What is the difference between the ‘Council’ and the ‘European Council’?
‘The Council of the European Union’ and ‘The European Council’ are easily confused but there is a big difference between the two.
The Council of the European Union is called the Council of Ministers or often just the Council. It is the central legislative and decision-making body in the EU. The Council comprises one representative at ministerial level from each
In contrast, the European Council consists of the Heads of State or Government of the Member States, together with its President and the President of the Commission. Furthermore the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy takes part in its work.
The Lisbon Treaty article 15 sets out the objective for the European Council:
The European Council shall provide the Union with the necessary impetus for its development and shall define the general political directions and priorities thereof. It shall not exercise legislative functions.
The 2009 introduction of the Lisbon Treaty resulted in certain changes for the European Council - the biggest being the creation of a President for the institution. Herman Van Rompoy, former Prime Minister of Belgium, was chosen for the task and sits on the post until the end of his second term on the 30th of November 2014.
Since 2002 the European Council has met at least twice during each Presidency, i.e. four times a year. Extraordinary meetings are also held. Meetings of the European Council are often referred to in the media as EU summits.
The European Council has typically held its meetings in a city or town in the country holding the Presidency but a declaration concerning the meeting place of the European Council was adopted in connection with the Treaty of Nice. According to the declaration at least half of the meetings of the European Council are to be held in Brussels from 2002 and when the EU has more than 18 members, all meetings of the European Council are to be held in
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The European Council came into being as a result of a communiqué from the summit held in Paris in December 1974 at which the Heads of Government and foreign ministers of the then nine Member States, together with the President of the Commission, established a need to secure the development and coherence of efforts in the Community and the political work. It was therefore decided that the Heads of Government and their foreign ministers should meet three times a year and as required in ‘the Council of the Community’. The European Council was not enshrined in the Treaties until the entry into force of the Single European Act in 1987. The functions of the European Council were specified in greater detail with the adoption of the Maastricht Treaty, the Treaty of Amsterdam and lastly the Lisbon Treaty. |