1. Politics and Governance
The Councils

2. (The Council of Ministers)
The Councils
The Council of EU
(The Council of Ministers)
European Council
&
The Council of EU /Ministers and European Council are often confused with each other, but are quite different.

3. The Councils The Council of EU / Ministers
consists of national government ministers and shares the responsibility with the European Parliament for amending and voting on proposals for new European laws and for approving the EU budget
European Council
is the meeting place for the heads of government of the member states, in which they make strategic decisions, respond to crises, and discuss pressing economic and foreign policy problems

4. The Councils They are primarily intergovernmental
Their members are representatives of the members states
They defend national interest while trying to balance them with the wider European interest.
The ministers mainly use a system of QMV to make decisions.
The European Council relies on consensus, informality and flexibility.

5. How the Councils Evolved
The Council of the European Union, more usually known as the Council of Ministers or just ‘the Council’, traces its roots back to the Special Council of Ministers that was part of the ECSC.
was designed to be a link between the High Authority and national governments, and to balance the supranational character of the High Authority.
Separate Councils of Ministers were created for the EEC and Euratom in 1958, and national interests moved to the fore as the balance of power shifted from the three Commissions to the three Councils.
Under the Merger treaty, the three councils were combined in into a single Council of Ministers
Even so, just how far today’s Council of Ministers is intergovernmental or supranational remains a matter of debate.

6. How the Councils Evolved
European Council
The broader strategic interests of the Community were discussed in ad hoc summits of leaders of the member states held in 1961 (Paris and Bonn), 1967 (Rome), and 1969 (the Hague), all at the instigation of France and all to address various crises.
However the intergovernmental struggles within the Council of Ministers and the inability of the Community to respond quickly and effectively to major international crises led to an agreement at a Copenhagen summit in December 1973, to arrange more frequent meetings among Community heads of government.
At a summit in Paris in 1974 it was agreed to create a new forum and at the close of the meeting, French president Giscard d’Estaing announced that ‘the European summit is dead, long live the European Council’
The new body met for the first time as the European Council in Dublin in March 1975, and then triannually until 1985, then biannually (with additional special meetings as needed) until the Treaty of Lisbon, since when it has been committed to four annual meetings.
Since 2003 all routine European Council meetings have been held in Brussels.
The European Council was finally given formal recognition as an EU institution with the passage of Lisbon in 2009.

7. How the Council of Ministers is structured
Structure of the Council of Ministers
The quasi-legislative arm of the EU
Headquartered in Brussels
Member states take turns, in a pre-agreed rotation, at chairing all Council meetings except Foreign Affairs, which is chaired by the High Representative for Foreign Affairs
Consists of the relevant national government ministers of the member states, membership changing according to the policy area under consideration
Most negotiations within the Council take place in the Committee of Permanent Representatives, made up of representatives from the member states
Work supported by a General Secretariat
Intergovernmental and confederal in character, but with supranational aspects

8. How the Council of Ministers is structured
The Council of the Ministers, has five main components:
the councils themselves
the presidency of the Council
the Committee of Permanent Representatives
committees and working groups
the General Secretariat
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9. How the Council of Ministers is structured
The Council of the Ministers, has five main components:
the councils themselves
the presidency of the Council
the Committee of Permanent Representatives
committees and working groups
the General Secretariat
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10. How the Council of Ministers is structured
The Councils
These consist of the relevant national government ministers of the member states, membership changing according to the policy area under consideration.
There are ten Council ‘configurations’ (including agriculture and fisheries, economic and financial affairs, environment, and foreign affairs).
Member states holding the presidency take turns, in pre- agreed rotations, in chairing all Council meetings except Foreign Affairs

11. How the Council of Ministers is structured
The Councils
The different groups of ministers that make up the Council are known either as technical councils, formations or configurations. Where once there were nearly two dozen, there are now just ten.
Whichever of these groups is meeting, they always act as the Council, and in legal terms their decisions are always taken as the Council.
While four councils (General Affairs, Foreign Affairs, Ecofin, Agriculture) meet monthly, the rest meet between two and four times a year, for a grand total of about 50–60 Council meetings per year.

