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Members: ministers of the 15 Member States
Presidency: from 1 July 1995 rotates every six months in the following sequence: Spain, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, Austria, Germany, Finland, Portugal, France, Sweden, Belgium, Spain, Denmark, Greece
Meeting place: Brussels
The Council of the European Union, usually known as the Council of Ministers, has no equivalent anywhere in the world. Here, the Member States legislate for the Union, set its political objectives, coordinate their national policies and resolve differences between themselves and with other institutions.
It is a body with the characteristics of both a supranational and intergovernmental organization, deciding some matters by qualified majority voting, and others by unanimity.
Its democratic credentials should not be in doubt. Each meeting of the Council brings together Member States´ representatives, usually ministers, who are responsible to their national parliaments and public opinions. Nowadays, there are regular meetings of more than 25 different types of Council meeting: General Affairs (Foreign Affairs ministers), Economy and Finance, and Agriculture meet monthly, others such as Transport, Environment and Industry meet two to four times a year.
In 1994, the Council held around 100 formal ministerial sessions during which it adopted about 300 regulations, 50 directives and 160 decisions.
The council of Ministers is making strong efforts to make more of its work accessible to the citizen. Votes on legislative matters, as well as the explanations of these votes, are now automatically made public.
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