EC Council of Ministers

EC Council of Ministers in relation with International Trade

In the context of trade organizations, Christopher Mark (1993) provided the following definition of EC Council of Ministers: The primary decision-making body of the European Community in which member states are directly represented. Although the Council is a single legal entity ' it takes different forms comprising different individuals as members:

* The General Affairs Council is made up of member-state foreign ministers. It meets at least once a month and deals with foreign affairs and the most important Community business.

* The General Affairs Council oversees the Specialized Councils. Member-state ministers for economics, finance, and agriculture meet monthly –the latter referred to as the Agriculture Council, for example –while ministers responsible for transport, environment, social affairs, and other issues meet less frequently.

The Council of Ministers is empowered to use a form of weighted voting2 on most issues, although decisions by consensus are strongly preferred. Except in areas of intergovernmental cooperation not covered by the Treaty of Rome, the Council must wait 2 Known as “qua1ifying majority voting,” the system allows 10 votes each to Germany, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom; 8 votes to Spain; 5 votes each to Belgium, Greece. Netherlands, and POrttlga1; 3 votes each to Denmark and Ireland; and 2 votes to Luxembourg. A qualified majority consists of 54 of the total 76 votes; thus. 23 votes are needed for a “blocking minority .” for a proposal from the EC Commission before it can take action. The office of Council President rotates on a modified alphabetic basis among the member states for terms of six months, and is commonly referred to as the I'EC Presidency. II The Council of Ministers – -and its supporting General Secretariat staff of about 2,000 –are based in Brussels, but during April, June, and October its meetings are held in Luxembourg. Several standing committees support or report directly to the Council, including the Committee of .Permanent Representatives (COREPER), the One-Thirteen Committee, the Special Committee on Agriculture, and the Monetary Committee.