There are two official ministerial intergovernmental bodies: the European Council, and the Council of the European Union (also called the Council). Furthermore, two informal groups exist: the Eurogroup and the Euro Summit. Of these four, only the Council of the EU has legislative powers.

The European Council gathers the Heads of State and Government of the EU Member States and the President of the European Commission, and is chaired by a President elected for a renewable term of two and a half years. Differently from all the other EU intergovernmental institutions, the President of the European Council is not chosen from among its members. Even if it does not have legislative powers, it has the highly political role of giving indications about future developments and priorities for the Union.

The Council of the EU and the European Council are supported by the General Secretariat of the Council, which ensures the coherence of the policy work of the Council and of its preparatory bodies. 

The Eurogroup is the informal meeting of the Ministers of Finance of the euro area Member States. It elects a President for a renewable mandate of two and a half years. It coordinates the policies of the Economic and Monetary Union. The Euro Summit is the meeting of the Heads of State and Government of the euro area.

Most of the agreements are taken before the subjects are discussed within the Council, at the ministerial level. Most of the work is done by the Council’s preparatory bodies. The main preparatory body is the Committee of the Permanent Representatives (Coreper), which gathers the Permanent Representatives (i.e., the ambassadors) of the Member States to the EU. There are two Coreper configurations that prepare the work of different Council configurations: Coreper I (which gathers the deputy Permanent Representatives) prepares the work of a part of agriculture and fisheries (only financial or technical issues), competitiveness, education, youth and sport, employment, social policy, health and consumer affairs, environment, transport, telecommunications and energy Council configurations; Coreper II (which gathers the Permanent Representatives) prepares the work of the economic and financial affairs, foreign affairs, general affairs, and justice and home affairs Council configurations. Conversely, the work of Coreper is prepared by several preparatory bodies (called ‘working parties’ and ‘committees’), where most of the negotiations take place: the main actors are the attachés, who are the civil servants within the Permanent Representations in charge of specific policy areas, and civil servants from national ministries. 

Therefore, the policy cycle of a file within the Council (and respective actors) is preparatory bodies (attachés); Coreper (Permanent Representatives for Coreper II, deputy Permanent Representatives for Corpeer I); Council configurations (Ministers).

However, most of the actual negotiations are done at the level of the Permanent Representations, whose degrees of transparency have been analysed by Civil Society Europe. Furthermore, the meetings of the preparatory documents are often classified by the Council as ‘limités’, therefore restricting their public access and not allowing citizens and CSOs of the Member States to monitor their official country’s position until the vote is taken.

Neither institution has in place a framework for engagement with civil society. The involvement of civil society within the Council’s activities mainly occurs in specific areas on the initiative of different EU Presidencies. However, during the informal Council meetings, certain ‘traditions’ of civil society engagement have been established, but they are neither structured nor widespread.

Examples of civil society involvement in informal Council meetings

The Human Rights and Democracy Network is involved in regular dialogue with the Human Rights Council configuration, as with the Council Working Party on Fundamental Rights, Citizens Rights and Free Movement of Persons.

The Social Platform is regularly invited to participate in the Informal Council Meeting on Employment and Social Affairs.

Environmental NGOs are regularly included in meetings within the Informal Environment Council Meeting.

Materials and resources

• Civil Society Europe (2023): Transparency of Permanent Representations to the EU.
• European Ombudsman (2018). Special Report of the European Ombudsman in strategic inquiry OI/2/2017/TE on the transparency of the Council legislative process.
• Calendar of the Council meetings (formal, informal, preparatory bodies).
• List of Council preparatory bodies.
• Register of the Council documents.
• Register of the Council voting results.