I am thinking of the commission, not the council. The EU parliament has no “right of initiative”, so it can’t propose new legislation itself, it can only work in legislation proposed by the EU commission. Which gives the commission a big chunk of soft power, because they effectively set the agenda of the EU parliament.

The EU commission has both an executive role, which is the different ministries you mention, but also a legislative role, which is proposing legislation to the EU parliament. Which where an individual EU commissioner could have serious long term impact, as we’re seeing with these message scanning laws.