The Council constitutes the main decision-making body of the European Union. It is the embodiment of the Member States’ will, whose representatives it brings together regularly at ministerial level, according to the topics to be discussed. The communications sector is processed in the framework of the Council of Ministers for Transport and Telecommunications.
The Council has a number of key responsibilities: it is the Union's legislative body; for a wide range of EU issues, it exercises that legislative power in co-decision with the European Parliament; it coordinates the broad economic policies of the Member States; it concludes, on behalf of the EU, international agreements with one or more States or international organizations; it shares budgetary authority with Parliament; it takes the decisions necessary for framing and implementing the common foreign and security policy, on the basis of general guidelines established by the European Council; and it coordinates the activities of Member States and adopts measures in the field of police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters.
ANACOM, safeguarding the national position in close connection with the Portuguese Permanent Representation to the European Union (REPER), participates in the meetings of the Telecommunications Group (TG) and the Posts Group (PG). These groups debate issues that are to be submitted for approval to the Council of Ministers for Transport and Telecommunications (where postal matters are also addressed). ANACOM also cooperates in further areas with sectorial implications, such as Public Markets, Trans-European Networks, Information Society and Data Protection, in the framework of the coordination ensured at national level by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
Further information:
- Council of the European Union http://europa.eu/about-eu/institutions-bodies/council-eu/index_en.htm
