Austria takes over the presidency of the Council of the EU

The Council of the EU – often known as "the Council of Ministers, or simply "the Council" – gathers the national ministers of the 28 EU member states to negotiate, amend and adopt new EU legislation – jointly with the European Parliament – and to coordinate policies. Every country gets a six-month turn in the chair: Austria took over from Bulgaria on 1 July 2018. Website(link is external) of the Austrian Presidency.

The Council shouldn't be confused with the European Council which brings together heads of State and government for what are commonly known as "EU summits" to define the general political direction and priorities of the EU. The European Council President is Donald Tusk and the latest summit was last week, 28-29 June 2018.

Finally, the Council of Europe(link is external) is separate from the EU. There are 47 countries in the Council of Europe, among others, the EU countries. The Council of Europe stands behind the European Convention on Human Rights, controversy over which is sometimes wrongly blamed on the EU.