COREPER, from French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 Comité des représentants permanents, is the Committee of Permanent Representatives in the European Union

European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

, made up of the head or deputy head of mission from the EU member states in Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

.

Its defined role is to prepare the agenda for the ministerial Council of the European Union

Council of the European Union

The Council of the European Union is the institution in the legislature of the European Union representing the executives of member states, the other legislative body being the European Parliament. The Council is composed of twenty-seven national ministers...

 meetings; it may also take some procedural decisions. It oversees and coordinates the work of some 250 committees and working parties made up of civil servants from the member states who work on issues at the technical level to be discussed later by COREPER and the Council. It is chaired by the Presidency of the Council of the European Union

Presidency of the Council of the European Union

The Presidency of the Council of the European Union is the responsibility for the functioning of the Council of the European Union that rotates between the member states of the European Union every six months. The presidency is not a single president but rather the task is undertaken by a national...

.

There are in fact two committees:

• COREPER I consists of deputy heads of mission and deals largely with social and economic issues;
• COREPER II consists of heads of mission (Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary) and deals largely with political, financial and foreign policy
  Common Foreign and Security Policy
  The Common Foreign and Security Policy is the organised, agreed foreign policy of the European Union for mainly security and defence diplomacy and actions. CFSP deals only with a specific part of the EU's external relations, which domains include mainly Trade and Commercial Policy and other areas...
  
   issues.

Representatives of the Council Secretariat from the relevant Directorates and from the Legal Directorate are also present.
There is also a special committee on agriculture

Agriculture

Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

.

Weekly meetings are held in private; the agenda of the meeting is divided into

• a part "I" (I points, items scheduled without debate) and
• a part "II" (II points, items scheduled for debate).

They divide the ministerial agenda into three categories:

• I points which are for information and no ministerial decision is needed;
• A points where the decision can be made without debate (but it has to be put off the agenda of this meeting if any national delegation opposes it being decided) and is often on a subject outside the detailed responsibility of the particular group of ministers;
• B points where debate is needed and the decision may not be known in advance.

An item may be described internally as a false B point - this is to give the public impression as a B point that ministers are actively debating it because of its importance when in fact it could have been treated as an A point because negotiation and compromise has already taken place in COREPER. Relatively few decisions are taken by ministers on true B points: they are usually sent back to COREPER until they can be returned as an A point or a false B point.

The deliberations and decisions of the Council itself under the co-decision procedure are, unlike all other Council meetings, including COREPER and Council working group meetings, public.

Article 240 of the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union lays down the legal basis of COREPER.

Coreper I, comprising the Deputy Permanent Representatives, prepares the ground for the following Council configurations:

• Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs;
• Competitiveness (internal market, industry, research and tourism);
• Transport, Telecommunications and Energy;
• Agriculture and Fisheries;
• Environment;
• Education, Youth and Culture (including audiovisual);

Coreper II, comprising the Permanent Representatives, prepares for the other configurations:

• General Affairs and External Relations (including European security and defence policy
  European Security and Defence Policy
  The Common Security and Defence Policy , formerly known as the European Security and Defence Policy , is a major element of the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union and is the domain of EU policy covering defence and military aspects...
  
  and development cooperation);
• Economic and Financial Affairs (including the budget);
• Justice and Home Affairs (including civil protection).

External links

• EU Whoiswho: Permanent Representatives Committee