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The permanent representations are headed by permanent
representatives – ambassadors who form a special committee - COREPER
(abbreviation of the French Comité des représentants permanents).
There are COREPER I and COREPER II. COREPER II is a meeting of
ambassadors which discusses topics such as foreign affairs, finances,
justice and home affairs while COREPER I, the gathering of deputy
ambassadors, debates on agriculture, energy, transport, environment,
education, sport and culture.

It is worth mentioning that a sub-structure to COREPER II, which is
called COEST, is a format of mid-level diplomats. It handles EU relations
with the countries of Eastern Europe (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus,
Moldova, Georgia, Russia and Ukraine) and Central Asia (Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan). Once the COEST
members find a common position on a topic, it moves to COREPER II for
further approval before it is finally endorsed by the Council of the EU.

Unanimity and Double Qualified Majority Voting: Two Main
Procedures for Decision-making in the EU Council

There are two main rules for adopting decisions in the Council of the
European Union, namely, Unanimity and Qualified Majority voting (the
latter is also called the Double Qualified Majority).
The unanimity rule/consensus principle is applied to a few special
sectors, such as the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy, the
accession of new members to the EU, EU tax law and the EU budget. The
consensus principle seems to be the only remaining tool at the disposal
of EU members, which enables EU states to veto any decision which
runs counter to their national interests without giving consideration to
the positions of other member states.
EU members use such a tool quite efficiently when protecting their
national interests. For example, the Hellenic Republic and Cyprus will
never give their consent to resume accession talks with Turkey unless
there is tangible progress on the problem of the northern part of Cyprus.
Also, in 2019, Greece lifted its veto on launching accession negotiations