Council Bibliographies: Council info and EU Publications

From 2004 onwards

The Leaders’ Agenda is a work programme for the European Council.
The indicative leaders' agenda was published in December 2023. It covers the period until June 2024.

The Council's archive collection allows for in-depth research into the Council's policies and legislative activities. It consists primarily of Council meeting minutes, as well as files relating to European Council meetings, Coreper meetings and other committee meetings.

Books, brochures, leaflets and posters published by the General Secretariat of the Council.

The European Council and the Council of the European Union are the two institutions representing the Member States in the European Union. They bring EU countries’ leaders and ministers together to shape the European Union’s future. They both play an essential role in EU decision-making. This publication explains their respective powers, functioning and composition, who presides in the two institutions and how decisions are made.

The European Council is the EU institution that defines the general direction and priorities of the European Union. It consists of the heads of state or government of the 27 EU member states, the President of the European Council and the President of the European Commission. The European Council represents the highest level of political cooperation between the member states and meets at least once every two to three months in Brussels.

The main purpose of the Comments on the Council's Rules of Procedure is to provide guidance to all those called upon to find their way through the legal environment of the Council's Rules of Procedure, such as the members of the Council and their representatives, the persons chairing any of the Council configurations or preparatory bodies, and the staff of the General Secretariat of the Council.

In order to provide you with the best possible assistance in organising your trilogues, we are pleased to present this practical guide consisting of a three-step roadmap and a checklist made up of 10 key elements and a series of 30 questions and answers.

This lesson is meant for students between the ages of 12 and 25, in countries that (will) hold the presidency of the Council of the European Union. - This is an additional lesson in the civic education package offered by the EU Council. Please make sure that you first teach one of the specific lessons for your target group, so that they are well prepared for this lesson.

In our preparatory work with the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, we have always used dialogue to create good relationships and working cooperation, which is how these FAQs first came about. They are designed to accompany the Handbook of the Presidency and to provide answers to many of the practical questions which are most often asked by future presidencies. For more detailed information, it is also worth consulting Section II of the Standing Instructions, which covers the organisational arrangements for European Council and Council-related meetings.

"The European Council brings together the Heads of State or Government of the 27 EU Member States in regular 'summit' meetings which seek to define the overall political direction and priorities of the European Union. This Briefing offers a selection of key facts and figures about this institution, detailing its membership, role, work and developent over time

In May 2024, former European Parliament President Pat Cox described enlargement as perhaps the 'EU's most powerful, transformative and successful policy tool over the past five decades'. The European Council (EU heads of state or government) has, from the outset, played a central role in the EU's enlargement process, shaping both formal and informal aspects. The Lisbon Treaty formally tasked the institution with defining the eligibility conditions to be applied to the accession process. Each enlargement round has provided the Member States and EU institutions with the opportunity to reflect on the conditions of entry and on the impact on the functioning of the EU institutions.

This study was commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the AFCO Committee. It examines the evolving role of the European Council in the EU’s constitutional structure. As the study demonstrates, the increasing tendency of the European Council to instruct other EU institutions and its limited accountability have established an increasing gap between its de jure role under the EU Treaties and its de facto power in the larger system of EU governance. Here is the Executive Summary of this study.

This EPRS publication, 'Key issues in the European Council', which is updated every quarter to coincide with European Council meetings, seeks to provide an overview of the institution's activities on major EU issues. It analyses 12 broad policy areas, explaining the legal and political background, the main priorities and orientations defined by the European Council and the results of its involvement to date, as well as some of the future challenges in each policy field."

The update of the EU's fiscal rules is almost complete – in time to be adopted ahead of the legislative break for the 2024 European elections. There has been a long-standing need to update the EU economic governance framework to make it better suited to the current and future challenges the EU is facing. This briefing looks at the process that led to the political agreement on the new rules, and at how the European Council has contributed to it through the guidance given in its conclusions.

This briefing analyses the European Council response to two conflicts involving third countries: Russia's unprovoked attack on Ukraine in February 2022 and the Israel-Hamas conflict in 2023. Although the two situations are very different and the backgrounds are quite complex, a comparison provides an opportunity to assess the role of the European Council as a crisis manager on the international scene. The escalation of both conflicts has resulted in thousands of civilian deaths, led to precarious humanitarian situations, and has had an impact on the EU to varying degrees. This paper focuses on the European Council's response in the first three months of these crises. It considers the type of European Council meetings and their frequency, the agenda, the invitation letters, statements and conclusions, as well as European Council members' visits to the territories involved in the conflict and the EU Member States' votes on United Nations (UN) resolutions in relation to those conflicts.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine, including the military build-up before the invasion began on 24 February, dominated every one of the nine meetings of the European Council in 2022. It affected most issues with which the European Council dealt during the year, ranging from energy policy to the broader economy, to security and defence, to enlargement, to external relations. The extent of the EU's humanitarian, economic, political (notably in the form of EU candidacy), and even military assistance to Ukraine was extraordinary. But it came at a cost for the European Council, as leaders grappled with the nature, amount, and timing of the EU's support, and with the ancillary energy crisis and economic distress. Many eastern European leaders, passionate in their support for Ukraine and critical of what they saw as the long-standing naivety towards Russia of several of their western European counterparts, chafed at the traditional leadership in the European Council of France, Germany, and the fabled Franco-German engine.

