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Summary: This file is part of an eight-part posting containing basic
 information about the European Union and other related or unrelated
 European political organisations. It is hoped to serve both as background
 information for those wishing to discuss European politics on the
 talk.politics.european-union newsgroup, and as a general reference for
 anyone concerned with politics in Europe.
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                              EU Basics FAQ: Councils representing governments
  [councilsrepresenting...]

What is the Council of Ministers?

 COMPOSITION OF THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS

  The Council of Ministers (or simply Council) represents the member state
  governments. The Council is composed of member state ministers: depending on
  the matter under discussion, either the ones responsible for specific policy
  areas (environment, transport, treasury) or the foreign ministers for
  general affairs.

  The Council decides unanimously on major policy decisions as laid down in
  the treaty provisions, and in principle decides with a qualified majority
  on other matters, and for some matters (research, structural funds) on  the
  decisions about provisions to implement the decisions taken in unanimity.
  For this purpose, each member state's votes are weighted
  (less-than-proportionally to the number of inhabitants) and cast in a block:


     10 votes each for France, Germany, Italy, the UK;

     8 votes for Spain;

     5 votes each for Belgium, Greece, the Netherlands, Portugal;

     4 votes each for Austria and Sweden;

     3 votes each for Denmark, Finland and the Republic of Ireland;

     2 votes for Luxembourg.

  A qualified majority decision is valid if 62 out of 87 votes are in favour
  of it (in other words: more than a 70% majority vote is required). In some
  cases the majority in favour must also include at least ten countries.

  Note: In April 1994, the UK tried to oppose an extension of the 70% rule to
  the prospective EU of 16 member states, arguing that the blocking minority
  should remain on 23 votes (out of 90) to retain a powerful blocking
  mechanism for minority states. Britain's arguments were not accepted, but it
  was agreed that a blocking minority of 23-26 votes would cause a proposal to
  be reconsidered and delayed for some time. As Norway has rejected
  membership, an extension of this agreement to the EU of fifteen means
  essentially the same, except for the fact that a blocking minority of 26 is
  now already enough to have the proposal rejected outright.

  As Andrew MacMullen[1] notes,

      +This should not be confused [but often was, especially in the Brit
    ish press, RS] with the so-called national veto arising out of the 19
    65 French inspired crisis and boycott and the ambiguous Luxembourg ac
    cords of 1966. This has allowed countries to claim the right to a vet
    o where they consider their vital national interests are involved. Th
    ere is no clear definition of what this involves since it is simply a
     flexible political instrument . A classic instance was the German go
    vernment invocation in 1985 to block a 1% cut in cereal prices which
    German farmers found objectionable.;

  And Nick Bernard[2] wrote in eunet.politics:

      +There are in fact two different issues: the question of the so-cal
    led veto properly speaking, which is a reference to the Luxembourg ac
    cords of 1966 (and the UK understanding thereof) and the issue of the
     weighting of votes in Qualified Majority Voting (QMV) with enlargeme
    nt of the EU. In the UK, politicians (on all sides) did little to cle
    ar this ambiguity.;

 COUNCIL DECISIONS AND SECRECY

  The Council always meets behind closed doors; only the outcome of the
  decision is published afterwards. In some cases it is not even clear which
  Member States have supported or rejected which parts of the original
  Commission or European Parliament proposals. This secrecy is often thought
  to be one of the most undemocratic aspects of the European Union; Council
  members are effectively unaccountable to their national parliaments for
  whatever +national; position they claim to defend within Council meetings,
  and they can always blame other Member States (without means of
  verification) for Council decisions out of line with national European
  policies.

  Personally I feel that there is also a more philosophically undemocratic
  aspect to this secrecy: the fact that there is no publicly acknowledged
  opposition to Council policies. It is my view that the right to dissent
  publicly is a fundamental aspect of democracy, even if democracy also
  requires dissenters to loyally follow majority decisions until they can
  muster a majority for their own dissenting proposal. The secretive and often
  +unanimous; decision making within the Council does not acknowledge the fact
  that there are always different sides to a coin, and hence alienates itself
  (and the EU as a whole) from the European Citizen.

