What is the Council of Ministers? Composition Of The Council Of Ministers
Description
This article is from the European Union FAQ, by Roland Siebelink & Bart Schelfhout with numerous contributions by others.
What is the Council of Ministers? Composition Of The Council Of Ministers
The Council of Ministers (or simply Council) represents the member state
governments. The Council is composed of member state ministers: depending on
the matter under discussion, either the ones responsible for specific policy
areas (environment, transport, treasury) or the foreign ministers for
general affairs.
The Council decides unanimously on major policy decisions as laid down in
the treaty provisions, and in principle decides with a qualified majority
on other matters, and for some matters (research, structural funds) on the
decisions about provisions to implement the decisions taken in unanimity.
For this purpose, each member state's votes are weighted
(less-than-proportionally to the number of inhabitants) and cast in a block:
10 votes each for France, Germany, Italy, the UK;
8 votes for Spain;
5 votes each for Belgium, Greece, the Netherlands, Portugal;
4 votes each for Austria and Sweden;
3 votes each for Denmark, Finland and the Republic of Ireland;
2 votes for Luxembourg.
A qualified majority decision is valid if 62 out of 87 votes are in favour
of it (in other words: more than a 70% majority vote is required). In some
cases the majority in favour must also include at least ten countries.
Note: In April 1994, the UK tried to oppose an extension of the 70% rule to
the prospective EU of 16 member states, arguing that the blocking minority
should remain on 23 votes (out of 90) to retain a powerful blocking
mechanism for minority states. Britain's arguments were not accepted, but it
was agreed that a blocking minority of 23-26 votes would cause a proposal to
be reconsidered and delayed for some time. As Norway has rejected
membership, an extension of this agreement to the EU of fifteen means
essentially the same, except for the fact that a blocking minority of 26 is
now already enough to have the proposal rejected outright.
As Andrew MacMullen[1] notes,
+This should not be confused [but often was, especially in the Brit
ish press, RS] with the so-called national veto arising out of the 19
65 French inspired crisis and boycott and the ambiguous Luxembourg ac
cords of 1966. This has allowed countries to claim the right to a vet
o where they consider their vital national interests are involved. Th
ere is no clear definition of what this involves since it is simply a
flexible political instrument . A classic instance was the German go
vernment invocation in 1985 to block a 1% cut in cereal prices which
German farmers found objectionable.;
And Nick Bernard[2] wrote in eunet.politics:
+There are in fact two different issues: the question of the so-cal
led veto properly speaking, which is a reference to the Luxembourg ac
cords of 1966 (and the UK understanding thereof) and the issue of the
weighting of votes in Qualified Majority Voting (QMV) with enlargeme
nt of the EU. In the UK, politicians (on all sides) did little to cle
ar this ambiguity.;
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