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The Council of the European Union forms, along with the European Parliament, the legislative arm of the European Union (EU). It contains ministers of the governments of each of the member-states of the EU.
The Council of the European Union is sometimes referred to in official European Union documents simply as the Council, and it is often informally referred to as the Council of Ministers.
It is to be distinguished from the Council of Europe, which is a completely separate international organization. It should also be distinguished from the European Council, which is a separate but closely related institution, composed of the heads of state or government of the member states in the European Union, and the President of the European Commission.
The Council is assisted by COREPER, which consists of representatives of the member-state at the level of diplomats or high-level civil servants. COREPER generally prepares the Council agenda, and negotiates minor and non-controversial matters, leaving controversial issues for discussion by the Council.
Legally speaking, the Council is a single entity, but it is in practice divided into several different councils, each dealing with a different functional area. The General Affairs Council is the most important of these, containing Foreign Ministers. Each council contains a different type of minister: e.g. the Agriculture Council contains Agriculture Ministers, and so on.
The Council has a President and a Secretary-General. The President of the Council is the Foreign Minister of the state currently holding the Presidency of the Council of the European Union; while the Secretary-General is a civil servant, the head of the Council Secretariat. The Secretary-General also serves as the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP).
The Council votes either by unanimity or by qualified majority. The voting system used for a given decision depends on the policy area to which that decision belongs; according to the Treaties, some subjects require unanimity, while others require only a qualified majority.
Even in those areas which require a qualified majority, the Council is required to try to reach a unanimous decision where possible.
Countries of the EU hold different numbers of votes in the Council. The number of votes held by each country is based indirectly on the size of the country's population, but with proportionally heavier weighting towards smaller countries. This concept is aimed at balancing the voice of big countries with the voice of small countries.
On November 1 2004, modified voting weights from the Treaty of Nice will come into effect (this date was revised by the Treaty of Accession 2003 from the original intention of January 1, 2005). This Treaty also provides for qualified majority votes to require a 'double majority' of both population and number of countries.
Further revisions to voting weights are proposed in the draft constitutional treaty which is currently under negotiation.
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