How does the European Council work?

The European council is one of the 7 EU institutions, as it is not a legislative body it does not negotiate or adopt EU laws, its main role is to determine the EU general political direction and priorities in other words setting the political agenda for the European Union. The Council meets at least 4 times a year and additional meetings can be held for urgent matters. In this meetings the members of the council adopt conclusions that identify issues of concern for the EU and set particular actions to take or goals to reach.
Ahead of the European Council meeting, the President of the European Council drafts guidelines for the conclusions. These are then discussed at the General Affairs Council and later adopted at the European Council meeting. Generally, conclusions are adopted by consensus between all EU member states, but by unanimity or qualified majority in some cases. Only heads of state or government can vote.

The European Council in a meeting

Now that we know how decisions are made let's analyze the on what objectives the European Council focus:

1.Jobs, growth and competitiveness - this is focused on economic growth, increase investment and create more and better jobs.

 2.Empowering and protecting citizens - the European Council highlights priorities that would unlock opportunities for EU citizens, as well as deal with issues such as poverty and social exclusion. Particular actions include: continuing the drive against youth unemployment action to deal with tax evasion and tax fraud.

3.Energy and climate policies - the council underlines the need to lower dependency on fuel and gas imports and to build affordable, secure and sustainable energy within the EU. The main priorities include: completion of the EU energy market diversification of EU energy supplies and routes and the development of energy infrastructure setting ambitious climate change targets for 2030 and continuing to lead the fight against climate change.

4.Freedom, security and justice - another objective is to underline the importance of good EU cooperation on security issues like terrorism and managing migration flows. Very important point as seen in the recent refugee crisis and the increase of Islamic terrorist acts in European cities.

5.The EU as a strong global actor - the European Council calls on the EU to ensure its strong engagement in world affairs, highlighting in particular the following priorities, ensuring consistency between member states' and EU foreign policy goals promoting stability, prosperity  and democracy in the countries closest to the EU. This objective has been strongly damaged by the Brexit and the recent raise in anti-EU parties in some countries.