Comment by bluebarbet
2 days ago
EU law 101: (1) EU Commission (i.e. the executive) proposes a law; (2) EU Parliament signs off on it; (3) EU Council (i.e. the equivalent of a senate, comprising national governments) puts the final stamp on it.
The complicating factor being that a given law may or may not require unanimity at the final EU Council stage.
In general, the governments have the final word.
The Council of the European Union (what you probably mean by EU Council) isn't a senate. Its meetings are theoretically attended by ministers related to a specific topic area, so an agricultural law might be attended by agricultural ministers, but in practice that often doesn't happen and functionaries are rubber stamping laws without reading or debating them. Almost all the "votes" pass unanimously or with a single abstention / no vote.
One issue is that there are so many such laws that they are hardly ever reported in local media, so people just don't know about them and governments themselves don't try to inform anyone either. Then governments blame the EU once a law is already passed and tell citizens that it's now impossible to change because the EU Commission would refuse to propose a repeal or amendment.
It's often hypothesized that governments love this process because it lets them pass laws they know voters will hate without taking direct blame for it.
Yes, I fully understand the functioning, I was just trying to keep things simple. Even Europeans don't understand this, Americans must be lost. "Council of the EU" vs "EU Council" is next-level opacity. Since the latter doesn't technically exist, I find it helpful as a less syllabic synonym for the former (where it can sit neatly alongside EU Parliament and EU Commission, leaving nobody confused). That leaves the European Council, i.e. the periodic flagship permutation of the Council. This is indeed a senate-like entity in Montesquieuian terms, that wasn't my idea.
Obviously I agree with all your other points.
The EU council is not like the senate. It's the council of the executives of the member states i.e. the meeting of the governments of the states, summit meetings happen between prime ministers and presidents.
Chat control though will definitely not make it to a summit meeting, and almost definitely does not warrant unanimity, it's probably a simple majority issue, i.e not foreign relations, defense, etc.
The European Council, i.e. the highest instance of the regular Council, is indeed like a senate in plenary, with the routine Council meetings being comparable to committees. This is not an original idea. I was just trying to simplify things because otherwise it is all extremely opaque.
Otherwise agreed.