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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:
- To pass European laws, jointly with the European
Parliament in many policy areas;
- 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.
- To conclude international agreements between the
EU and other countries or international organisations;
- To approve the EU's budget, jointly with the European
Parliament;
- 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.
- 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.
Most of the above responsibilities relate
to the 'Community' domain - i.e. areas of action where
the member states have decided to pool their sovereignty
and delegate decision-making powers to the EU institutions.
This domain is the 'first pillar' of the European Union.
However, the last two responsibilities relate largely
to areas in which the member states have not delegated
their powers but are simply working together. This is
called 'inter-governmental cooperation' and it covers
the second and third 'pillars' of the European Union.
How is the Council's
work organised?
Coreper
In Brussels, each EU member state has a permanent team
('representation') that represents it and defends its
national interest at EU level. The head of each representation
is, in effect, his or her country's ambassador to the
EU. These ambassadors (known as 'permanent representatives')
meet weekly within the Permanent Representatives Committee
(Coreper) to prepare the work of the Council, with the
exception of most agricultural issues which are handled
by the Special Committee on Agriculture. Coreper is
assisted by a number of working groups, made up of officials
from the national administrations of permanent representations.
The current Head of the Permanent Representation
of Ireland to the European Union is Mr Rory Montgomery.
The Council Presidency
The Presidency of the Council rotates every six months
and each EU country in turn takes charge of the Council
agenda and chairs all the meetings, promoting legislative
and political decisions and brokering compromises between
member states.
The General Secretariat
The Presidency is assisted by the General Secretariat,
which prepares and ensures the smooth functioning on
the Council's work at all levels.
Learn more about the European
Council at www.ue.eu.int
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