COREPER

COREPER, the Committee of Permanent Representatives, is the engine room of EU decision-making, composed of the permanent ambassadors each member state stations in Brussels. Every Council decision of substance passes through COREPER before it reaches ministers, giving the ambassadorial layer more day-to-day governing power than any single minister. There are two configurations: COREPER I, deputy representatives handling technical dossiers, and COREPER II, full ambassadors handling political and institutional dossiers.

Because COREPER operates largely outside the public arena, decisions made there can advance faster than parliamentary scrutiny allows. Its 3 June 2026 vote to authorise the European Commission to join the US-led Pax Silica semiconductor alliance illustrated the pattern: a qualified majority of member states committed the EU to at least $40bn in US AI chip purchases, with France opposed and requesting clarification of the Council's own oversight role, before Council validation followed five days later. The episode underlines a structural feature of EU governance: security-adjacent trade commitments made at ambassador level can carry binding force before most citizens are aware a decision has been taken.