELEX) of the European Commission
and DG RELEX merged with the Council of the EU’s Foreign Service. This
notwithstanding, the Commission retained its autonomous foreign
policy tools, namely, the Foreign Policy Instruments Service (FPI) which
is responsible for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP)
and the Directorate General for Neighborhood and Enlargement
Negotiations (DG NEAR). It is also worth mentioning that the FPI and the
EEAS work in the same building which underscores the close interaction
between these two units.
82 https://www.eeas.europa.eu/_en
