Council of the European Union

The Council of the European Union ( the Treaty text only advice is not often officially - EU Council of Ministers ) is an institution of the European Union. In the EU political system he practices together with the European Parliament of the European Union legislation. Because he represents the governments of the EU Member States, it can be referred to as the Chamber of States of the EU ( in addition to the European Parliament as a citizen chamber ). The Council also serves for alignment and coordination of governments or ministers in the intergovernmental policy areas ( portfolio), such as the Common Foreign and Security Policy.

The function of the Council is governed by Article 16 of the EU Treaty and Article 237 et seq TFEU. It is composed of one representative per Member State, which must be authorized to make binding decisions for his government. There are, depending on the policy area, different Council formations, which bring together the representatives of various ministries. The representatives may be freely determined by the Government; important decisions are, however, usually taken at ministerial level. The Presidency of the Council of Ministers Unlike the European Council, with the President elected to two and a half years changed after each six months by rotation among the representatives of all Member States. Council seat is the Consilium, the Justus Lipsius building in Brussels; found in the months of April, June and October meetings in Luxembourg.

Composition

The Council is a unified organ, but meets because of the different policies in different compositions - the so-called Council formations, in which the representatives from different departments come together. Each formation is composed of one representative per Member State. These representatives are authorized under Article 16 of the EU Treaty, to commit their governments. Therefore, Member States also wrote federal Minister of the sub-national level send to the council meetings, if the central government in the matter, has no skills. This is often the case, the Minister shall appoint the regions or communities in different Council formations for about Belgium.

By June 2000, the Council met at times in twenty different compositions. Thereafter the number was initially sixteen, further reduced to nine in June 2002, was made by the Treaty of Lisbon in 2009 an extension to ten. A special role the Council plays for General Affairs in the Foreign Affairs Ministers of the Member States or Europe are represented. It coordinates the activities of other Council formations and makes decisions that are not attributable to other Council formations. In addition, the foreign ministers meet in the Council of Foreign Affairs, which is responsible for the Common Foreign and Security Policy. The Foreign Affairs Council is also the only one besides the representatives of the Member States still has one more member, namely the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. This leads in the Foreign Council, the Presidency, has, however, when deciding not to vote.

In particular, there are the following Council configurations:

Operation

The Council formations usually occur twice per Presidency, ie every three months, at ministerial level. The General Council, the Council of Agriculture and Fisheries and the Council of Economics and Finance meet frequently, sometimes monthly. The Council meetings are generally open to the public when it is acting as a legislator; Sessions where no legislative decisions are made, however, usually take place non-public.

Meetings of the Council will be prepared beforehand on different levels. The main coordinating body is the Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper, also Coreper ) in which meet the permanent representatives of the Member States in the EU regularly. It is divided into two groups: While most Council formations shall be prepared by Coreper I, which meet the Deputy Permanent Representatives, the Coreper II, which brings together the Permanent Representatives themselves, responsible for the Council formations with particularly sensitive policy areas, namely specially for the General Council, the Foreign Affairs Council, the Council for economic and Financial Affairs and the Council of Justice and Home Affairs. In addition, the Council of Agriculture and Fisheries has its own preparatory committee, the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA ). Coreper and SAL prepare the agenda for the Council meetings and decision making suggestions for topics on which there is agreement between the Member States.

The actual content preparation of Council meetings is performed by the Council working groups, composed of officials from the Member States and each specialized in certain policy areas. For administrative and translation activities moreover, the Council has a general secretariat with about 2,500 employees. Since 2009, the Frenchman Pierre de Boissieu Secretary-General was, he was succeeded in 2011 the German Uwe Corsepius.

When ministers failed to reach agreement in the Council on certain issues, they can refer the matter to the European Council, which will meet the Heads of State and Government of the EU Member States. The European Council can not intervene in the EU legislation, but issued only general guidelines themselves. However, in national governments, members of the Council - ie the ministers - members of the European Council - ie the government - are subordinated to the compromises of the European Council also serve as guidelines for the decisions of the Council.

Chairmanship

The Presidency of the Council of the European Union (also called the Presidency ) changes every six months between the Member States; the meetings of the various Council formations, but also of all subsidiary bodies such as the Council working groups, each chaired by the representative of the country concerned. An exception is the Foreign Affairs Council, in which the High Representative of the EU chaired for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

Since 2007, the Presidency of the Council is exercised in the form of a so-called trio presidency for a period of 18 months by a group of three member countries. It continues to take each a state for six months to a chair, the three countries present but a common program and can also represent the chairmanship of individual Council meetings each other.

On 1 January 2007, the Council of the European Union has set the order in which the office of President of the Council until 2020. Previously, the chair states had been established by mid-2003 and on 12 December 2005 those mid-2018 on 1 January 1995, but by the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to supplement the Presidency list for these two States had become necessary.

Voting procedure

Depending on the policies in the templates fall, on which the Council decides the TFEU provides for different voting procedures. In pure procedural questions, the Council shall act mostly by simple majority of its members. In matters of common foreign and security policy and other politically sensitive issues, such as fiscal policy, the Council shall act unanimously.

For the ordinary legislative procedure applicable in most EU policy areas, however, a qualified majority is required. This is defined by the principle of a double majority since the Treaty of Lisbon:

• 55 percent of the Member States, the
• At least 65 percent of the EU population represent.

In order to have comparable data on the population of each Member State, is beginning with the 2011 census conducted every ten years a Europe-wide census according to uniform criteria.

The method of the double majority, however finally introduced from 2017; from 2014 it is to be applied, unless a Member State objects. Otherwise, valid until then transition, the method of the qualified majority which was provided for in the Treaty of Nice. To this end, all Member States a certain number of votes each was assigned, ranging from 3 (Malta ) to 29 ( Germany, France, UK, Italy ). For the adoption of an act required by this process

• A simple majority of Member States
• And a majority of the 255 345 votes (after the accession of Croatia from July 1, 2013 260 of 352 votes).
• At the request of a Member State must also be determined whether the consenting Member States comprising at least 62 percent of the EU population.

The distribution of votes depends roughly on the populations of Member States, but the small states are proportional preferred ( so-called degressive proportionality ). However, the distribution of votes was by no clear key. Thus, the four most populous states all have the same number of votes, even though Germany significantly more populous than the other three. Some of the countries that joined in 2004 have in relation to their population a rather small number of votes; Spain and Poland cut in the weighting of votes against it quite well.

Criticism

Since the Council shall exercise functions of the legislature, its members, however, that are in the seconding Member State of the national governments of the executive, he is regarded as a typical case of executive federalism. Critics see this as a contradiction to the principle of separation of powers and a reason for the perceived democratic deficit of the EU. Here, the so-called game about gang is often criticized, in which governments legislative proposals, for which there are no national parliamentary majority, try to enforce through the detour of European legislation. In the ordinary legislative procedure, which applies to most EU policies, but alongside the Council and the directly elected European Parliament has to approve a legislative act, so that it can enter into force.

Another complaint to the Council was its lack of transparency. By the Treaty of Lisbon, the Council meetings were generally non-public, so it was not comprehensible to the public, had tuned like a certain government in question. Since the entry into force of the Treaty, the meetings are generally open to the public when the Council acts as legislator. Sessions where no legislative decisions are made - ie about preparatory meetings or the meetings of the Council of Foreign Affairs - continue to be organized non-public.