Discussion between Jean Monnet, President of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), and Konrad Adenauer, President of the ECSC Special Council of Ministers.

The Luxembourg Accords of January 1966 provide for several practical methods of cooperation between the Council and the Commission (see ‘Second part of the meeting (28 and 29 January 1966): (a) Relations between the Commission and the Council’).

Written question No 117/68 put by Harri Bading, Member of the European Parliament, to the Commission on 19 June 1968, regarding the agreement reached between the Council and the Commission in 1966 on the presentation of the letters of credence of Heads of Mission of third countries.

Written question No 130/68 put by Harri Bading, Member of the European Parliament, to the Council on 28 June 1968, regarding the procedure established in 1959 according to which the EEC Commission consults the Council on certain written questions submitted to it by Members of the European Parliament.

It follows from recital 87 of this Judgment that, in a situation such as that concerning the negotiation of the European Agreement on Road Transport (AETR), ‘it was for the two institutions whose powers were directly concerned, namely, the Council and the Commission, to reach agreement, in accordance with Article 15 of the Treaty of 8 April 1965 establishing a Single Council and a Single Commission of the European Communities, on the appropriate methods of cooperation with a view to ensuring most effectively the defence of the interests of the Community.’

Article 218 of the Treaty establishing the European Community stipulates that ‘The Council and the Commission shall consult each other and shall settle by common accord their methods of cooperation.' This excerpt from the ‘Vedel Report' emphasises that, even in the absence of such an express provision (cf. Article 15 of the Merger Treaty), the institutions may, in practice, determine their methods of cooperation.