Working groups under the Council

Working groups under the Council

There are 275 working groups answerable to the Council of Ministers. They hold 3000-3500 meetings each year and adopt 70% of all EU laws. Fifteen per cent are adopted in COREPER.

Only 15% of laws are actually dealt with in meetings of the Council of Ministers, at which the ministers themselves may be present.

The working groups consist of officials from the embassies of the EU member states and from the ministries and departments of the national governments.

The agendas, reports and working documents are usually secret and are not disclosed either to the national parliaments or to the European Parliament.

The German Bundestag has access to internal EU documents through a written agreement between the government and the Bundestag.

The Swedish presidency from 1 July – 31 December 2009 planned 6,000 different meetings for working groups and Council meeting.

The full list of Council working groups can be found here:

http://www.consilium.europa.eu......es-and-working-parties?lang=en

Links

http://www.consilium.europa.eu......=da&search=arbejdsgrupper#