It was quite a bit of fun, and I had to be on top of information and play quite a bit of politics to get it (and to get most of the votes, and all of the ones that mattered to (eventually) go my way).
See, in the Council of Ministers of the European Union (of which I was on the EcoFin configuration, meaning it was all the Economics and Finance ministers) most issues are decided by something called Qualified Majority Voting (QMV). In QMV a vote must carry 232 votes (each state has weighted votes, the very largest with 29 and the very smallest with 5; Lithuania has 7), most of the population of Europe, and most of the states. So the all the small states plus one big state can't pass something, all the big states plus a couple of small states can't pass something, and any passing coalition must have at least two big states.
Lithuania has 7 votes (as noted before), has a small population, and the only large state its interests are really close to is Poland (with 27 votes).
However, while the Lithuanian economy is heavily dependent on EU subsidies in various forms (currently; we're hoping to emulate Ireland's amazing growth), the current Lithuanian government, which is mostly comprised of members of the party that the guy I play founded and runs, is soundly in favor of liberal (but practical) economics, meaning generally low taxes, low trade barriers, support for corporate activity, et cetera. This gave me quite a bit of leeway in which to play my role.
The biggest thing I got passed, afaik the biggest thing that passed in the whole conference, was the EU Services Directive.
It first came up for a vote in its original form as proposed by the Commission, liberalizing all services in the EU based on the country of origin principle (the laws of the originating state with regards to certification and the like apply).
Despite it being one of the four freedoms of the EU, the only one as yet unrealized, every big state except Poland and Spain voted against it (and a few others), the latter abstaining (which is equivalent to a no in QMV). This was fairly understandable, the big states have some real concerns (in real life).
Once this happened, I set about determining amendments which would allow it to pass without undermining it. The first was the "social model" amendment (from real life, which in real life brought Germany on board), where countries may restrict and regulate services entering their borders in order to preserve their "social model". The second, which I came up with, allowed the Commission to establish, over time, uniform standards of certification, construction, and the like across the EU (they are already very similar in many fields, and uniform in a few), and to identify and recommend to the council of ministers for penalty cases of wage dumping.
Between these two amendments I not only got Germany and Spain on board (which brought it to passing), but the UK, Greece, and France (that last one surprised me, as they had been resisting up until the vote). Italy, the last large state, was going to vote for because I supported pension relief for their unions, but they were unfortunately absent. So I was pretty sure I had the votes to carry most of the large states, and in fact was carrying all of them.
However, in order for that vote to happen I had to get the Commission to re-up a proposal, as once we've considered one we can't consider it again unless we have a new proposal (the Council of Ministers cannot originate legislation, only the Commission can). However, we can "request" (with force of law) the Commission formulate a proposal, so I managed to get that to happen at the end of the second day (remember, we're only there three days, and the Services directive first came up on the second day).
Luckily, Lithuania's commissioner was the Economics and Finance Commissioner, and we were on good terms with the President of the Commission. So the creation of the new proposal was expedited, and we got it the next day at our first session -- and it passed, of course .
Congratulations, if you've understood half of the above you know more about the EU than most of its citizens Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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Oh, and determining what amendments were needed and politicking with states so they'd understand and support the bill with those amendments involved lots of fun lunch-time/between meeting running around, talking to EcoFin ministers as far as I could persuade them, and talking to the state's head of government (Prime Ministers, Presidents, and Chancellors) when I couldn't persuade the EcoFin minister directly.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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That's pretty cool. I never got to participate in a mock "run the Ministry of the Environment" or "run an oil refinery" day when I was in university Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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We had the Environmental configuration of the Council of Ministers there, too, they're the 4th most important one, after the General Affairs Council (GAC), EcoFin, and the Agriculture Council (all of which we had, plus Environmental).
Oh, and it was a nice excuse to dress up in really high end business dress; I blew far too much money on a shopping trip beforehand.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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Some good general resources on the EU are linked there; I rely mostly on the Financial Times (I have a paper subscription and online access) and the EU Observer (though they're a bit sensationalist).
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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