The Council of the European Union

The Council of the European Union – formerly known as the Council of Ministers – shares with Parliament the responsibility for passing laws and making policy decisions. It is also responsible for EU actions and decisions regarding the Common Foreign and Security Policy and for EU action on specific justice and freedom issues. The Council of the European Union contains ministers from each member state, divided into different councils according to their responsibilities, and each dealing with a different functional area . Legally, the Council of the European Union is a single entity, but in practice it corresponds to several different councils.

The Council of the European Union is not the same as the Council of Europe, which is a European organization, but not an institution of the European Union. The Council of Europe is charged with the protection of Human Rights, cooperating with signatory countries (including Turkey, Ukraine and France).

Currently there are nine formations of the Council of the European Union, the two most important of which are the following:

• General Affairs and External Relations (GAERC): the most important of the formations, it is composed of ministers of foreign affairs and meets once a month. The GAERC is charged with deciding the most important political questions of the Union.

• Economic and Financial Affairs (Ecofin): it is composed of economics and finance ministers of the Member states.

The Council of the European Union votes either by unanimity, or by qualified majority. In treaties (as also in the Constitutional Treaty) a tendancy to extend the role of qualified majority can be observed, even if it comes up against the opposition of Member States concerned with their national sovereignty.

The Council's agenda is prepared by the Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER) , which is made up of the head or deputy head of mission from the EU member States in Brussels.

There are in fact two committees:

COREPER I consists of deputy heads of mission and deals largely with social and economic issues;

COREPER II consists of heads of mission and deals largely with political, financial and foreign policy issues.

The Council has 5 functions:

1. Legislation: the Council passes European legal norms upon the recommendations of the Commission and the European Parliament

2. Foreign and defense policy: the Council seeks to achieve a common foreign and defense policy for Member States

3. Economic policy: the Council seeks to achieve a common economic policy for Member States

4. Justice: the Council seeks to co-ordinate the justice-system of Member States, especially in areas regarding terrorism

5. Approval of the EU budget: the Council and the Parliament must agree on the EU budget. Every July, the Budget Council meets to negotiate the Commission's proposal (“preliminary draft budget”). After a conciliation meeting with the Parliament and adjusting the budget accordingly, the Council of Ministers adopts a draft budget, which is then forwarded to the Parliament (first reading of the Council). If the Parliament returns the draft budget to the Council after its first reading, the two institutions conciliate to try to reach an agreement before November (second reading of the Council). Even if the President of the European Parliament gives the final signature to the European Budget, the Council reserves the right to have final say .

Official Website of the Council of the European Union