Councils in europe

You should keep in mind that there are three different international organizations which have two basic words in their names ‘Europe’ and ‘Council’. They are: the Council of Europe, the Council of European Union and the European Council. These organizations have shared the same European flag and anthem since the 1980s as they all work for the European integration. But still they perform different functions and have different structure. In order not to get confused you will read the texts about these organizations.

Get divided into three groups. Each group will read one of the three texts and fill in the necessary information into the chart that follows.

№	characteristics of the Council	information from the text
1	official name
2	other/ informal names
3	seat
4	membership
5	head
6	functions
7	main institutions and their short characteristics
8	other important information

Share the information you will learn with the other group mates. So, you will get a clear picture of the activity of the three Councils.

Text 1. THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE

The Council of Europe (French: Conseil de l’Europe) is the oldest international organization, working towards European integration, having been founded in 1949. It has a particular emphasis on legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural cooperation. It has 47 member states with some 800 million citizens.

The seat of the Council of Europe is in Strasbourg, France and English and French are its two official languages. The Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly also work in German, Italian and Russian.

The institutions of the Council of Europe are:

• The Secretary General, who is elected for a term of five years by the Parliamentary Assembly and heads the Secretariat of the Council of Europe.

• The Committee of Ministers, comprising the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of all 47 member states who are represented by their Permanent Representatives and Ambassador accredited to the Council of Europe. Committee of Minister’s presidencies are held in the alphabetic order for six months following the English alphabet.

• The Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), which comprises national parliamentarians from all member states and elects its President for a year with a possibility to be reelected for another year. National parliamentary delegations to the Assembly must reflect the political spectrum of their national parliament, i.e. comprise government and opposition parties. The Assembly appoints members as rapporteurs with the mandate to prepare parliamentary reports on the specific subjects.

• The Congress of the Council of Europe (Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe), which was created in 1994 and comprises political representatives from local and regional authorities in all member states.

• The European Court of Human Rights, created under the European Convention on Human Rights of 1950, is composed of a judge from each member state elected for a renewable term of six years by the Parliamentary Assembly and is headed by the elected President of the Court.

• The Commissioner for Human Rights, who is elected by the Parliamentary Assembly for a non-renewable term of six years since the creation of this position in 1999.

• The Conference of INGOs. NGOs can participate in the INGO Conference of the Council of Europe.

• Information Offices of the Council of Europe in many states.

The CoE system also includes a number of semi-autonomous structures known as “Parliamentary Agreements”, some of which are also open to non-member states:

• The Council of Europe Development Bank in Paris

• The European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines

• The European Audiovisual Observatory

• The Pompidou Group – Cooperation group to combat drug abuse and illicit trafficking of drugs

• The European Commission for Democracy through Law, better known as Venice Commission

• The Centre for Modern Languages in Graz (Austria)

The Parliament of Belarus held special guest status with the Parliamentary Assembly from September 1992 to January 1997, Belarus applied for full membership on 12 March 1993 (still open).

Text 2. COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

The Council of the European Union is the principal decision-making institution of the European Union (EU). It is often informally called the Council of Ministers or just the Council, the name used in the treaties; it is also called Consilium as a Latin language compromise. Within the competencies of the Community pillar, it is the most powerful of the two legislative chambers, the other being the European Parliament.

The Council is composed of twenty-seven national ministers (one per state). However the exact membership depends upon the topic being discussed. The Union’s law is limited to specific policy areas. However it does override national law. As the Union operates on supranational and intergovernmental platforms, in some areas the Council is superior to the Parliament, having only to consult to get assent from the body. In many areas, however, the union uses the legislative process of codecision procedure, in which the two bodies are equal in power.

The Council does not have a single president in the traditional sense, but the role is rotated between each member state every 6 months (known as the “Presidency”), with the minister from that state then able to set the agenda. Another powerful position is the Secretary General who is also the representative of the Union’s foreign policy.

