EU Member States have agreed that for certain things, they will take decisions as a group, and for others they want to keep the power to decide for themselves. For the areas in which they decided to work together, like food safety, agriculture or trade, the EU has the power to make laws that all EU countries must follow. In other areas, like foreign affairs, health and education, the countries want to keep the power to decide what they do themselves. This means the EU does not have the power to make laws on these topics, but it can make “soft law” which means suggestions on how everyone can work together more effectively, or develop common positions on foreign policy.