What happens at Council meetings when Member States do not have ministers for the same areas of responsibility?

The Council consists of ‘a representative of each Member State at ministerial level, authorised to commit the government of that Member State ’.

It is therefore of no consequence that the Member States have organised their governments in different ways, as it is up to the Member States themselves how they wish to be represented in the Council. What is crucial is that the Member States send to Council meetings a person who is authorised to commit the government of that Member State .

This provision was actually inserted with a view to establishing that it need not necessarily be a minister from a country’s national government who participates in a Council meeting, but that a country may also be represented by a local government minister. This is relevant in the case of Germany, for example, which is a federal state comprising 16 Länder, and which has ministries at both national and federal level. It may, however, also be the case that a head of department from a ministry participates in a Council meeting on behalf of his minister, if the minister is prevented from participating himself.

Pursuant to the Council’s Rules of Procedure, the Council meets in various configurations depending on the political subject under discussion. Decisions on possible Council configurations are taken by the Council in its ‘General Affairs and External Relations’ configuration.

Originally, it was typically the countries’ foreign ministers who met in the Council but as EU cooperation expanded and developed, a certain degree of specialisation took place, such that the Council came to be composed of the ministers in charge of the specific departments with responsibility for the policy areas under discussion. Gradually there came to be a large number of different Council configurations (approximately 20 in 1999), which gave rise to problems of continuity in the Council’s work. At the European Council meeting in Helsinki in 1999, it was therefore decided to reduce the number of Council configurations in order to secure the Council’s effectiveness. At the European Council meeting in Seville in June 2002, it was again decided to reduce the number of Council configurations – this time from 16 to nine. Among other things, this has led to the merger of the two former Councils for Agriculture and Fisheries.

The three most important Council configurations are currently the Councils for General Affairs and External Relations, Economic and Financial Affairs, and Agriculture and Fisheries. These Councils meet approximately once a month, with the exception of the EU’s holiday closure in August. The other Councils meet 3-4 times every half year. In total, approximately 80-90 Council meetings are held a year.