Council of the European Union

The profile

The institution through which member state governments legislate, composed of ministers attending by policy area rather than a fixed membership. It differs from the European Council, the summit of EU leaders that sets broad direction, and from the Commission, which alone proposes ordinary legislation; the Council amends and adopts that legislation with the European Parliament, normally by a qualified majority of 55% of member states representing 65% of the population. Foreign policy is the exception: restrictive measures are adopted by unanimity as Common Foreign and Security Policy decisions proposed by the High Representative, alongside a regulation binding on any person in the EU. The Council adopted the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation on 16 May 2023. Its Russia packages have reached crypto since the fifth, of 8 April 2022, banned deposits to crypto wallets; the 20th, of 23 April 2026, banned Russia-based exchange platforms and the RUBx token; and the 21st, of 23 July 2026, extended the transaction ban to 14 platforms in Georgia, Panama, the UAE, the Marshall Islands, Kyrgyzstan and Belarus and created a first power to ban crypto-asset services for a whole country.