Participation of ministers in Council of the EU meetings: variation across members and decline over time

Abstract

We formulate and test a comprehensive model of participation by ministers in sessions of the Council of the EU. Ministers often delegate the task of representing their governments at Council sessions to deputies or civil servants. However, EU members differ significantly in how frequently that occurs. Using new data on ministers’ participation in all 793 Council sessions in 2004–2014, we find (1) that ministers choose to participate more frequently when the salience of the meeting agenda is higher and (2) when they represent countries with more advanced political-administrative systems. The participation rates decrease (3) when national governments face upcoming legislative elections. Ministerial participation dramatically increases (4) for a country when it holds the Council presidency. Contrary to our expectations, participation is not associated with public support for the EU. In addition, we find that average ministerial participation rate decreased significantly between EP6 and EP7, from around 76% to around 64%.