Articles 15 and 16 TEU Explained: The European Council and Qualified Majority

Two articles, two institutions with almost the same name, and one piece of arithmetic that EPSO asks for exactly. Articles 15 and 16 TEU are where the European Council and the Council of the European Union are defined, and where qualified majority voting is set out in numbers you can be asked to reproduce.

Part of our EU primary-law series with Article 17 TEU (the Commission), Article 50 TEU (withdrawal) and the difference between the TEU and the TFEU. If the institutions themselves are what you need first, start with what each EU institution does and the three Councils compared.

Article 15: the European Council

What it does. The European Council provides the Union with the necessary impetus for its development and defines the general political directions and priorities thereof.

What it does not do. The same paragraph continues: "It shall not exercise legislative functions." That sentence exists precisely because the temptation to assume otherwise is strong — heads of state and government sitting together look like the most powerful legislature in the room. They are not a legislature at all.

Composition. The Heads of State or Government of the Member States, together with its President and the President of the Commission. The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy takes part in its work. Note who is a member and who takes part: the High Representative participates but is not counted among the members, and neither is the President of the European Parliament, who is invited to be heard.

Meetings. Twice every six months, convened by its President, with special meetings where the situation so requires.

Decisions. By consensus, except where the Treaties provide otherwise. Consensus, not unanimity and not majority — it is the absence of stated objection rather than a formal vote, which is why European Council conclusions are negotiated rather than counted.

The President. Elected by the European Council by a qualified majority, for a term of two and a half years, renewable once. The President shall not hold a national office. That clause is the one distractors attack: a sitting national prime minister cannot simultaneously be President of the European Council.

Article 16: the Council of the European Union

What it does. The Council jointly with the European Parliament exercises legislative and budgetary functions, and carries out policy-making and coordinating functions. This is the co-legislator — the institution that sits opposite Parliament in the ordinary legislative procedure.

Composition. A representative of each Member State at ministerial level, authorised to commit the government of that Member State and to cast its vote. Which minister attends depends on the configuration; the seat belongs to the Member State, not to a named person.

The default voting rule. Article 16(3): "The Council shall act by a qualified majority except where the Treaties provide otherwise." Qualified majority is the rule; unanimity and simple majority are the exceptions, and they only apply where a specific Treaty article says so. Candidates frequently invert this and treat unanimity as the norm.

Transparency. Article 16(8): the Council meets in public when it deliberates and votes on a draft legislative act, and each meeting is divided into two parts — legislative activities and non-legislative activities.

The qualified majority arithmetic

This is the part worth memorising verbatim, because it is asked verbatim. Since 1 November 2014, a qualified majority is defined as:

• at least 55% of the members of the Council,
• comprising at least fifteen of them,
• representing Member States comprising at least 65% of the population of the Union.

And the safeguard: a blocking minority must include at least four Council members, failing which the qualified majority shall be deemed attained.

Three things about this that questions exploit.

It is a double majority. States and population, both thresholds at once. An option that offers only one of the two is incomplete even when the number it quotes is right.

The blocking minority floor is not decoration. Without it, three large Member States could block on population alone. The rule says four members minimum, so a blocking coalition must be broad as well as heavy.

"At least fifteen" is a Treaty figure, not a calculation you redo. With 27 Member States, 55% works out at 14.85 and therefore 15 — but the article states the number, and the number is what an exam expects back.

Article 16(4) also points to Article 238(2) TFEU for the case where not all Council members participate in the vote, and Article 16(5) preserved transitional arrangements until 31 March 2017, which are now spent. If a question offers the older Nice-era weighted-votes system, it is describing a regime that no longer exists.

The two Councils, and the third

The three-way confusion is standard, and it is worth stating plainly once:

• the European Council (Article 15 TEU) — heads of state or government, sets direction, does not legislate;
• the Council of the European Union (Article 16 TEU) — national ministers, co-legislates with Parliament, votes by qualified majority as a rule;
• the Council of Europe — not an EU institution at all. A separate international organisation of 46 member states, based in Strasbourg, which produced the European Convention on Human Rights and runs the European Court of Human Rights.

We unpack that trio in full in the three Councils compared, and the Convention side in Article 47 of the Charter.

How this is tested

Four shapes recur: an institutional item that has the European Council adopting a regulation; a numbers item that gives one half of the double majority; a presidency item that ignores the ban on holding national office; and a default-rule item that treats unanimity as the Council's normal voting method. Each of them is answered from the two articles above and nothing else.

Practise the pattern in our free EU Knowledge tests, where every explanation cites the article behind the answer, and see what to study for EU Knowledge for the syllabus around it.