The Role of the General Affairs Council Revisited in Light of the Experience of 18 Months with the Lisbon Treaty

The EU’s new General Affairs Council (GAC) –chaired by the Trio Presidency– was designed to fulfil the role of strategic coordinator of policy-making in the Union. Nearly a year-and-a-half since its creation, this aim is even more pertinent than ever, since the need to develop that function has become more acute. The GAC has not asserted itself politically and other possible coordinators that are well established and permanently based in Brussels –such as the President of the European Council, the COREPER, and even the Secretariat General of the Council– are not the ideal actors to carry out the coordinating function, which needs a strong political involvement of the member states at the ministerial level. The GAC has probably achieved the basic goal of guaranteeing a minimum of consistency in the work of the nine other Council configurations and it has formally prepared and followed up on the meetings of the European Council. However, it has failed to become a powerful and distinctive actor with a strategic approach.