Primer vínculo afectivo, padre-hijo

The Council was established as the main decision making institution of the EU, but its

legislative discretion is limited to the Commission proposal. Nowadays the Council shares its legislative and budgetary power with the European Parliament. The council is composed of the MS representatives on the ministerial level and its ten compositions address different areas of EU policies.137

132 _{N. Nugent, The Government and politics..., supra note 46, p. 121-122.} 133 _{I. Garzon, Reforming..., supra note 3, p. 18.}

134 _{T.C. de Groot, Dertien is een Boerendozijn..., supra note 60, p. 211.} 135 _{C, Daugbjerg, Sequencing in public policy..., supra note 67, p. 399.}

136 _{A. Cuhno, A. Swinbank, Exploring the Determinants..., supra note 61, p. 259.} 137 _{N. Nugent, The Government and..., supra note 46, p. 141-142, compare to}

The Council of Agricultural Ministers (CoAM) is just one of the Council formation called Agriculture and Fisheries and it meets most months. In the past, access to the Council deliberation was guaranteed only to the Ministers or State Secretaries and few officials, who in this small company were more likely to attain compromise.138 _{After the Lisbon Treaty, the}

Council meets in public when it deliberates and votes on a draft legislative act.139 _{Besides the}

formal Council framework, ministers have informal meetings, usually in the country of the Presidency. These meetings enable ministers to learn each other' views without being pressured to take decisions.140 _{The Treaty obligation rendering the Council to meet in public}

was reasoned by the transparency issues. On the other hand, the meeting in public creates the risk of policy making process protraction and hindrance as the Ministers might be reluctant to take decision which would cause major concessions in relation to their national positions.

During the final stage of recent negotiations the President as well as rapporteurs from COMAGRI were invited to the informal Council. Frits Thissen admitted that as during the trialogue the Irish presidency represented the CoAM, the informal Council was a rare occasion for all the Ministers to confront the MEPs. In opinion of Andrzej Babuchowski this enabled to identify the sticking points between the EP and CoAM.

Ministers of Agriculture are only the tip of the iceberg in the Council organisational structure and the role of the Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER - Comité des Representatives Permanents) should be explained. MS have their diplomatic representatives - Permanent Representations in Brussels. They consists of staff seconded from national

diplomatic services and ministries whose role is to prepare the meetings of the Council.141 _Due

to the complexity of the CoAM subject matter its meetings are prepared by the separate Special Committee of Agriculture (SCA). Moreover, in the area of agriculture, there are around 25 working groups carrying the analyses of the Commission proposals.142 _COREPER

or SCA and its working groups decide on almost 90% of the issues and delegate only the most important or sensitive issues to the Council.143_{However, both according to Frits Thissen and}

Andrzej Babuchowski during the negotiation on the CAP due to the gravity of the issue in question, most of the decisions were taken at ministerial level.

138 _{T.C. de Groot, Dertien is een Boerendozijn..., supra note 60, p. 34.} 139 _{Article 16 TEU.}

140 _{N. Nugent, The Government and politics..., supra note 46, p. 144.} 141 _{Ibidem, p. 144.}

142 _{the complete list can be consulted in: List of Council preparatory bodies, General Secretariat of the Council,}

5581/13, retrieved from www.register.consilium.europa.eu, on 27.12.2013.

The Council is presided by the rotating Presidency. Subsequent MS take upon the Presidency of the Council for a period of six months. In order to strengthen the continuity and

cooperation between presidencies, MS exercising three following Presidencies cooperate and set common objectives. Ministers of the MS exercising the Presidencies are chairing their sectoral Councils for periods of six-months.144

Among the three ways of voting in the Council, the qualified majority is currently used during the ordinary legislative procedure.145 _{It is based on the weights distributed to the MS}

according to their population. Total weight of the votes in the EU-28 is 352. The vote of the Dutch minister weighs 13 points and the Polish one 27, whereas the biggest countries (Germany, France, Italy and United Kingdom) have 29 and the smallest one - Malta - 3 points. In order to take a decision at least 260 votes in favour are needed. These votes needs to come from at least 15 MS. Additionally on the request of the MS it can be checked if the population of the MS accounts for at least 62% of the EU population. These rules are in force until November 2014.146 _{MS pay attention to the fact if the balance between small and big}

countries is well reflected. 147 _{Though the majority of the policy areas are decided by the}

qualified majority voting, there is a tendency in the Council to reach a consensus. Therefore, the qualified majority voting is often not conducted in cases where it applies.148 _{However, the}

CoAM is one of the Council formations using it the most.149

Regarding the power of the Council in the legislative process it has lost its exclusive

legislative power due to the EP veto right. 150 _{Another interesting development is the fact that}

the decision making in the Council used to be intergovernmental and transformed into supranational. This is a result of increasing number of the MS demanding more coordination on the European level and as described in the previous paragraph requiring the use of the qualified majority voting in more areas of the policy.151

The situation of the farmers differ across the MS but in general they have a clear interest in keeping the state-assisted paradigm of the CAP. Therefore we can agree with Greer that the 144 _{N. Nugent, The Government and politics..., supra note 46, p. 147.}

145 _{Ibidem, p. 154.}

146 _{G. Kunst, EU institutions..., supra note 124, p. 50; weights applying currently to majority voting are available}

on the voting calculator on the Council official website: www.consilium.europa.eu.

147 _{S. Senior Nello, The European Union..., supra note 48, p. 54.}

148 _{T.C. de Groot, Dertien is een Boerendozijn..., supra note 60, p. 36; S. Senior Nello, The European Union...,}

supra note 48, p. 65.

149 _{N. Nugent, The Government and politics..., supra note 46, p. 366; G. Kunst, EU institutions..., supra note 124,}

p. 50.

150 _{N. Nugent, The Government and politics..., supra note 46, p. 316.} 151 _{T.C. de Groot, Dertien is een Boerendozijn..., supra note 60, p. 42.}

CoAM as a supporter of the state-assisted paradigm in negotiation rounds to date is

channeling the interest of the farmers groups in the MS.152 _{Therefore, the CoAM used to be}

statusquo minded, being rather an obstacle than a supporter of the reform.153_{According to De}

Groot, the CoAM represented the incremental code which can be summarised as: we are going to reform but not too much.154