EPT3.1 The European Council and the High Representative of the Union on Foreign Affairs
The councils are 2 separate entities in EU. The most important of which is the European Council. The European Council consists of the heads of states or governments of the European countries along with a president of the European Council who cannot be member of a national office.
The European Council does not handle legislation as such. It only deals with the overall themes and afterward delegate the more specific issues to the council. A president of the European Council is elected by the members of the European Council in a qualified majority vote and it carries a representative role for EU.
The European Council meets twice a year or more if it is deemed necessary. It adopts opinion by consensus (consensus can include diverging opinions). In certain cases, they need unanimosity (unanimosity has all members agreeing) or use qualified majority.
The meetings held in the European Council are called Summits.
On Foreign Affairs, the European Council is cooperating with High Representative of the Union on Foreign Affairs. High Representative of the Union on Foreign Affairs is appointed by the European Council and is made one of 5 vice-presidents in the European Commission along with president of the Council on foreign affairs. Her/his job is to create a common European foreign policy across the institutions. She also heads the european institutions called Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) and European External Action Service (EEAS). CSDP is the military cooperation of the European Union. It incorporated the former Western European Union, their security studies, satellite center and the groundwork for the defence agency. The primary roles of the CSDP are humanitarian and rescue tasks, peacekeeping tasks and certain combat force tasks, joint disarmament, military advice and assistance and post-conflict stabilisation. EEAS is the diplomatic part of the cooperation on foreign affairs. EEAS has a main task of assisting all other functions of the union in foreign matters. In any foreign delegation of the memberstates an EEAS representative has to be present and report to the High Representative of the Union on Foreign Affairs. The service has only existed since 2011 and is therefore still in development.
Some facts:
The position High Representative of the Union on Foreign Affairs in its current shape was formed in 2009 by the Lisbon Treaty.
Currently held by: Catherine Ashton (2009-)
The European council was an unofficial institution since 1974, but has had its current status since the 2009 Lisbon Treaty.
President: Herman Von Rompuy (2009-2012 and 2012-)
Number of members: 30 (28 government leaders, European council president and President of the European Commission.)
Sources:
http://www.european-council.europa.eu/council-meetings/conclusions?lang=en
http://bookshop.europa.eu/en/how-the-european-union-works-pbNA3212336/;pgid=y8dIS7GUWMdSR0EAlMEUUsWb0000KSRDUnFj;sid=QGBH6tQ4aiFHyoYXBWXZTbYdR7NBOdPrRrM=?CatalogCategoryID=luYKABst3IwAAAEjxJEY4e5L
http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/glossary/high_representative_cfsp_en.htm
http://www.eeas.europa.eu/csdp/about-csdp/index_en.htm
