Presidential Executive Council (Arab Union)

The Presidential Executive Council (Arabic: المجلس التنفيذي الرئاسي al-majlis at-tanfīdhī ar-ri’āsī) is a committee chaired by the President of the Arab Union, which as its main function is responsible for realising the executive decisions of the President at all levels of government in the Arab Union. It is also co-chaired by the Vice President of the Arab Union, who sometimes chairs the Council solo on behalf of the President during the latter's absence. Under the Arab Union's federal semi-presidential system, the President is officially head of state, while the position of head of government is officially held by other senior officials: the Prime Minister of the Arab Union at the federal level of government, the premiers of each of the union's 20 republics (the republican level), and mayors or city managers at the municipal (local government) level. While the President is empowered to dismiss the Prime Minister or a premier, and cannot directly appoint a new prime minister or premier despite the President's official approval being required to legally confirm a newly nominated prime minister or premier (and their cabinets), this manifestation of the President's executive authority is limited, as the daily responsibilities of leading a government including the making of most executive decisions fall to the Prime Minister in the case of the federal government and the premiers in the case of each republican government; the President is not empowered to make routine executive decisions (which are the majority of executive decisions), nor to micromanage the Prime Minister and premiers.

Thus, in addition to advising the President on his own executive decisions, the Presidential Executive Council is responsible for the manifestation and projection of the President's executive authority beyond those areas made possible by the official constitutional relationship between the head of government and the head of state. Council members include, in addition to the President and Vice President, the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, three clerks who draft and officially issue presidential executive orders, liaison officers, each assigned to a particular republican government, who communicate to the premiers and their cabinets the position and wishes/expectations of the President and report back to the President on their response and cooperation, a team of four liaison officers who do the same with the Prime Minister and his cabinet, the Chief of Staff of the Union Defence Forces (who, despite being officially subordinate to the Minister of Defence, is ultimately answerable to the President who is the commander-in-chief of all military forces of the Arab Union) as well as the Minister of Defence himself, the Chairman of the Joint Security Committee, the Attorney General of the Arab Union, who is the President's official advisor on legal matters while also being a member of the Prime Minister's cabinet as head of the federal justice ministry, a liaison officer assigned to represent the presidency to the ministers of justice of each republic, a liaison officer who oversees 20 subordinate officers, each of whom is responsible for liaison with the director-general of the National Police of a particular republic, and several academics of various fields and other experts and professionals who are brought in to advise the rest of the Presidential Executive Council on matters of their expertise, helping the Council to better do its job, one example of which is the COVID-19 Special Task Force, a committee composed of the Minister of Health (who was not previously part of the Council until the formation of the task force) and several other health officials and experts, which is responsible for formulating, initiating, and managing the national response to the COVID-19 pandemic.