The Council of Ministers / Fiona Hayes-Renshaw and Helen Wallace.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hayes-Renshaw, Fiona, 1961-

Contributor:

Wallace, Helen (Helen S.)

Series:

European Union series (Palgrave Macmillan (Firm))

The European Union series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Council of the European Union.

Physical Description:

xx, 392 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.

Edition:

Second edition.

Place of Publication:

Houndmills [England] ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.

Contents:

What is the Council? 4

Both executive and legislature 4

Both European and national 5

Both multi-issue and sectoral 5

Both a forum for negotiation and a forum for decision 6

Legal definitions and basic decision rules 7

Treaty-based formal rules 7

Other formal and informal rules 13

Who constitutes the Council? 14

What does the Council do? 15

How does the Council work? 17

Devices to oil the Council machine 25

With whom does the Council interact? 26

To whom is the Council responsible? 27

Looking behind the scenes and into the corridors 28

Change and reform 29

Part I Who Does What?

2 National Representatives Decide: the Ministers in Council 33

Composition 33

Sectoral differentiation 34

General Affairs and External Relations (GAERC) 36

Economic and Financial Affairs and Budget (Ecofin) 42

Agriculture and Fisheries (Agfish) 44

Competitiveness (Comp) 44

Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) 45

Other configurations 45

Other groupings 46

Frequency and intensity of meetings 47

Organization of meetings 48

Agendas, texts and minutes 52

Voting and the relative power of member states 54

Language, atmosphere and special devices 58

The consequences of multilingualism 58

Opportunities for frank discussion 60

Output and speed 61

Coordination between Councils 63

Subsidiarity and transparency 66

3 Officials Prepare the Ground: the Preparatory Bodies 68

The Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper) 72

Origins and development 73

Composition 73

Functions and working methods 76

The Political and Security Committee (COPS) 82

Origins and development 82

Composition 83

Functions and working methods 84

The Article 36 Committee (CATS) 86

Origins and development 86

Composition 86

Functions and working methods 87

The Economic and Financial Committee (EFC) 88

Origins and development 88

Composition 88

Functions and working methods 89

The Article 133 Committee 90

Origins and development 90

Composition 91

Functions and working methods 92

The Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) 94

Origins and development 94

Composition 94

Functions and working methods 95

The working parties 96

Origins and development 96

Composition 97

Functions and working methods 99

4 Bureaucrats Organize and Advise: the Council Secretariat 101

Origins and development 101

Structure of the Secretariat 103

The Secretary-General (SG) and the Deputy Secretary-General (DSG) 104

The Directorates-General (DGs) 106

Other units 107

Personnel policy 109

Functions of the Secretariat 111

The Secretary-General (SG) and the Deputy Secretary-General (DSG) 111

The Legal Service 112

The Directorates-General (DGs) 113

Working methods 117

Production of documents 118

Linguistic regime 118

Transparency 123

Relations with other institutions and bodies 127

The European Parliament (EP) 129

The Commission 129

The member states and the presidency 130

Evolution - past and future 131

5 Taking Turns at the Wheel: the Presidency 133

Origins and development 134

The operating rules 136

System of rotation 136

Rules regarding the tasks of the presidency 140

The main functions of the Council presidency 140

Business manager 141

Manager of foreign policy 145

Promoter of initiatives 147

Package-broker 149

Liaison point 151

Collective representative 152

Strengths and weaknesses of the presidency 154

Proposals for reform 157

Part II With Whom?

6 Overlapping Competences: the Council and the European Council 165

Origins and development 166

Acquiring a legal basis and role 166

Composition 167

Number and location of meetings 169

Functions and forms 170

Providing strategic guidelines and political impetus 170

Shaping foreign policy 170

Decision-making on Community matters 171

Extra-treaty decision-making 171

Amending the treaties 172

Engaging in open coordination (the Lisbon process) 172

Preparation, proceedings and follow-up 175

Preparation 175

Proceedings 180

Follow-up 182

Reforming the European Council 183

7 Competition and Cooperation: the Council and the Commission 186

The incentives to cooperate 186

The balance tilts towards the Council 187

The elements of competition 189

Implicit and explicit models of governance 191

An erratic tandem 192

The Commission within the Council 192

Member governments in dialogue with the Commission 194

The Council presidency, the Council Secretariat and the Commission 198

Different phases of the relationship 200

Agenda-setting 200

Pre-negotiation of proposals 201

Gathering feedback 201

Negotiation 202

Implementation of decisions 203

Representing agreed policy to third parties 205

8 An Evolving Partnership: the Council and the European Parliament 207

Relationship and attitudes 208

Relevant changes in the EP's powers 208

The effect on the Council 210

New dynamics 213

Contacts between the Council and the EP 217

Influencing the Council 220

Subjective interpretations 221

Objective interpretations 221

Quantity of influence 224

Quality of influence 225

A stable tandem for the future? 226

9 Not Just Governments: the Council and the Member States 228

Communicating with the Council 229

Government departments 230

The permanent representations (permreps) 234

National parliaments 239

Other national interlocutors 242

Idiosyncrasies of particular countries 244

The Council and domestic policy-making and actors 247

Domestic politics and the work of the Council 250

Policy stances 250

Pace and rhythm 252

Sensitivity of the issues 254

Part III How?

10 Less Often than Expected: Voting in the Council 259

Voting rules 259

Inhibitions on voting and the Luxembourg compromise 263

The shift to majority voting 268

The prospect of enlargement and new policy developments 271

The Ioannina compromise 271

Enlargement as a continuing preoccupation 273

Voting in practice 277

The hard evidence 279

Problems of inclusion and exclusion 291

Relative power 294

11 Compromise and Consensus: Negotiation and Bargaining in the Council 298

The negotiating process 298

General features of negotiation 299

Single versus recurrent negotiations 300

Numbers, scope and layers 301

Compromise and consensus 303

The European Union as a distinctive negotiating forum 304

First-wave analyses 306

Second-wave analyses in response to varied practice 308

Domestic political factors 311

The wider analytical literature 313

Strategic preferences and power 314

Ideas, persuasion, socialization and operating norms 317

Institutional processes and techniques 318

Challenges of contemporary governance 319

The evolving functions of the Council 322

The Council as legislature 323

The Council as executive 324

The Council's steering function 326

The Council as forum 327

Images and reality: the core characteristics of the Council 327

The institutional triangle 328

Sectoral organization 329

A bureaucratic method 329

A consensual bias 330

Socialization and engrenage 330

Multiple rationales 331

The institutional performance of the Council 332

Productivity 333

Efficiency 336

Legitimacy 341

The balance sheet of reform 343

Appendix 1 Chronology of the Evolution of the Council 346

Appendix 2 Sources of Information on the Council 352

Appendix 3 Areas Covered by the Council's Internal Rules of Procedure (CRPs) 354

Appendix 4 Chronology of the Evolution of the Council Secretariat 356

Appendix 5 Chronology of the Council Presidency Rotation Systems, 1952-2006 358

Appendix 6 Chronology of European Council Meetings, 1990-2005 359

Appendix 7 The Seville Annexes Regarding the Council and the European Council (Seville European Council, 21-22 June 2002) 362

Appendix 8 Statistical Data on Voting in the Council 367.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 369-380) and index.

ISBN:

0333948661

0333948653

OCLC:

63703950

Publisher Number:

9780333948668 (cloth)

9780333948651 (paper)

Online:

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description