4. The Council of Ministers and its formations

Composition of the Council, the Council configurations

The Council of Ministers is the main legislative body of the EU. As an intergovernmental institution it represents the interest of the Member States. The Council at ministerial level is composed by one representative from each Member State, usually the responsible minister of the country. The name of the Council differs taking into account which subjects are discussed at the Council meeting. According to the different fields the following nine Council configurations can be listed:

• General Affairs and External Relations
• Economic and Financial Affairs (ECOFIN)
• Justice and Home Affairs (JHA)
• Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs (EPSOÖ
• Competitiveness (COMP)
• Transport, Telecommunications and Energy (TTE)
• Agriculture and Fisheries (AGRI)
• Environment (ENV)
• Education, Youth and Culture

In the Council the ministers represent their governments, the position of their governments. The agenda and the work of the Council at ministerial level is prepared by the Permanent Representatives Committee I and II (COREPER) composing of the heads (ambassadors – COREPER II) and deputy heads (COREPER I) of the Member States’ Permanent Representation delegated to the European Union. The COREPER meet weekly within the Permanent Representatives Committee (COREPER).

At a lower level, the working groups are responsible for the preparation of the positions. In the working groups the Governments’ are represented by their public administration. Already at this low level the objective is to find a consensus or at least Qualified majority on the proposal.

Responsibilities of the Council

The Council has six key responsibilities:

• the Council adopts Community legislation; in many fields it legislates jointly with the European Parliament;
• it coordinates the broad economic policies of the Member States;
• in the name of the European Community it concludes international agreements between the Community and one or more States or international organizations;
• it adopts, jointly with the European Parliament, The budget of the European Union;
• it defines the European Union’s common foreign and security policy on the basis of guidelines set by the European Council;
• it coordinates cooperation between the national courts and police forces in criminal matters.

The working method and the voting system of the Council

The Council is assisted by the Secretariat General of the Council. The Council agenda is determined by the multiannual program of the council, by the Commission working program, and by the program of the Council Presidency.

Decisions in the Council are taken by vote. The Council may adopted its decision by three different types of voting: Simple majority, Qualified majority, Unanimity. In the case of Qualified majority voting, the votes are weighted according to the population of the Member States. However it is also a political deal between the heads of states and governments. In the Qualified majority voting three factors are to be fulfilled: (1) numerical threshold for majority of the votes 232 votes out of the total 321, (2) if the initiative comes from the proposal the adoption requires the supporting vote of the half of the Member States (13 Member States); (3) population filter requirement which means the possibility to ask for verification that at least 62% of the EU population is represented in the favourable decision.

The weight of votes by Member States:

In the case of the Unanimity voting each Member State has one vote, and therefore the power of veto. Unanimity is maintained in particularly sensitive areas such as Common Foreign and Security Policy, taxation, asylum and immigration policy.

Special Exercise