section_path: History
section_name: History
paragraph_text: History
  
  The Council first appeared in the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) as the "Special Council of Ministers", set up to counterbalance the High Authority (the supranational executive, now the commission). The original Council had limited powers: issues relating only to coal and steel were in the Authority's domain, and the council's consent was only required on decisions outside coal and steel. As a whole, the Council only scrutinised the High Authority (the executive). In 1957, the Treaties of Rome established two new communities, and with them two new Councils: the Council of the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC) and the Council of the European Economic Community (EEC). However, due to objections over the supranational power of the Authority, their Councils had more powers; the new executive bodies were known as "Commissions".
  
  In 1965, the council was hit by the "empty chair crisis". Due to disagreements between French president Charles de Gaulle and the commission's agriculture proposals, among other things, France boycotted all meetings of the council. This halted the council's work until the impasse was resolved the following year by the Luxembourg compromise. Although initiated by a gamble of the President of the commission, Walter Hallstein, who later on lost the Presidency, the crisis exposed flaws in the council's workings.
  
  Under the Merger Treaty of 1967, the ECSC's Special Council of Ministers and the Council of the EAEC (together with their other independent institutions) were merged into the Council of the European Communities, which would act as a single Council for all three institutions. In 1993, the Council adopted the name 'Council of the European Union', following the establishment of the European Union by the Maastricht Treaty. That treaty strengthened the council, with the addition of more intergovernmental elements in the three pillars system. However, at the same time the Parliament and Commission had been strengthened inside the Community pillar, curtailing the ability of the council to act independently.
  
  The Treaty of Lisbon abolished the pillar system and gave further powers to Parliament. It also merged the council's High Representative with the Commission's foreign policy head, with this new figure chairing the foreign affairs Council rather than the rotating presidency. The European Council was declared a separate institution from the council, also chaired by a permanent president, and the different Council configurations were mentioned in the treaties for the first time.
  
  The development of the council has been characterised by the rise in power of the Parliament, with which the council has had to share its legislative powers. The Parliament has often provided opposition to the council's wishes. This has in some cases led to clashes between both bodies with the council's system of intergovernmentalism contradicting the developing parliamentary system and supranational principles.