The Council of the European Union. 1999

The Council of the European Union:

Until very recently, there were no general textbooks in English on the Council of the European Union. This book filled that gap when first published in 1995. It has now been updated to explain the impact of the Treaty of Amsterdam, which came into effect on 1 May 1999, on the Council's role and procedures. This guide to this most powerful of EU institutions analyses the Council at all its different hierarchical levels, from the European Council to the working parties. The author, Martin Westlake, sets out its decision-making procedures and the detail of its mechanisms, from voting to written procedures, showing how the different sectoral Councils work and he analyses the Council's place in the inter-institutional framework. This analysis reveals a complex and sophisticated institution in which the very many different levels of the modern state interact consensually across a broad range of policy areas. It documents the way in which the Council has made a vital contribution to the construction of the European Union.

With a foreword by the Council Secretary-General, Jurgen Trumpf, the book is part of the critically acclaimed series on the key institutions of the European Union which includes the other titles: The European Parliament by Richard Corbett, Francis Jacobs and Michael Shackleton; The European Commission, edited by Geoffrey Edwards and David Spence; and The European Courts by Neville March Hunnings.

Martin Westlake has worked in the European Policy Unit at the EUI, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, and the Secretariat General of the Council of the European Union. He is currently Head of Unit for Institutional Relations in the Commission's Directorate-General for Information, Communication, Culture and the Audiovisual Media and he has authored numerous books and articles on the European Union.