EPTThe Council is the second type of council. It comprises the appropriate ministers from the countries on specific matters.
10 different configurations exist on the council:
General Affairs (Enlargement, EU Longterm Budget or Institutional and Administrative Issues)
Economic and Financial Affairs
Justice and Home Affairs
Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs
Competitiveness (Internal market, industry, research and space)
Transport, Telecommunications and Energy
Agriculture and Fisheries
Environment
Education, Youth, Culture and Sport
Foreign Affairs
Even more confusing: Depending on the agenda, ministers with different resorts can be assigned the same council configuration. Ie. Education ministers, youth ministers, culture ministers and sports ministers, if these titles exist, they will all be members of the Education, Youth, Culture and Sport configuration.
For all but Foreign Affairs, the presidency of the council is the same country and assigned on a rotation principle for a period of 6 months. The previous and upcoming presidency supports the current presidency. In the Foreign Affairs configuration, the High Representative of the Union on Foreign Affairs holds the presidency.
A special committee needs mention here. Comité des Représentants Permanents (COREPER).
They are permanent representatives from the countries as “ambassadors to EU”. They discuss proposed legislation from the European Commission before the specific councils enter the discussion. If they can reach agreement on an issue, they will be able to table an item as an A-item at a council meeting, which entails that the proposal is passed by COREPER and doesn't need a solution from the Council! A B-item will be up for discussion at the Councils meetings.
The Council has 6 areas of responsibility in EU:
1. Make European laws. This can be done jointly with the other political EU institutions (see the ordinary procedure), but can also be done separately.
2. Coordinate membership policies in areas like economy.
3. Develop a more specific European foreign policy based on the European councils recommendations.
4. Conclude international treaties and deals with one or more states or organizations.
5. Adopt the annual EU budget in cooperation with the parliament and the commission.
The separate procedure for the council to propose and pass EU legislation is called special legislative procedure. It entails unspecified deviations from the ordinary procedure where the European Commission do not make the proposal. It includes consent procedure where internationally negotiated deals can be read in only a single reading and either rejected or accepted without amendments from the European Parliament. Consultation procedure, where the Council and European Commission go through the procedure with only consultation from the European Parliament. It is applicable for things like competition law changes and internal law exemptions.
The Council has the sole right to pass certain types of legislation, but it has to gather at least 72 % of the member states and 65 % of the European population in a vote. This requirement is part of the Lisbon Treaty and only takes effect after november 2014 with the possibility to enact the older systems until 2017.
Facts:
Current presidency: Greece
Upcoming presidency: Italy
Sources
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/press/council-meetings?lang=en
http://video.consilium.europa.eu/
http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/institutional_affairs/treaties/lisbon_treaty/ai0008_en.htm
http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/glossary/coreper_en.htm
http://www.eu2013.lt/en/presidency-and-eu/what_is_the_presidency
