Bodies of the European Union and Euratom in the context of "European Central Bank"

The institutions of the European Union are the seven principal decision-making bodies of the European Union and Euratom governed under the Treaties of the European Union and European Union law. They are, as listed in Article 13 of the Treaty on the European Union:

• the European Parliament,
• the European Council (of heads of state or government),
• the Council of the European Union (of member state ministers, a council for each area of responsibility),
• the European Commission,
• the Court of Justice of the European Union,
• the European Central Bank and
• the European Court of Auditors.

Institutions are distinct from both advisory bodies to the European Union and agencies of the European Union.

The advisory bodies to the European Union are part of the wider set of bodies of the European Union and Euratom, created in primary law by the treaties that constitute the EU but which lie outside the Union's main institutional structure.

These bodies have no legislative or other decision-making power. Their main role is to advise the European Commission, Council of the European Union and European Parliament on legislative and policy proposals.

The European Union and Euratom have agencies, decentralised independent bodies, corporate bodies and joint undertakings which are established as juridical persons through secondary EU legislation and tasked with a specific narrow field of work. They are a part of the wider set of bodies of the European Union and Euratom and are therefore distinct from:

• international law juridical persons established through primary (treaty) legislation, either as an EU institution (the European Central Bank) or as an EU body of another type (such as the European Investment Bank Group entities, the European University Institute, the European Stability Mechanism or the Unified Patent Court)
• other EU institutions
• other EU bodies lacking juridical personality, including the advisory bodies, the independent offices held by a single person (European Ombudsman, European Data Protection Supervisor), and the (non-independent, auxiliary) EU inter-institutional services, regardless of whether established through treaty or through secondary legislation
• the pan-EU organisational forms which are not considered constituent bodies of the EU or Euratom, regardless of whether possessing juridical personality (European Research Infrastructure Consortium, European political party, European political foundation, European grouping of territorial cooperation, Societas Europaea, Societas Cooperativa Europaea) or lacking it (European economic interest grouping)

The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (CFR) enshrines certain political, social, and economic rights for European Union (EU) citizens and residents into EU law. It was drafted by the European Convention and solemnly proclaimed on 7 December 2000 by the European Parliament, the Council of Ministers and the European Commission. However, its then legal status was uncertain and it did not have full legal effect until the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon on 1 December 2009.

The Charter forms part of the area of freedom, security and justice (AFSJ) policy domain of the EU. It applies to all the bodies of the European Union and Euratom which must act and legislate in accordance with its provisions, as the EU's courts will invalidate any EU legislation or ruling assessed as non-compliant with the Charter.