2.  The Council (also known as the Council of
Ministers) is made up of ministers from
 the EU’s national governments. The
member states take it in turns to hold the
 Council Presidency for a six-month period.
Every Council meeting is attended by
 one minister from each EU country. Which
ministers attend a meeting depends on
 which topic is on the agenda: foreign aff
airs, agriculture, industry, transport, the
 environment, etc.

3.  The Council’s main job is to pass EU laws. Normally it shares
this responsibility
 with the European Parliament. The Council and the
Parliament also share
 equal responsibility for adopting the EU budget. In addition,
the Council signs
 international agreements that have been negotiated by the
Commission.
 According to the Lisbon Treaty, the Council has to take its
decisions either by a
 simple majority vote, a ‘qualified majority’ vote or
unanimously, depending on the
 subject to be decided.

4. The Council has to agree unanimously on
important questions such as taxation,
amending the Treaties, launching a new common
policy or allowing a new country to join the Union.
In most other cases, qualifi ed majority voting is
used. This means that a Council decision is adopted
if a specifi ed minimum number of votes are cast in
its favour.
The number of votes allocated to each EU country
roughly refl ects the size of its population.

6.  Until 1 November 2014, assuming the
EU still has 27 member states, a
decision is
 adopted if:
 at least 255 of the 347 votes (i.e. 73.91
%) are cast in favour;
 it is approved by a majority of member
states, i.e. at least 14;
 i f these favourable member states
represent at least 62 % of the EU’s
 population.

7.  1. What’s the Council’s main job?
 2. How many votes at least have to be casted
in favour?