Council of the European Union

The Council of the European Union, sometimes called the Council of Ministers, brings together one minister from each member state's government, meeting in ten different policy configurations, to negotiate and adopt EU legislation jointly with the European Parliament and to coordinate member states' policies. It was created on 1 July 1967, when the Merger Treaty (signed in Brussels, 8 April 1965) merged the separate councils of the European Coal and Steel Community, the European Atomic Energy Community and the European Economic Community into a single institution, absorbing functions the EEC's own Council had exercised since the Treaty of Rome took effect in 1958. It is distinct from the European Council, which brings together heads of state or government rather than ministers.