  Ole Villumsen[3] send me a very interesting contribution with regard to
  another aspect of Council secrecy: the secret protocols appended to
  decisions.

      +The Council passes rules that are made public, and produces protoc
    ols containing declarations, which are kept strictly secret. It happe
    ns, although seldom, that the secret protocols say the opposite of th
    e published rules. Examples are:

     The TV directive says that TV programmes can be interrupted by
     commercials no more frequently than once every 20 minutes. A secret
     Council declaration states that TV stations can easily deviate from this
     rule if it fits better with programme scheduling. Of course, this
     flexibility can only be utilized by TV stations that have received a hint
     about the declaration.

     In February 1995, the ministers of industry passed a directive on
     protecting the citizen against registration of personal data. The
     directive prescribes that member countries forbid (computerised,
     presumably) processing of sensitive personal information, such as ethnic
     origin, political or religious conviction, and information on health and
     sex life. At the same time, the ministers and the Commission agreed on a
     secret declaration stating that member countries can +pay regard to the
     country's juridical and sociological characteristics, for example in
     matters of information on genetic identity, political affiliation,
     physical condition, punishments, personal habits, etc.;

      Normally it is the job of the Commission to ensure that the rules a
    re followed, in practice by checking that national legislations imple
    ment them. When the commission knows about the secret protocols, it c
    an take them into account. Should an ordinary citizen bring a case to
     court, the court will have to judge according to the published rules
     only.;
      (Source: Danish newspaper Information, Saturday, May 20, 1995)

  In a separate message, Ole also noted that there is some progress to
  reducing secrecy:

      +The good news is that the Council of foreign affairs ministers on
    their Monday meeting [...] May 29 decided that they will no more use
    the option of keeping their voting secret. Whether the decision has e
    ffect for the Council when other kinds of ministers meet, was not cle
    ar from my newspaper (Information, May 30 1995).

  Richard Corbett[4] finds this section somewhat exaggerated:

      No +protocols; - which are legally binding texts - are adopted in s
    ecret. What is secret is declarations attached to the Council minutes
     whereby individual States, the Commission or the Council collectivel
    y make a statement as to how they interpret a legal text.

      This is indeed a problem, but the European Court has ruled - and Co
    uncil itself accepts - that the legal text actually adopted (and publ
    ished therefore in the Official Journal) is the only one with binding
     legal effect. Council has now agreed to limit the use of such declar
    ations and, where they are made, will normally publish them. However,
     it has not abolished entirely the possibility of making declarations
     and keeping them secret.

      As regards voting in Council, the Council does now publish the resu
    lts of all such votes. However, it retains the right to decide not to
     publish them, even if it has not recently used this right.

What is the European Council?

  The European Council was formally established in 1974, building on the
  practice of holding Summits of EC Heads of Government, but its existence was
  only legally recognized in the Single European Act of 1987. The European
  Council is a special meeting of the Council of Ministers, in which the
  representatives of the Member States are the political heads of government
  themselves (13 PMs and the Presidents of France and Finland, plus their PMs
  if in a situation of +cohabitation;). The Foreign Ministers and three
  members of the Commission, including its President, also participate. The
  European Council should not be confused with the Council of Europe,[5] which
  is a totally separate international organisation independent of the EU.

 WHO ARE THE CURRENT MEMBERS OF THE EUROPEAN COUNCIL?

  Whether a Member State is represented by a Prime Minister or by a President
  is dependent on the constitution of the Member State in question. In twelve
  of the fifteen Member States the Head of State (President or Monarch) has a
  largely ceremonial function, hence the Prime Minister is the political head
  of government and the representative to the European Council. The Finnish
  and French Presidents are Head of State as well as political head of
  government, so they go to the European Council themselves (although France
  has sent both the President and the Prime Minister in times of
  +cohabitation;). Stefan Lintl[6] reports that Austria is unresolved whether
  to send the Chancellor or the President, as they seem to have conflicting
  powers in this matter.

