The EU Council or Council of Ministers is the European Union’s most important decision-maker and legislator. It is made up of the ministers of the Member State governments. The Council enacts regulations and directives together with the European Parliament on the basis of European Commission proposals. The Council also passes separate decisions.
The Council meets in different configurations depending on the subject area involved. The key Council is the General Affairs and External Relations (GAERC) Council, which is known as the meeting of EU foreign ministers. With greater economic convergence and the single currency, there has been an increase in the importance of the Economic and Financial Affairs (ECOFIN) Council.
The official meetings of the Council of Ministers are held in Brussels except in April, June and October, when the ministers meet in Luxembourg. Usually there are no meetings in August.
When a decision is taken in Council by Qualified Majority Voting, each Member State’s vote is weighted according to its population. Since November 2004 the Nice Treaty has applied, and this grants 29 votes to the largest Member States, Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom; 27 votes to Spain and Poland etc. Finland has 7 votes. 255 votes out of 345 are required to achieve a qualified majority.
