Foreign Affairs Council
The Council for Foreign Affairs (RAB, English Foreign Affairs Council, FAC ) or Foreign Ministers Council for short is the council formation of the Council of the European Union , which is entrusted with the matters of the common foreign and security policy . Before the Lisbon Treaty , its functions were carried out by the General Affairs and External Relations Council .
In fulfilling its tasks, the Council is bound by the foreign policy strategy of the European Council ( Art. 22 EU Treaty ). The Council for Foreign Affairs is chaired by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy , who has the right of initiative as well as the member states. This means that this Council formation is not chaired by the representative of the member state holding the current Council Presidency . A European External Action Service is available to the Council. Above all, these innovations are intended to give this council formation a new quality, whereas the resolution will continue to be unanimous.
Composition (since April 2020)
The 28 foreign ministers of the EU member states make up the Council for Foreign Affairs. At the national level, the members of the Council belong to parties of different political spectra that have been organized in European political parties across all nations . Although the ministers' negotiating and voting behavior is primarily determined by national interests, their party affiliations also offer an explanation for the policy of the Council as a whole. The following table therefore also shows membership of national and European parties.
See also
Philippe Goffin (Belgium) | Ekaterina Sakhareva (Bulgaria) | Jeppe Kofod (Denmark) | Heiko Maas (Germany) | Urmas Reinsalu (Estonia) | Pekka Haavisto (Finland) | Jean-Yves Le Drian (France) | Nikos Dendias (Greece) | Simon Coveney (Ireland) | Luigi Di Maio (Italy) | Gordan Grlić Radman (Croatia) | Edgars Rinkēvičs (Latvia) | Linas Antanas Linkevičius (Lithuania) | Jean Asselborn (Luxembourg) | Evarist Bartolo (Malta) | Stef Blok (Netherlands) | Alexander Schallenberg (Austria) | Zbigniew Rau (Poland) | Augusto Santos Silva (Portugal) | Bogdan Aurescu (Romania) | Ann Linde (Sweden) | Ivan Korčok (Slovakia) | Anže Logar (Slovenia) | Arancha González (Spain) | Tomáš Petříček (Czech Republic) | Péter Szijjártó (Hungary) | Nikos Christodoulidis (Cyprus)