Some members of Coreper think the system they serve is beginning to fracture around them.

ECONOMIST: Coreper, Europe��s managing board

Coreper's current chairman, Bernard Bot, is a businesslike Dutchman with a deserved reputation for efficiency.

ECONOMIST: The power-house

Even now Coreper answers to governments, not to foreign ministries alone.

ECONOMIST: Coreper, Europe��s managing board

From inside Coreper, naturally enough, the view is rather different.

ECONOMIST: Coreper, Europe��s managing board

The foreign ministers and Coreper have lost battles before.

ECONOMIST: Coreper, Europe��s managing board

Such unwieldiness combines with only brief forays to Brussels by ministers to hand vast dollops of power to their officials, especially to the Committee of Permanent Representatives, better known by its French acronym, Coreper (see our next article).

ECONOMIST: Europe's Council of Ministers: Doing the splits | The