13. How the Council of Ministers is structured
The Presidency
The leadership of all meetings of the Council of Ministers except the Foreign Affairs Council. Held by the governments of EU member states in a rotation of six months each. In order to help encourage policy consistency, each presidency cooperates with its predecessor and successor by the use of a troika system. With Lisbon, this has evolved into a virtual 18-month three-state team presidency.
The duties of the presidency are as follows (Elgström, 2003, pp. 4–7):
It prepares and coordinates the work of the Council of Ministers, setting the agendas for several thousand annual meetings of ministers, working parties and committees.
It arranges and chairs most meetings of the Council of Ministers and Coreper, and represents the Council in dealings with other EU institutions.
It mediates, bargains, promotes cooperation among member states, and tries to ensure that policy development has consistency and continuity.

14. How the Council of Ministers is structured
Permanent Representative (Coreper)
The Committee of Permanent Representatives, in which delegates from each of the member states meet to discuss proposals for new laws before they are sent to the Council of Ministers for a final decision.
The staffs of the Permanent Representations include experts in each of the policy areas addressed by the EU, and these experts will meet regularly as Coreper (often multiple times each week, and altogether about 2,000 times a year) to go through the proposals for new laws, to argue national positions, and to work out agreements and compromises.
As much as 85 per cent of the detailed work of the Council is finished before the ministers even meet.

15. How the Council of Ministers is structured
Working parties and committees
The first port of call for a proposal from the Commission is usually a working party, which reviews the technical details and makes a recommendation to Coreper.
They bring together policy specialists, national experts, members of the Permanent Representations, and staff from the Commission.
The Council also has several standing committees, dealing with key issues.

16. How the Council of Ministers is structured
General Secretariat
This is the bureaucracy of the Council, staffed by about 3,000 employees based in Brussels, most of them translators and service staff.
It was originally focused mainly on secretarial work, but has since become more political, helping manage negotiations, offering counsel to the presidency, and helping with the executive duties of the secretary general.

17. What the Council of Ministers does
Shares powers with the European Parliament for discussing and passing laws
Shares powers with Parliament for approving and adopting the EU budget
Coordinates the economic policies of the member states
Coordinates justice and home affairs policies of the member states
Defines and implements the Common Foreign and Security Policy
Concludes international agreements on behalf of the EU

19. What the Council of Ministers does
The Voting system in the Council
The Council of the EU takes its decisions by:
simple majority (15 member states vote in favour)
qualified majority (260 votes from at least 15 member states are in favour), or
unanimous vote (all votes are in favour)

21. How the European Council is structured
The European Council and the Council of Ministers are often confused, and sometimes (wrongly) interchangeably referred to as ‘The Council’, but their membership, rules, structure and legal personalities are quite distinct. Among the critical differences:
Its members are the heads of government of the EU member states (not the ministers).
It has its own appointed president (and is no longer chaired by a presidency from a member state).
It discusses broad strategic issues (not proposals for new laws).
It mainly uses only one means of decision-making (consensus).
It meets a maximum of four times each year as a rule (not monthly).
It has no legislative functions and no direct relationship with the European Parliament.

22. How the European Council is structured
The European Council focuses on key decisions about the strategic direction of political integration, such as:
launching policy cooperation in new areas,
helping drive the EU policy agenda,
ensuring policy consistency, and
promoting the development of a common EU foreign policy.
Beyond policy-making, the Council also makes appointments to several of the key positions in the EU hierarchy.
appoints its own president,
appoints the president of the Commission
appoints the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
confirms the list of new Commissioners

23. How the European Council is structured
The European Council tries to focus on the longer-term needs of the EU, using summitry rather than meetings designed to pore over the details of policy.
Summitry
The use of high-level person-to-person negotiations for the discussion and resolution of international issues.
This is usual for bilateral or multilateral discussions among the leaders of states, and has been a regular part of the EU decision-making process since the creation of the European Council.
Summits by definition are usually short, deal with strategic issues rather than the technical details of policy, and set the tone and character of intergovernmental relations.

26. What the European Council does
The dynamics of Council decision-making have also been left hostage to at least five sets of internal pressures::
EU The Franco-German axis
The ideological and personal agendas of individual leaders
The levels of experience of individual leaders
The levels of support enjoyed at home by individual leaders.
The different levels of respect and credibility earned by different leaders.

27. What the European Council does
President of the European Council
The head of the European Council, a position created with the passage of the Treaty of Lisbon in Appointed by the Council for renewable two-and-a-half-year terms, and charged with giving it direction.
For now, opinion remains split on whether the Council best works as a collective, or whether it still needs the kind of president who can lead from the front.