This chapter sets the scene for the volume by providing a systematic examination of the EU public ethics system applicable to both the members of the EU institutions and their career staff. After presenting a detailed legal analysis of the existing EU ethics frameworks applicable to the three main EU institutions, that is the European Commission, Parliament, and Council, as well as EU public administration, it scrutinises their respective oversight mechanisms tasked to enforce those standards. It then identifies the major structural limitations of the current EU ethics system, ranging from its high fragmentation within and across EU institutions and weak enforcement of its underlying standards to its limited awareness within both the EU institutional setting and wider public.