Structure

Ministerial
meetings

Since 2007, the EPP has organised EPP Ministerial Meetings prior to the meetings of the Council of the EU.  These Ministerial Meetings are an offshoot of the EPP Summit and bring together EPP ministers attending the Council who are often joined by Commissioners and MEPs of the respective fields.

Functions

  • The aim of the Ministerial Meetings is to discuss and harmonise the positions of EPP ministers towards the full meeting of the Council;
  • Drafting declarations and resolutions that have been later approved by the EPP Congress and promoted as a whole in the Council.

Meetings

  • Foreign Affairs: Co-Chairs Antonio TAJANI, EPP Vice President, Deputy Prime Minister of Italy, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Italy and David McALLISTER MEP, EPP Vice President, Chairman of the AFET Committee
  • General Affairs: Co-Chairs Jessica ROSENCRANTZ, Minister for EU Affairs from Sweden and Ines DOMINGOS, State Secretary for European Affairs from Portugal
  • Agriculture: Co-Chairs Sari ESSAYAH, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry from Finland and Konstantinos TSIARAS, Minister for Agricultural Development and Food from Greece
  • Environment: Co-Chairs Sari MULTALA, Minister for Environment and Climate from Finland and Wopke HOEKSTRA, EU Commissioner for Climate, Net Zero and Clean Growth
  • Justice and Home Affairs (JHA): Co-Chairs Annelies VERLINDEN, Minister of Justice from Belgium and Magnus BRUNNER, EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration
  • EPSCO (Health): chaired by Martine DEPREZ, Minister of Health from Luxembourg
  • EPSCO (Labour and Social Affairs): chaired by Secretary of State Ivan VIDIŠ from Croatia
 
  • Defence: chaired by Nikolaos Panagiotopolous, Minister of Defence (GR).
  • ECOFIN: chaired by Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission (LV), and Paschal Donohoe, Minister of Finance (EI).
  • Interior: chaired by Annelies Verlinden, Minister for Interior, Institutional Reforms and Democratic Renewal (BE), and Esteban Gonzales Pons, MEP (ES)

Council
of the EU

The Council of the European Union is the organ in charge of adopting major European decisions and acts normally along with the European Parliament, making it like that, a true law-maker of the EU.

Composition

It Is composed of a representative from each member country of the branch or field under consideration; generally a Minister or a Secretary of State. Although the Council is a single body, it meets in different configurations according to the issues being discussed. There are currently ten configurations which are:
  • General Affairs;
  • Foreign Affairs;
  • Economic and Financial Affairs;
  • Justice and Home Affairs;
  • Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs;
  • Competitiveness;
  • Transport, Telecommunications and Energy;
  • Agriculture and Fisheries and Environment;
  • Education, Youth, Culture and Sport.
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