[kypro]

Not really.

Unlike the president the EU commission are unelected and the commission is the only branch of government which can propose laws, however they can't force anything through in the same way the US president can with an executive order (it must go through parliament).

I guess it's good/bad, but in different ways to the US. It's bad in the sense EU citizens can't elect the people proposing their laws, but it's good in the sense that the commission can't just force things through without approval from the parliament which consists of MEPs which europeans elect.

As far as I'm aware the courts function in more or less the same way. Here in the UK parliament is sovereign and therefore can overrule any court decision with new law. This isn't true for the EU and I believe it also isn't true in the US.

[somewhereoutth]

The EU Council is the highest body in the EU (not the Parliament, especially not the Commission - who are basically the civil service or secretariat for the EU).

The EU is founded on the pooled sovereignty of the member states (unlike in the US, where the reverse is the case). The Council represents those member states (each has a seat), and so holds this pooled sovereignty.