Councils

meme about the council
Journalists are particularly prone to mix up the European Council with the Council of the European Union (and often with the Council of Europe). To solve this problem DG MEME suggested the creation of the Union of the European Councils (EUCO + Council)

The Council of the European Union and The European Council have two things in common: the name and the fact that they represent the position of their member state’s executive. To avoid confusion, we thought of grouping the two definitions in the same page: understanding by the context to which institution we refer to in other posts is left as exercise to the reader.

The Council of the European Union (abbr. The Council), together with the European Parliament, amends and approves the proposals of the European Commission. It meets in ten different configurations, which vary according to the topic under consideration. Commissioners also join the ten configurations, but they usually serve drinks as they don’t have voting powers.

For example: the Economic and Financial Affairs (Ecofin) is composed by the economics and finance ministers of the EU countries (and it also includes the Eurogroup); the Foreign Affairs (FAC) comprises all the foreign ministers of the EU Countries and is chaired by the High Representative ( Luigi di Maio takes part to this configuration but he doesn’t serve drinks).

Very few things can happen in the European Union without the approval of the European Council. That’s how member states keep control on European matters, often fighting for their little national interests and forgetting the bigger picture.

The European Council (abbr. EUCO) comprises the EU countries leaders, along with the President of the European Council and the President of the European Commission (e. g. Olaf Scholz and Emmanuel Macron are part of the European Council).

The Council defines the European Union’s political direction (power of impetus), it appoints its own President, the High Representative, the President of the European Central Bank and it proposes to the European Parliament a candidate for President of the European Commission. And yet there are people that believe member states have no influence in EU Politics.