Agenda- Document 5

2018

COUNCIL OF MINISTERS MEETING

Clarion Hotel – Monday 12 November 2018
AGENDA
1. The Ministers and Ambassadors are seated according to the seating plan;

2. The Presidency opens proceedings by welcoming the Ministers to the meeting, and will
then request the Commission to briefly introduce and explain its proposed Directive;

3. The Commission should give a short opening statement as to the reasoning behind the
Directive;

4. Tour de table - The Presidency invites each Minister to make a short opening statement (aim
for 50 seconds maximum). The normal procedure is that the delegate on the Presidency’s
left begins;

5. After the initial tour de table, the Presidency briefly sums up after listening to these
statements, hopes that agreement can be reached today on the outstanding issues and invites
the Commission to begin by reading the first Article of the proposed Directive;

6. The Commission reads the first Article of the proposed Directive;

7. The Presidency asks the Ministers if they agree to this Article as it is written. If there are
disagreements, Ministers need to make their views known to the Commission. An open
discussion should ensue, during which Ministers may put questions to other Ministers or the
Commission and suggest amendments to the proposal on the table. The Presidency will note
the order in which Ministers/Ambassadors speak and will bring the microphone to the
delegate;

8. Ministers need to raise their “country block” to speak and join the debate; make
coalitions to strengthen one’s position – this work can be done in advance of the meeting;

9. At appropriate points in the debate, the Presidency should try to sum up what has been
said and identify points of agreement or disagreement;

10. There may be short 10 minute adjournments for informal discussion. Ministers should
liaise with their “coalition” and with the Commission and Presidency, to see if agreement
can be reached;

11. The meeting should be resumed and each Article of the Directive read out and discussed as
above; a “simple vote” can be taken in relation to each Article;

12. Once all the Articles of the Directive have been discussed the Commission can propose a
vote to see if a ‘qualified majority’ exists. If approved this current proposal can be
forwarded to The European Parliament for its approval/amendment/rejection.

13. The Presidency sums up and thanks the Ministers for their work and efforts and looks
forward to meeting them all next month.