Resolutions are an essential way for the European Parliament to express its views on political processes, EU policies and developments in the world. Parliament also uses them to scrutinise other EU institutions, including the European Council. The need for accountability and increased scrutiny of the European Council has been a constant theme in the European Parliament's resolutions throughout the 2019-2024 legislative term. The increased need to scrutinise the European Council also results from the changing role of the institution over recent years. Based on an analysis of Parliament's resolutions, this briefing will present the need for democratic oversight of the European Council and outline the different tools at Parliament's disposal to do so. It provides a unique overview of the content of Parliament's resolutions addressing the European Council and the messages it sends to EU leaders. Finally, the briefing identifies potential ways of further strengthening Parliament's scrutiny of the European Council.

Spain's Presidency of the EU Council during the second semester of 2023 has come at a time of multiple crises (Russian aggression against Ukraine, energy, and global food crises) that play out against the backdrop of a worsening state of global governance, growing strategic and economic competition, technological disruption, and climate change. Faced with the challenge of adapting to a more geopolitical environment while protecting the rules based international order on which the EU's governance rests, Europe must prepare for the worst while aiming for the best. Internal unity, social cohesion, alliances, and partnerships, including through new formats such as the European Political Community (EPC), are critical for reducing vulnerabilities and multiplying the EU's effectiveness as a global actor. As the EU adapts, however, it must also seek to lay the groundwork for better world governance in the future.

The rules of procedure lay down provisions governing the proceedings of the Council of the European Union (the Council). The power to adopt rules of procedure is conferred upon the Council by Article 240(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Annex III is amended each year in order to reflect the changes in population of European Union (EU) Member States and the population of each Member State for implementing the procedure for qualified majority voting in the Council. The rules of procedure have also been more substantially amended twice – in 2014 (Decision 2014/692/EU, Euratom), with regard to votes by qualified majority, and in 2022 (Decision (EU) 2022/1242), with regard to the voting rule for decisions by the Committee of the Permanent Representatives of the Governments of the Member States (Coreper) to use the ordinary written procedure.

Most of the Member States have used corporate sponsorship during their Council presidency. Although the official meetings of the Council are financed by the EU budget, the rotating presidency usually organises unofficial meetings and events that are not covered, while other extra costs also incur due to the presidency tasks. Even the regular Council tasks may costs extra for the Member State holding the presidency as it may need to reinforce the permanent representation in Brussels, send more diplomats to be present at all the meetings in Brussels, and also take care of more officials or politicians visiting the country than usual. A Council presidency may also be a good opportunity for the country to promote its local businesses, tourist attractions or cultural heritage. Therefore, it is customary to organise political, business, social and cultural events connected to the presidency in the home country, in Brussels or other Member States.

This study looks at three connected issues in detail. First, it analyses the role of second chambers in the integration process of sovereign states in broader political entities. Second, it examines the different bicameral systems, particularly in the EU Member States. Third, it explores proposals to reform the Council put forward by leading political and academic figures. The study aims at providing a set of tools that may serve as inspiration should calls to transform this key EU institution be followed, and suggests three reform scenarios, using the instruments found in existing parliamentary and federal systems.

On 1 December 2009, with the coming into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, the European Council became a formal EU institution. Ten years later, the European Council is seen by many as representing the centre of gravity of the EU's institutional framework. However, was this development purely the result of the changes to the Treaties made with Lisbon or did it happen naturally over time? This study analyses both the formal changes brought about by the Lisbon Treaty and the incremental evolution resulting from the institution's day-to-day practice, including the European Council's behaviour during the various crises of the last decade.

This study explores the development of relations between the European Council (of Heads of State or Government) and the European Parliament, two institutions that have become increasingly central to the operation of the European Union political system, especially since the 2009 Lisbon Treaty. It explains the Treaty framework for relations between the two institutions and traces their practical evolution over time, including an analysis of the roles of the presidents of each institution in such interaction. It also examines points of contention in the relationship to date, including in relation to 'legislative trespassing' by the European Council and the Spitzenkandidaten process.

The European Council and the Council of the European Union do have quite similar names. They also share the same buildings. But in addition to having different members, they have very different roles:

The presidency of the Council of the EU is a role that is vital to the stability and running of Europe. And the presidency is held by a whole country, rather than by an individual. The system of rotating presidencies goes back to the very beginning of European integration. The role puts each of the 27 member states at the centre of the continent’s political attention for a six-month term, during which it helps ensure the smooth running of much of the EU.

Circles, ellipses and squares; a lantern within a cube; a blend of old and new… The Europa building unites form and function and has become a political and architectural icon since it opened for work in 2017.