The Council is the Union’s main decision-making body, comprising the representatives of the 15 Member States at ministerial level. Depending on the agenda, the Council meets in different compositions. The Council is assisted by its General Secretariat.

Each country in the Union in turn holds the chair for six months. Decisions are prepared by the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the Member States (Coreper), assisted by working parties of national government officials.

The Council has three essential roles:

• Decision-making. The Council’s decision-making power is used to ensure the implementation of the objectives laid down in the Treaties. In general, Community legislation is adopted jointly by the Council and Parliament under a codecision procedure.

• Coordinating the economic policies of the Member States. Each year the Council adopts draft guidelines for the economic policies of the Member States, which are then included in the conclusions of the European Council.

• Sharing the budgetary function with the European Parliament. The Council, together with the Parliament, jointly approve the Community budget. If no agreement can be reached after two successive readings in Parliament, the Council makes the final decision on ‘compulsory’ expenditure, while Parliament has the last word on ‘non-compulsory’ appropriations.

In the vast majority of cases, decisions are taken by qualified majority. The threshold for the qualified majority is set at 62 votes out of 87 (71%). The votes of the Member States are weighted according to their population as follows:

Germany, France, Italy and United Kingdom: 10 votes each
Spain: 8 votes
Belgium, Greece, the Netherlands and Portugal: 5 votes each
Austria and Sweden: 4 votes each
Denmark, Ireland and Finland: 3 votes each
Luxembourg: 2 votes

European Council

The European Council is the term used to describe the regular meetings of the Heads of State or Government of the EU Member States. Its existence was given legal recognition by the Single European Act, while official status was conferred on it by the Treaty on European Union.

It meets at least twice a year and the President of the European Commission attends as a full member. Its objectives are to give the European Union the impetus it needs in order to develop further and to define general policy guidelines.

Council of the European Union