as the sole initiator of EU legislation. An early maxim was: "The Commission proposes and the Council disposes"; and although the EU's lawmaking procedure is now much more complicated, this simple maxim still holds some truth. As well as both executive and legislative functions, the Commission arguably exercises a third, quasi-judicial, function under Articles 101 & 102 TFEU (competition law ); although the ECJ remains the final arbiter. The European Parliament is one half of the legislative branch and is directly elected. The Council itself acts both as the second half of the legislative branch and also holds some executive functions (some of which are exercised by the related European Council in practice). The European Court of Justice acts as the independent judicial branch, interpreting EU law and treaties. The remaining institution, the European Court of Auditors, is an independent audit authority (due to the sensitive nature of fraud in the EU). Council of the European Union – executive and legislative European Commission – executive, legislative and quasi-judicial European Council – executive European Court of Auditors – audit Court of Justice of the European Union and the General Court – judicial European Parliament – legislative Germany The three branches in German government are further divided into six main bodies enshrined in the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany: Federal President (Bundespräsident) – formally executive, but mainly representative in daily politics Federal Cabinet (Bundesregierung) – executive Federal Diet (Bundestag) & Federal Council (Bundesrat) – bicameral legislative Federal Assembly (Bundesversammlung) – presidential electoral college (consisting of the members of the Bundestag and electors from the constituent states) Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) – judiciary Besides the constitutional court, the judicial branch at the federal level is made up of five supreme courts—one for civil and criminal cases (Bundesgerichtshof), and one each for administrative, tax, labour, and social security issues. There are also state-based (Länder / Bundesländer) courts beneath them, and a rarely used senate of the supreme courts. Hungary The four independent branches of power in Hungary (the parliament, the government, the court system, and the office of the public accuser) are divided into six bodies: Parliament (Magyar Országgyűlés): elected every 4 years by the people in a highly complex, one-round voting system Government (Magyar Kormány): installed and removed by simple majority vote of the parliament, 4-year terms Supreme Court (Legfelsőbb Bíróság): Chief justice elected by qualified (2/3) majority of the