The European Union’s unique governance structure has been shaped by the need to strike a balance between community-wide action and the subsidiarity principle. Its competencies, many of which are shared with the member states, are set out in the Treaties. On the one hand, the subsidiarity principle, which was introduced as a general principle in the Maastricht Treaty, guides the actions of the Community. The subsidiarity principle implies that Community-wide action should occur only if an objective can be better attained at the EU-wide level, and Community action should be commensurate with the objective pursued. In addition, the implementation of EU-wide policies is highly decentralised. On the other hand, the Maastricht Treaty spelled out clearly that co-ordination of economic policies is essential for the well functioning of monetary union and that economic policies should be regarded as a matter of common concern. The European Union has designed processes for co-ordinating economic and employment policies at the Amsterdam, Cardiff and Luxembourg European Councils. Eventually it is difficult to find economic policy issues that are not covered by these processes. All these processes are embedded in the overarching process of the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines.