Council of the European Union

The Council of the European Union is one of the main institution of the European Union, tasked with: negotiatiating and adopting EU laws (in most cases together with the European Parliament), coordinating member states’ policies, developing the EU’s common foreign and security policy, concluding international agreements and adopting the EU budget (together with the European Parliament).

The Council of the EU represents the EU member states’ governments, and it is composed of national ministers from each EU country. While it represents a single legal entity, it meets in ten different ‘configurations’, depending on the subject being discussed (few examples of such configurations include: economic and financial affairs, competitiveness, foreign affairs, justice and home affairs etc.).

The Council works on a wide range of policy issues that are of interest for the EU, its member states and its citizens. Some of these issues fall into the category of Internet governance issues, and they include, among others: privacy and data protection, the European digital single market, telecommunication infrastructure, cybersecurity, child safety online, e-commerce etc. These issues are mostly addressed within the Transport,Telecommunications and Energy Council, is responsible for adopting, together with the European Parliament, legislation and guidelines on telecommunications networks and their interoperability, with the general aim to improve competition, cybersecurity and innovation in the EU telecommunications sector.