A very important element of the structural and substantive functioning of the Council of the European Union is a cyclic Presidency (leadership) held for a period of six months by each Member State in turn in the system of the intergovernmental councils (the Council of the European Union and the European Council). The author of the present article would like to focus on the first two presidencies of the unifi ed Germany. Both took place in the 1990s – in the first decade of the country’s functioning after reunification. They also exemplify the ‘new’ Germany’s approach to the European integration, its deepening and widening. Germany wanted to dispel the doubts of the other EU Member States whether, as the united country, it would still support the process of integration. The 21st century proved the fears pointless.

The European Union has been recognised as an international system whose decisions and actions are conditioned by environmental determinants, which is a dynamic process of change. The article attempts to explain the EU’s decisions based on the conclusions of the European Council in 2010–2022. 93 documents containing the conclusions of the European Council adopted during that period were analysed. It was found that the determinants of EU decisions and actions function – firstly – at the international system level and, secondly, at the level of the domestic systems of the Member States. In addition, the article: 1) reconstructed the discussion in the science of international relations on behavioural determinants, 2) reconstructed the perception of determinants in the conclusions of the European Council; 3) a model for organising the analysis of the determinants of the decisions of the European Council was proposed.

The European Union has been recognised as an international system whose decisions and actions are conditioned by environmental determinants, which is a dynamic process of change. The article attempts to explain the EU’s decisions based on the conclusions of the European Council in 2010–2022. 93 documents containing the conclusions of the European Council adopted during that period were analysed. It was found that the determinants of EU decisions and actions function – firstly – at the international system level and, secondly, at the level of the domestic systems of the Member States. In addition, the article: 1) reconstructed the discussion in the science of international relations on behavioural determinants, 2) reconstructed the perception of determinants in the conclusions of the European Council; 3) a model for organising the analysis of the determinants of the decisions of the European Council was proposed.