Council

The Council of Ministers is often simply called 'the Council'. It is distinct from the European Council – which is the name for the meetings, within the framework of the EU, of the heads of state and government of member states.

The Council is the law-making body of the EU. Laws are proposed by the Commission, the Council may then approve or reject these proposals. In an increasing number of cases it must approve legislation jointly with the European Parliament through the process of co-decision.

Ministers also meet informally. At such meetings they are able to negotiate more freely, but cannot formally take decisions. The Council is led by a six-month rotating presidency and is serviced by a Brussels-based secretary general and secretariat.

The Council decides procedural matters by majority of its members which is 14 of 27. The Council decides on most policy matters, directives and regulations by weighted and qualified majority voting, each country having a particular number of votes. Certain key decisions require unanimity, for example, the admission of new member states, tax matters and major foreign and security issues.

Meetings of the Council of Ministers are composed of ministers from each of the member states. The type of ministers present depends upon the policy area under discussion. Agriculture ministers meet in the Agriculture Council, transport ministers in the Transport Council, and so on. Ministers are often represented at Council meetings by an ambassador of state or other civil servant.

Notes

The future

The Lisbon Treaty propose three big reforms:

From 2014 the qualified majority will represent a so-called “double majority”. The first vote requires the support from 55% of the member states. The next and more difficult vote requires support from member states with a total amounting to 65% of the EU population, and cast from at least fifteen member states. In the existing EU with 27 countries it will allow three big member states and a small one to block a decision wanted by the remaining 23 countries.

Links

website of the Council http://ue.eu.int/

See also Luxembourg compromise and Voting in the Council.