Council Council of Ministers

1
Council (Council of Ministers)

• Direct Representation of Member States
• Inter-Governmental Process
• Voting Rules How the Council Decides?
• What Role for the Presidency?

2
The Council of Ministers

• Powers legislative, executive
• Composition
• The Many Councils
• Decision-making Rules ?
• 1965 Empty Seat Crisis and the Luxembourg
  Compromise 1966
  
• Unanimity, Vetoes and QMV

3
European Council and the Emergence of Summitry

• What is the Difference between the Council of
  Ministers and The European Council?
  
• Informal Founding in 1970s
• Regular Meetings of national leaders (Prime
  Ministers/ Presidents)
  
• Treating Big Framework Issues
• Institutionalized Intergovernmentalism

4
Some Landmark Summits

• The Hague 1969
• 1972 Paris for Econ and Monetary Union
• 1984 Fontainebleau British Rebate
• 1991 Maastricht Institutional Reform, Pillar
  Structure and EMU
  
• 1997 Amsterdam leftovers
• 2000 Nice More Institutional Reform
• 2004 Brussels Const. Treaty

5
How Decisions are Made in the European Council?

• Europes most Exclusive Club Consensus prevails
  
  
• Notable Exception 1985 7 to 3 on IGC for SEA
• Late Night Dinners with Bargaining into the early
  morning
  

6
How Decisions are Made in Council?

• Consensus, Unanimity
• Luxembourg Compromise Ball and Chain of Veto
  Powers
  
• QMV What is it?
• Extension of QMV in Maastricht and Amsterdam

7
Qualified Majority Voting

• Demise of the Luxembourg Compromise but deeply
  rooted culture of consensus
  
• QMV often in principle, not in practice
• Threshold before 2004 62/87
• Weighted Voting Table 8.6 in Dinan, 255

8
QMV Before and After 2001 Nice Treaty

• Threshold Before 2004
• 62/87
• Blocking Minority
• 26/87

• Threshold After 2004
• 232/321
• Blocking Minority
• 90/321

9
The Rotating Presidency

• Expanding Role as EU has Deepened
• Chairing Summits and Council meetings
• National Aims vs. Presidential Neutrality?
• Agenda Setting
• International Role
• Const Treaty Idea End Rotation?
• German Presidency (Angela Merkel)

10
The Mysterious CoreperCouncil of Permanent
Representatives

• Invisible, Non-Transparent, Poorly understood
• National Ambassadors
• Sources of Power?
• How does it function?
• A-Points Agreed in Coreper prior to Council
  (90)
  
• B-Points Matters in dispute for Council