What Are The Powers/Activities Of The European Council?
Description
This article is from the European Union FAQ, by Roland Siebelink & Bart Schelfhout with numerous contributions by others.
What Are The Powers/Activities Of The European Council?
The European Council convenes twice a year, in the last month of each member
state's presidency of the Council.[8] In addition to some powers of its own
(mainly institutional ones), in theory it has all the legal powers of the
Council of Ministers. However, it does not normally operate in this mode.
The heads of government prefer to meet relatively informally, without being
tied to a bureaucratic agenda, but with plenty of photo-opportunities and
press conferences. Its meetings and statements are often very important in
providing political impetus or laying down guidelines in areas of prime
importance to the EU, but it leaves the day-to-day legislative work to the
ordinary Council meetings. The European Council also has the main
responsibility for the Common Foreign and Security Policy.
In addition, Emile Noel[9] notes that:
+Unlike the Council of Ministers, the European Council convenes in
the absence of experts, senior civil servants or other supporting sta
ff (except interpreters). This plays a major part in its political ef
fectiveness [and puts a great burden on personal skills of the politi
cians present], but may often cause problems with subsequent implemen
tation of its decisions.;
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