Presidency conclusions

At the end of each meeting of the European Council the presidency publishes a political document with conclusions and agendas for future EU activities. The draft is generally prepared before summits and negotiated during them, ultimately by the presidents and prime ministers - normally on the morning of the first day of the meeting.

The conclusions are not legally binding, but are used as guides to interpretation and can therefore function as "soft legislation".  That is to say, when implementing the legally binding output of a summit, law-makers will use the conclusions as a guide to how the legislation was intended to function.

Links

http://europa.eu.int/european_......uncil/conclusions/index_en.htm