Darbas:

‘General Affairs and External Relations Council’. But this Council configuration also has wider responsibility for general policy issues, so its meetings are attended by whichever Minister or State Secretary each government chooses.
Altogether there are nine different Council configurations:
• General Affairs and External Relations
• Economic and Financial Affairs (ECOFIN)
• Justice and Home Affairs (JHA)
• Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs
• Competitiveness2
• Transport, Telecommunications and Energy
• Agriculture and Fisheries
• Environment
• Education, Youth and Culture
Each minister in the Council is empowered3 to commit his or her government. In other words, the minister’s signature is the signature of the whole government. Moreover, each minister in the Council is answerable to his or her national parliament and to the citizens that parliament represents. This ensures the democratic legitimacy4 of the Council’s decisions.
Up to four times a year the presidents and/or prime ministers of the member states, together with the President of the European Commission, meet as the “European Council”. These ‘summit’ meetings set overall EU policy and resolve issues that could not be settled at a lower level (i.e. by the ministers at normal Council meetings). Given the importance of European Council discussions, they often continue late into the night and attract5 a lot of media attention.

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Environmental1 – aplinkos
Competitive2 - konkuruojantis, rungtyniaujantis; konkurencinis
Empower3 – įgalioti, suteikti teisę
Legitimacy4 – teisėtumas, pagrįstumas
Attract5 – patraukti, pritraukti

The Council has six key responsibilities:
1. To pass European laws – jointly with the European Parliament in many policy areas.
2. To co-ordinate the broad economic policies of the member states.
3. To conclude1 international agreements between the EU and other countries or international organisations.
4. To approve the EU’s budget, jointly with the European Parliament.
5. To develop the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), based on guidelines set by the European Council.
6. To co-ordinate co-operation between the national courts and police forces in criminal matters (see the Freedom, security and justice section).
Most of these responsibilities relate to the ‘Community’ domain3 – i.e. areas of action where the member states have decided to pool their sovereignty and delegate decision-making powers to the EU institutions. This domain is the ‘first pillar’ of the European Union. However, the last two responsibilities relate largely to areas in which the member states have not delegated their powers but are simply working together. This is called ‘intergovernmental co-operation’ and it covers the second and third ‘pillars’ of the European Union.
1. Legislation
Much EU legislation is adopted jointly by the Council and Parliament
As a rule, the Council only acts on a proposal from the Commission, and the Commission normally has responsibility for ensuring that EU legislation, once adopted, is correctly applied.
2. Co-ordinating the policies of member states
The EU countries have decided that they want an overall economic policy based on close co-ordination between their national economic policies. This co-ordination is carried out by the economics and finance ministers, who collectively form the Economic and Financial Affairs (ECOFIN) Council.
They also want to create more jobs and to improve4 their education, health and social protection systems. Although each EU country is responsible for its own policy in these areas, they can agree on common goals5 and learn from each other’s experience of what works best. This process is called the ‘open method of coordination’, and it takes place within the Council.
3. Concluding international agreements
Each year the Council ‘concludes’ (i.e. officially signs) a number of agreements between the European Union and non-EU countries, as well as with international organisations. These agreements may cover broad areas such as trade, co-operation and development or they may deal with specific subjects such as textiles, fisheries, science and technology, transport etc.

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Conclude1 – padaryti išvadą, nuspręsti
Prelate2 - prelatas
Domain3 – valda, teritorija
Improve4 – pagerinti, patobulinti
Goal5 – tikslas, uždavinys, vartai
In addition, the Council may conclude1 conventions between the EU member states in fields such as taxation2, company law or consular3 protection. Conventions can also deal with co-operation on issues of freedom, security and justice.
4. Approving the EU budget
The EU’s annual budget is decided jointly by the Council and the European Parliament.
5. Common Foreign and Security Policy
The member states of the EU are working to develop a Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). But foreign policy, security and defence are matters over which the individual national governments retain independent control. They have not pooled their national sovereignty in these areas, so Parliament and the European Commission play only a limited role here. However, the EU countries have much to gain4 by working together on these issues, and the