Influencing the Council of the European Union

The Council of the European Union is the EU's main decision making body - it can accept or change or reject all draft laws. It is the voice of member countries and made up of representatives, Minsters from governments of member states, who sit on the council each time it meets. The Council is supported by a large staff made of national and European civil servants.

There is a direct link to the national level as Ministers are accountable to their national parliament and the electorate. When we talk of lobbying the Council, we are actually talking about lobbying individual governments at member state level. EU laws are implemented within each member state so each country brings its concerns about the practicalities of implementation of the proposed text to the table. It is therefore important to campaign both at EU and UK level.

It is also worth remembering that the Commission will never propose legislation which it feels would not get through the Council. So it can be useful when lobbying at a national level to ask that the UK Government makes clear to the European Commission that a certain policy would be looked on favourably by the UK, should the commission decide to draft it.

In the RSPB's campaign to achieve a permanent ban on trade in wild birds in the EU, they managed to secured a letter of personal support from the then Prime Minster Tony Blair. He wrote promising to press the rest of the EU to make the temporary ban on the trade permanent, this support helped swing the campaign victory. Read more on the campaign.

"We are lucky in the UK that we are quite a large and powerful state in Europe, so if you get the UK government on board you are well away to securing change at the EU. If possible secure buy in from the Prime Minster, but such a high level of support is unusual so focus on the relevant Ministers and civil servants back home." Sacha Cleminson, EU Manager RSPB

Committee of Permanent Representatives

Each member state has a permanent representative or ambassador to the EU who meet once a week within the Committee of Permanent Representatives (CORPER). The main role of CORPER is to prepare work for the Council, to look at and debate proposals and draft legislation.

The UK's permanent representation (UKREP) is made up of civil servants, covering various policy areas, who brief UK Ministers on the relevant issues. It is useful to start identifying the relevant civil servants covering your issue and build up two way relationships with them, to share information. View UKREP website for more information.

Influencing other Member States

If you have the resources you can lobby permanent representatives of other member states directly but it is important to remember that they are representatives rather than the decision makers. The permanent representatives may be able to help arrange meetings with the relevant Ministers or you can go directly to the national capital. The easiest way to influence other member states is through joining up with partner organisations in different member states, with similar concerns, who will be able to lobby their governments.

EU Presidency

The Presidency is able to set the agenda for the Council of the European Union. So it is also well worth talking to the current EU Presidency either at their permanent representation in Brussels or in that country.