Text 1 RE: Europäische Rat

European Union Politics by John McCormick - Study Notes

• The European Council is the meeting place for the heads of government of the EU member states
• The European Council participates in summits which help to make broad strategic decisions and key appointments to other EU institutions
• The European Council is headquartered in Brussels
• As one of the EU institutions, the European council is loosely structured and has a clearly intergovernmental personality
• The European Council meets at least four times annually; more often, if needed
• It focuses on the bigger picture of European integration rather than minutiae, is not formally part of the EU law-making system, and relies on consensus, flexibility and a degree of informality
• Since 2009, the European Council has had a president elected to limited terms by members of the council
• Pressures on the Council are affected by different election cycles in the member states, the ideological balance of its members, and their political status at home

The European Council as a Forum

• The European council is the forum in which the heads of government and state of the EU member states meet to discuss broad strategic issues
• The Council is much like a board of directors for the EU, meeting multiple times annually in Brussels, using summitry and bargaining, and making decisions on the basis of a consensus
• The council evolved in 1975 out of ad hoc meetings held by the six leaders of the EEC (meeting for the first time as the European Council), and being formally given legal recognition only in 2009
• The European Council is headed by a president elected by EU leaders, and whose job is to provide direction and consistency
• Much like the Council of Ministers, the European Council has a mix of intergovernmental, supranational, and confederal qualities

The European Council and Senior EU Appointments

• In addition to providing the EU with strategic direction, the Council plays a role in the appointment of several senior positions in the EU hierarchy, including:
• the president of the Commission
• the members of the College of Commissioners
• the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
• the leadership of the European Central Bank

Summitry

• Summitry describes the use of high-level, person-to-person negotiations for the discussion and resolution of international issues
• Summitry is a regular part of the EU decision-making process, particularly for bilateral or multilateral discussions among the leaders of states
• Summits are usually short, deal with strategic issues rather than the minutiae of policy, setting the tone and character of intergovernmental relations
• Institutionalization of summits was heralded with the creation of the European Council in 1974 and the Group of 7 (G7, the major industrialized countries) in 1975

The Council vs. the G7

• The Council is more institutionalized, having a legal existence and a permanent headquarters building in Brussels. The G7 lacks either a legal existence or a permanent secretariat
• The Council has its own elected president, while the presidency of the G7 is held in rotation by one of its seven member states, responsible for providing the resources needed for the work of the G7
• Preparations for the Council are ongoing, supported by the staff of the office of the president, the permanent representatives to the EU, working parties, and the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers. Preparations for G7 meetings, by contrast, are made by personal representatives of the G7 leaders, referred to as 'Sherpas'
• The Council makes strategic policy decisions that must be followed by the EU member states; the G7 is a forum within which its members discuss and attempt to coordinate policy
• The council operates by consensus, with the aim of general agreement
• Member disagreement within either the Council or the G7 can lead to exclusion of member states

The European Council - Structure and Function

• The European Council is the meeting place for the heads of government of the EU member states (or the heads of state in the cases of Cyprus, France, Lithuania and Romania)
• Scheduled meetings of the Council are four times per year in Brussels each year
• Additional extraordinary or informal meetings can occur as needed to deal with a breaking issue or a persistent problem, or involving a country outside the EU Since 2010, several euro summits have also been held, involving only the heads of government of the euro member countries
• The Council usually meets in closed session for no more than two days
• Attendees are the heads of government or state perhaps being accompanied by a minister (usually the foreign minister) and also the President of the council, the president of the Commission, and High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, staff and advisors
• The president of the Council chairs the meetings
• Decisions are taken on the basis of consensus (except where the treaties provide otherwise)
• Although the European Council and the Council of Ministers are often confused, and sometimes interchangeably referred to as 'The Council,’ their membership, rules, structure and legal personalities are quite distinct
• A critical difference is that the members of the European Council are the heads of government (or state) of the EU member states, not the ministers.

Game Theory Principles

• Game theory is one of the oldest and most often used theories in the social sciences, and is based on using mathematical models to explain the interactions among decision-makers
• It was once limited to zero-sum ideas, but has since been used in a variety of situations with multiple permutations.
• One of its more famous proponents was Nobel Prize-winning American economist John Nash (1928-2015)
• Game theory has often been used to help explain Brexit, the risks, options, gambles and alternatives involved in Brexit tied to the principles of game theory
• The brickmanship involved in the political moves within Britain on Brexit were likened to a classic part of game theory known as the 'prisoner's dilemma'
• When each member has two hats, acting within both the European and the national arenas, power is linked at both levels, they gain additional power within both the domestic and the European power game, although they have to be careful how they offset the tensions within Council meetings against the demands of voters at home

How The Council Evolved

• Charles de Gaulle introduced the idea of holding formal high-level meetings among Community leaders, creating the idea of a European political unit
• First formal summits were held in 1961 (Paris in February, Bonn in July)
• A Committee was formed under the chairmanship of Christian Fouchet, French ambassador to Denmark, producing a draft treaty for a 'union of states'
• It included a suggestion for a council of heads of government or foreign ministers that would meet every four months and take decisions on the basis of unanimity
• Fouchet had planned to build a community dominated by France, but this met with little support
• No more summits were held until 1967 and 1969 due to the fact that the EC had no clear sense of direction and was becoming bogged down by intergovernmental struggles within the Council of Ministers
• The end of the Bretton Woods system in 1971 and the Community's half-hearted response to the 1973 energy crisis highlighted the fact Europe could not respond quickly and effectively to major external crises due to intergovernmental struggles
• Jean Monnet argued there needed to be a supreme body to steer Europe through the difficult transition from national to collective sovereignty, suggesting it be called the 'Provisional European Government'

