The EU operates through a hybrid system of supranational independent institutions and intergovernmentally made decisions negotiated by the countries part of the Union (the Member States). Important institutions of the EU include the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union, the European Council, the Court of Justice of the European Union, and the European Central Bank.
The Council of the European Union, commonly referred to as the “Council” or the “Council of Ministers” is the institution that represents the Member States. It is made up of ministers and meets in ten different configurations depending on the subject under discussion. For instance health matters is the object of the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs council (EPSCO)- made of the 27 (one per country) health ministers.
The ministers represent their governments and are accountable to their national political system.
The main powers of the Council are:
– the legislative procedure,
– foreign affairs and,
– budgetary authority.
The Council of the European Union holds the executive and legislative powers and is therefore the main decision-making body of the Union. Its presidency rotates between Member States every six months, and to ensure the continuity between presidencies, three successive presidencies form the “trios” to share common political programmes.
The Council of the EU shares legislative and budgetary powers with the European Parliament; it passes law in general jointly with the European Parliament. The Council co-ordinates the broad economic policies of the Member States. It is specifically in charge of the common foreign and security policies and police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters.
The vast majority of laws are subject to the ordinary legislative procedure, which works on the principle that consent from both the Council and Parliament are required before a law may be passed. Few areas belong to the special legislative procedures: justice and home affairs, budget and taxation and certain aspects of other policy areas: such as the fiscal aspects of environmental policy. In these areas, the Council or Parliament decide law alone.
The work of the ministers is prepared by representatives of the Member States, based in Brussels and each specialised in their own field, within the mission of the EU Member States in Brussels. They meet in the COREPER, from French “COmité des REprésentants PERmanents”, which is the Committee of Permanent Representatives in the European Union. It prepares the agenda for the ministerial Council of the European Union meetings; it may also take some procedural decisions. It oversees and coordinates the work of some 250 committees and working parties made up of civil servants from the Member States who work on issues at the technical level to be discussed later by COREPER and the Council. It is chaired by the Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
There are in fact two committees:
– COREPER I consists of deputy heads of mission and deals largely with social and economic issues;
– COREPER II consists of heads of mission (Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary) and deals largely with political, financial and foreign policy issues.
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