Comment by mike_hearn
2 days ago
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.