Founding the European Council

• At a summit in Paris in 1974 commitment was pledged to meet at least three times annually, emphasizing the need for an overall approach to European integration and the importance of ensuring progress and overall consistency in the activities of the Communities and political cooperation
• The declaration's wording was kept deliberately vague, saying nothing about the new body's exact powers or its relationship to the other institutions, giving it no legal standing and being careful not to disturb or complicate the existing EC decision-making system
• Concerns among the Benelux states that the summits would weaken the supranational qualities of the Community were offset in part by an agreement to hold direct elections to the European Parliament
• The new body lacked a name until Giscard d'Estaing's announcement at a press conference closed the meeting that 'the European summit is dead, long live the European Council'
• The European Council met for the first time in Dublin in March 1975 under the lumbering title of 'the Heads of Government Meeting as the Council of the Community and in Political Cooperation'
• It then met more or less triennially until 1985, then biannually every June and December, with additional meetings as needed
• The Council usually convened in the country holding the presidency of the Council of Ministers, either in the capital city or in one of its regional cities or town
• The major goal of each meeting of the Council was to agree to a set of Conclusions of the Presidency and an advanced draft of this document usually awaited the leaders at the beginning of the summit, providing the focus for their discussions
• Since 2003, all scheduled or extraordinary European Council meetings have been held in Brussels to ensure better safety and organization for all
• With the passage of the Treaty of Lisbon in 2009, the European Council was finally given formal recognition as an EU institution
• Summits have since become a more common feature of the EU landscape, with at least five and as many as nine annual meetings of the EU leaders in different configurations

Leadership of the European Council

• It was overseen by the leadership of the member state holding the presidency of the Council of Ministers since it was the grandest of the Councils of minister
• As the EU changed and its membership expanded, this arrangement caused more problems: six months was too short a time to learn on the job, there was a lack of continuity between presidencies, and the workload became more onerous, placing the rotation on a thirteen-and-a-half-year cycle with eastern enlargement in 2004-07
• The solution proposed under the draft constitution for the EU was to take the position of Council chair out of the hands of the head of government of the member state holding the presidency of the Council of Ministers, and to give it instead to a president appointed by the European Council and approved by the European Parliament
• The leaders of smaller EU member states prefered the EU president to be one of their own due to increased collaboration and voting
• The president of the European Council is elected using a qualified majority vote, the incumbent cannot hold national office while serving as president, and can be removed by QMV (qualified majority vote) 'in the event of an impediment or serious misconduct'
• The president shall chair, 'drive forward' and 'ensure the preparation and continuity' of the work of the Council
• The president shall 'endeavour to facilitate cohesion and consensus' in the Council
• The president shall 'ensure the external representation of the Union on issues concerning its common foreign and security policy, without prejudice to the powers of the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy'
• The president must report to Parliament after each meeting

Members of the European Council

• The formal description in the Lisbon treaty states that membership includes 'the Heads of State or Government of the Member States'
• In parliamentary systems (found in most EU states), the head of government is the head of the political party with the most seats in the national legislature, working with a mainly symbolic head of state
• In semi-presidential systems (three EU States), executive powers are shared by a president (elected) and an appointed prime minister, the president's power depending on how many seats the president's party or coalition has in the national legislature
• In presidential systems (one EU state), the president is both head of government and head of state
• Factors impacting council decisions:
• Each EU member state is subject to a different election cycle, hence membership of the Council constantly changes
• Council meetings will be impacted by the political ideology of its members and by the changing ideological balance among them. Like the Commission, each is identified with an EU political group, and as the political winds in the EU member states blow in different directions, the ideological balance will shift, bringing a changing variety of political values to the discussion
• Leaders depend on the EU states they represent when making decisions in the Council related to political stance

Structuring Support

• The European Council is the least complex of the EU institutions in structural terms, with ties to the Council of Ministers persisting, even though it is now legally a separate organization
• It shares the General Secretariat of the Council (GSC) with the Council of Ministers for support, which helps to coordinate the work of the European Council and the Council of Ministers, prepares draft agendas for Council meetings, and provides the Council with logistical support
• The president of the Council is, like most senior officeholders in the EU system, given a cabinet of advisers and administrative assistants, and can also draw on the resources of the European External Action Service on matters related to EU external relations

The European Council's Functions

• The job of the council according to the Treaty of Lisbon is to ‘provide the Union with the necessary impetus for its development and shall define the general political directions and priorities thereof’ while not exercising legislative functions
• The Council is responsible for taking strategic decisions, for making nominations or appointments to senior positions and for the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and leadership of the European Central Bank

Implementing Conclusions and Workflow

• Summit agenda set by president of the European Council with the help of the president of the Commission and the General Affairs Council of the Council of Ministers
• Agenda items are discussed at a meeting of the European council
• Drafting of the conclusions of the European Council
• Conclusions agreed, announced at press conference and published
• Though the first meeting was in 1976; theSingle European Act confirmed the council with authority to raise above the kind of detailed work undertaken by the other EU institutions and to focus on key decisions about the strategic direction of political integration, more specifically including involved in making decisions on several key appointments at the top of the hierarchy of the EU

The Council's Key Tasks

• Launching policy cooperation in new areas, helping drive the EU policy agenda, ensuring policy consistency, and promoting the development of a common EU foreign policy
• Five-year strategic agenda for the EU agreement includes
• Protecting citizens and freedoms, ensuring a Europe 'where people feel free and safe'
• Developing a strong and vibrant economic base: deepening economic and monetary union
• Building a climate-neutral, green, fair and social Europe
• Promoting European interests and values on the global stage