Editing European Economic Community (section)

===Council===
[[File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F078267-0023, Bonn, Ministerpräsidenten mit EU-Kommissar Delors-CROPPED.jpg|thumb|[[President of the European Commission|President]] [[Jacques Delors]], the last EEC Commission President]]

The [[Council of the European Union|Council of the European Communities]] was a body holding legislative and executive powers and was thus the main decision-making body of the Community. Its [[Presidency of the Council of the European Union|Presidency]] rotated between the [[European Union member state|member states]] every six months and it is related to the [[European Council]], which was an informal gathering of national leaders (started in 1961) on the same basis as the council.<ref name="Europa Institutions Council">{{Cite web|title=Institutions: The Council of the European Union|publisher=[[Europa (web portal)]]|url=http://europa.eu/institutions/inst/council/index_en.htm|access-date=25 June 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070703155822/http://europa.eu/institutions/inst/council/index_en.htm|archive-date=3 July 2007}}</ref>

The council was composed of one national [[Minister (government)|minister]] from each member state. However the Council met in various forms depending upon the topic. For example, if agriculture was being discussed, the council would be composed of each national minister for agriculture. They represented their governments and were accountable to their national political systems. Votes were taken either by majority (with votes allocated according to population) or unanimity. In these various forms they share some legislative and budgetary power of the Parliament.<ref name="Europa Institutions Council"/> Since the 1960s the council also began to meet informally at the level of heads of government and heads of state; these [[European Council|European summits]] followed the same presidency system and secretariat as the council but was not a formal formation of it.