The Council of the European Union: The Voice of the Member States

The Council of the European Union, known as the Council, is the EU's main decision-making body. Like the European Parliament and the European Commission, the Council was set up by the founding treaties of the European Union in the 1950s.

The Council represents the member states and its meetings are attended by a minister from each of the EU's national governments. Which ministers attend which meeting depends on what subjects are on the agenda. If, for example, the Council is to discuss environmental issues, the meeting will be attended by the environmental minister from each EU country and it will be known as the 'Environmental Council'.

Altogether there are nine different Council configurations: Economic and Financial Affairs (Ecofin); Justice and Home Affairs (JHA); Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs; Competitiveness; Transport, Telecommunications and Energy; Agriculture and Fisheries; Environment; Education, Youth and Culture; and, General Affairs and External Relations - which deals with the EU's relations with the rest of the world and is attended by whichever minister or state secretary each government chooses.

Each minister is empowered to commit his or her government; that means that the minister's signature is the signature of the whole government. Council ministers remain answerable to their national parliament and ultimately to the voters they represent. This ensures the democratic legitimacy of the Council's decisions.

Up to four times a year the presidents and/or prime ministers of the EU member states, together with the President of the European Commission, meet as the European Council. These 'summit' meetings set overall EU policy and resolve issues that could not be settled at a lower level (i.e. by the ministers at normal Council meetings).

What does the Council do?

The Council has six key responsibilities:

  1. To pass European laws, jointly with the European Parliament in many policy areas;
  2. To coordinate the broad economic and social policies of the member states;
    The EU countries have decided that they want an overall economic policy based on close coordination between their national economic policies. This coordination is carried out by the economics and finance ministers, who collectively form the Economic and Financial Affairs (Ecofin) Council.
  3. To conclude international agreements between the EU and other countries or international organisations;
  4. To approve the EU's budget, jointly with the European Parliament;
  5. To develop the EU's common foreign and security policy (CFSP), based on guidelines set by the European Council;
    The member states of the EU are working to develop a CFSP but foreign policy, security and defence matters are matters over which the individual national governments retain independent control. They have not pooled their national sovereignty in these areas, so Parliament and the European Commission play only a limited role in these matters.

  6. To coordinate cooperation between the national courts and police forces in criminal matters.
    Tackling cross-border crime requires cross-border cooperation between the national courts, police forces, customs officers and immigration services of all EU countries. EU citizens should have equal access to civil justice everywhere in the European Union, which requires national courts to work together.


Learn more about the European Council at www.consilium.europa.eu

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