The primary purpose of the Council is to act as one of the two chambers of the Union’s legislative branch. However the Council has legislative initiative in the latter two of the three pillars of the EU. It also holds, jointly with the parliament, the budgetary power of the Union and has greater control than the parliament over the intergovernmental areas of the EU. Finally, it formally holds the executive power of the EU which it confers upon the European Commission.

Legally speaking, the Council is a single entity, but it is in practice divided into several different councils. Each council deals with a different functional area. In this formation, the council is composed of ministers from each state government who are responsible for this area. They meet irregularly throughout the year except for the three major configurations (top three below) which meet once a month. There currently nine formations:

• General Affairs and External Relations (GAERC). The most important of the formations, GAERC is composed of ministers for foreign affairs. Since 2002 it has held separate meeting on general affairs and external relations. It also coordinates preparation for and follow-up to meeting of the European Council. It includes the ESDP and development cooperation.

• Economic and Financial Affairs (Ecofin). Composed of economic and finance ministers of member states it includes budgetary and eurozone matters via an informal group composed only of eurozone member ministers.

• Agriculture and Fisheries. One of the oldest configurations brings together once a month the ministers of agriculture and fisheries, and the commissioners responsible for agriculture, fisheries, food safety, veterinary questions and public health matters.

• Justice and Home Affairs Council (JHA). This configuration brings together justice ministers and interior ministers of member states. The sphere of interest includes civil protection.

• Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council (EPSCO). It is composed of employment, social protection, consumer protection, health and equal opportunities ministers.

• Competitiveness. It was created in June 2002 though the merging of three previous configurations (Internal Market, Industry and Research). Depending on the items on the agenda, this formation is composed of the ministers responsible for the areas such as European affairs, industry, tourism and scientific research.

• Transport, Telecommunication and Energy. Created in June 2002, through the merging of three policies under one configuration, and with a composition varying according to the specific items on its agenda, this formation meets approximately once every two months.

• Environment. It is composed of environment ministers, who meet about four times a year.

• Education, Youth and Culture (EYC). It is composed of education, culture, youth and communication ministers, who meet around three or four times a year. It also includes audiovisual issues.

Complementing these, the Political and Security Committee (PSC) brings together ambassadors to monitor international situations and define policies within the ESDP, particularly in crises.

Text 3. EUROPEAN COUNCIL

The European Council (referred to as a European Summit) is the highest political body of the European Union. It comprises the heads of state or government of the Union’s member states along with the President of the European Commission. Its meeting is chaired by the member from the member state currently holding presidency of the Council of the European Union.

While the Council has no formal executive or legislative powers, it is an institution that deals with major issues and any decisions made are “a major impetus in defining the general political guidelines of the European Union”. The Council meets at least twice a year; usually in the Just Lipsius building, the quarters of the Council of the European Union in Brussels.

Essentially the European Council defines the EU’s policy agenda and has thus been considered to be the motor of European integration. Beyond the need to provide “impetus”, the Council has developed further roles; to “settle issues outstanding from discussions at a lower level”, to lead in foreign policy – acting externally as a “collective Head of State”, “formal ratification of important documents” and “involvement in the negotiation of the treaty changes”.

Because it is composed of national leaders, the body brings together the executive power of the member states, having a great deal of influence outside the European Community: for example over foreign policy and police & justice. It also exercises more executive powers of the Council of the European Union such as the appointment of the president of the European Commission. Hence, the European Council has been described by some as the Union’s “supreme political authority”.

However, the body has been criticized for a lack of leadership, in part stemming from the weak structure of the body, meeting only 4 times a year for 2 days with no staff and no legislative decisions made.

Officially the members of the Council consist of the heads of state or government of the Union plus the Commission President (non-voting). When meetings take place, the national foreign ministers usually attend with the leaders. Meeting can also include national ministers, other leading national positions (Prime Minister), Commissioners as required. The Secretary General of the Council (and his/her deputy) is also a regular attendee. The President of the European Parliament usually attends to give an opening speech outlining the European Parliament’s position before talks begin.

Appendix 3. Debate