WRITTEN QUESTION P-3526/03 by Jens-Peter Bonde (EDD) to the Council. The difference between unanimity and consensus.
Date: 2003-11-20
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: European Constitution, European Council, Treaty on European Union, decision-making, operation of the Institutions

3.4.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 84 E/245

rapidly) are no longer excluded from the market and, in respect of size, that Community rules are brought
into line with the Community’s international commitments (cid:1) particularly as regards the World Trade
Organisation (WTO) agreement on technical barriers to trade.

Hence the Commission considers overall that the proposal will lead to tastier apples being on sale, which
is fully in tune with EU policies on quality. Nor does the Commission regard the proposal as a retrograde
step for quality growers (cid:1) on the contrary, the proposal encourages their efforts by introducing real
quality indicators applicable to all apple growers. The Commission therefore anticipates a positive reaction
from consumers.

(2004/C 84 E/0290)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-3526/03

by Jens-Peter Bonde (EDD) to the Council

(20 November 2003)

Subject: The difference between unanimity and consensus

The Convention’s draft EU Constitution lays down that, except where the Constitution provides otherwise,
decisions of the European Council shall be taken by consensus. (Article 20(4)). Could the Council please
state whether a single country can block the taking of a decision by consensus in the European Council,
and what the precise definition of a decision taken by consensus is?

Reply

(11 March 2004)

The Council would remind the Honourable Member that it cannot express a view on matters falling within
the ambit of the Intergovernmental Conference.

However, as the question also concerns the present treaties and,
Council works, the following brief reply may be made.

in particular, the way the European

In the present treaties (as in the draft Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe) only three voting
arrangements for adopting an act or a decision requiring a vote by the Council (or the European Council
in the draft Treaty establishing a Constitution) are legally defined: simple majority, qualified majority and
unanimity.

Consensus is not a voting rule and has no legal definition. It is the way the European Council already
agrees on conclusions or other texts of a political nature which are not in the form of an act having
binding legal effects on third parties.

In its most usual sense, consensus means that a text is generally acceptable, with no delegation having any
formal objection, although some delegations may have reservations on the substance or on certain aspects
of the text without standing in the way of a consensus.

The Honourable Member might also like to refer to the outcome of proceedings of the Working Party of
Legal Experts of the Intergovernmental Conference (1). The Working Party suggests amending the text
drawn up by the Convention so as to specify the applicable voting rule explicitly in all cases where the
draft Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe confers on the European Council the power to adopt
binding legal acts.

(1) See CIG 50/03 and the report by the Chairman of the Working Party, 51/03, available on the Internet site of the

Intergovernmental Conference.