  In response to some people requesting it, I have tried to compose a listing
  of the current members of the European Council. As prime minister or
  president, each member is of course also a very senior member of a political
  party, the affiliation of which in the European Parliament is put between
  brackets after their name. As I have compiled it by heart the list is not at
  all complete yet, but I am counting on the readers of this list to send
  in[7] all missing information.

 AT                     Mr Franz Vranitzky, Federal Chancellor (PES)

 BE                     Mr Jean-Luc Dehaene, Federal Prime Minister (EPP)

 DE                     Mr Helmut Kohl, Federal Chancellor (EPP)

 DK                     Mr Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, Prime Minister (PES)

 ES                     Mr Josi Aznar, Prime Minister (EPP)

 FI                     Mr Martti Ahtisaari, President (XXXXX)

 FR                     Mr Jacques Chirac, President (UE)

 GR                     Mr XXXXX, Prime Minister (PES)

 IE                     Mr John Bruton, Taoiseach (EPP)

 IT                     Mr Romano Prodi, Prime Minister (leaning towards PES)

 LU                     Mr XXXXX, Prime Minister (EPP)

 NL                     Mr Wim Kok, Prime Minister (PES)

 PT                     Mr Antonio Guterres, Prime Minister (PES)

 SE                     Mr Gvran Persson, Prime Minister (PES)

 UK                     Mr John Major, Prime Minister (EPP)

 WHAT ARE THE POWERS/ACTIVITIES OF THE EUROPEAN COUNCIL?

  The European Council convenes twice a year, in the last month of each member
  state's presidency of the Council.[8] In addition to some powers of its own
  (mainly institutional ones), in theory it has all the legal powers of the
  Council of Ministers. However, it does not normally operate in this mode.
  The heads of government prefer to meet relatively informally, without being
  tied to a bureaucratic agenda, but with plenty of photo-opportunities and
  press conferences. Its meetings and statements are often very important in
  providing political impetus or laying down guidelines in areas of prime
  importance to the EU, but it leaves the day-to-day legislative work to the
  ordinary Council meetings. The European Council also has the main
  responsibility for the Common Foreign and Security Policy.

  In addition, Emile Noel[9] notes that:

      +Unlike the Council of Ministers, the European Council convenes in
    the absence of experts, senior civil servants or other supporting sta
    ff (except interpreters). This plays a major part in its political ef
    fectiveness [and puts a great burden on personal skills of the politi
    cians present], but may often cause problems with subsequent implemen
    tation of its decisions.;

Who is the President of the (European) Council?

  Both the Council of Ministers and the European Council have a rotating
  presidency, with each member state being chair of both for six months only.
  These are the presidencies of the latest and following years:

 1991                   Luxembourg, the Netherlands

 1992                   Portugal, United Kingdom

 1993                   Denmark, Belgium

 1994                   Greece, Germany

 1995                   France, Spain

 1996                   Italy, Ireland

 1997                   Netherlands, Luxembourg

 1998                   United Kingdom, Austria

 1999                   Germany, Finland

 2000                   Portugal, France

 2001                   Sweden, Belgium

 2002                   Spain, Denmark


  ___________________________________


                              Edited by Roland Siebelink & Bart Schelfhout[10]
                                          corrections and suggestions welcome.

  [Go to Table of Contents][11]

*** References from this document ***
[1] http://eubasics.allmansland.com/about.html#contr
[2] http://eubasics.allmansland.com/about.html#contr
[3] http://eubasics.allmansland.com/about.html#contr
[4] http://eubasics.allmansland.com/about.html#contr
[5] http://eubasics.allmansland.com/related.html#coe
[6] http://eubasics.allmansland.com/about.html#contr
[7] mailto:[email protected]
[8] http://eubasics.allmansland.com/councils.html#councilpres
[9] http://eubasics.allmansland.com/about.html#emile-noel
[10] mailto:[email protected]
[11] http://eubasics.allmansland.com/index.html

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