European Council

European Council

Emblem
Formation	1961 (informally) 2009 (formally)
Type	EU collective presidency
Location	Justus Lipsius building, Brussels
President	Donald Tusk
Website	www.european-council.europa.eu

European Union

This article is part of a series on the politics and government of the European Union

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The European Council is the institution of the European Union (EU) that comprises the heads of state or government of the member states, along with the council's own president and the president of the Commission. The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy also takes part in its meetings.^[1] Established as an informal body in 1975, the council was formalised as an institution in 2009 upon the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon.

While the European Council has no formal legislative power, it is a strategic (and crisis-solving) body that provides the union with general political directions and priorities, and acts as a collective presidency.^[2][3]

The meetings of the European Council, commonly referred to as EU summits, are chaired by its president and take place at least twice every six months;^[1] usually in the Justus Lipsius building, the headquarters of the Council of the European Union in Brussels.^[4][5][6]

Decisions of the European Council are taken by consensus, except where the Treaties provide otherwise.^[7]

The current president of the European Council is Donald Tusk.

History

A traditional group photo, here taken at the royal palace in Brussels during Belgium's 1987 Presidency

The first summits of EU heads of state or government were held in February and July 1961 (in Paris and Bonn respectively). They were informal summits of the leaders of the European Community and were started due to then-French President Charles de Gaulle's resentment at the domination of supranational institutions (e.g. the European Commission) over the integration process, but petered out. The first influential summit held, after the departure of De Gaulle, was The Hague summit of 1969, which reached an agreement on the admittance of the United Kingdom into the Community and initiated foreign policy cooperation (the European Political Cooperation) taking integration beyond economics.^[1][8]

The summits were only formalised in the period between 1974 and 1988. At the December summit in Paris in 1974, following a proposal from then-French president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, it was agreed that more high level, political input was needed following the "empty chair crisis" and economic problems. The inaugural European Council, as it became known, was held in Dublin on 10 and 11 March 1975 during Ireland's first Presidency of the Council of Ministers. In 1987, it was included in the treaties for the first time (the Single European Act) and had a defined role for the first time in the Maastricht Treaty. At first only two meetings per year were required, now there are on average six European Councils each year. The seat of the Council was formalised in 2002, basing it in Brussels. In addition to usual European Councils, there are the occasional extraordinary meetings, as for example in 2001 when the European Council gathered to lead the EU's response to the 11 September attacks.^[1][8]

The European Council at the signing of the Treaty of Lisbon in 2007

Some meetings of the European Council are seen by some as turning points in the history of the European Union. For example:^[1]

• 1969, The Hague: Foreign policy and enlargement.
• 1974, Paris: Creation of the Council.
• 1985, Milan: Initiate IGC leading to the Single European Act.
• 1991, Maastricht: Agreement on the Maastricht Treaty.
• 1993, Copenhagen: Leading to the definition of the Copenhagen Criteria.
• 1997, Amsterdam: Agreement on the Amsterdam Treaty.
• 1998, Brussels: Selected member states to adopt the euro.
• 1999; Cologne: Declaration on military forces.^[9]
• 1999, Tampere: Institutional reform
• 2000, Lisbon: Lisbon Strategy
• 2002, Copenhagen: Agreement for May 2004 enlargement.
• 2007, Lisbon: Agreement on the Lisbon Treaty.
• 2009, Brussels: Appointment of first president and merged High Representative.
• 2010, European Financial Stability Facility

As such, the European Council had already existed before it gained the status as an institution of the European Union with the entering into force of the Treaty of Lisbon. Indeed, Article 214(2) of the Treaty establishing the European Community provided (before it was amended by the Treaty of Lisbon) that ‘the Council, meeting in the composition of Heads of State or Government and acting by a qualified majority, shall nominate the person it intends to appoint as President of the Commission’ (emphasis added); this may be seen as an early codification of the European Council in the Treaties. In the event, Article 15 of the Treaty on European Union (amended by the Treaty of Lisbon) officially introduces the term European Council as a substitute for the phrase "Council [of the European Union] meeting in the composition of the Heads of State or Government", which was previously sometimes used in the treaties to refer to this body.^[10]

The Treaty of Lisbon made the European Council a formal institution distinct from the (ordinary) Council of the EU, and created the present longer term and full-time presidency. As an outgrowth of the Council of the EU, the European Council had previously followed the same Presidency, rotating between each member state. While the Council of the EU retains that system, the European Council established, with no change in powers, a system of appointing an individual (without them being a national leader) for two-and-a-half-years.^[11] Following the ratification of the treaty in December 2009, the European Council elected the then-Prime Minister of Belgium Herman Van Rompuy as its first permanent president (resigning from Belgian Prime Minister).^[12]

Powers and functions

The European Council is an official institution of the EU, mentioned by the Lisbon Treaty as a body which "shall provide the Union with the necessary impetus for its development". Essentially it defines the EU's policy agenda and has thus been considered to be the motor of European integration. It does this without any formal powers, only the influence it has being composed of national leaders.^[1][5] Beyond the need to provide "impetus", the Council has developed further roles; to "settle issues outstanding from discussions at a lower level", to lead in foreign policy — acting externally as a "collective Head of State", "formal ratification of important documents" and "involvement in the negotiation of the treaty changes".^[6][8]

Since the institution is composed of national leaders, it gathers the executive power of the member states and has thus a great influence in high profile policy areas as for example Passerelle Clause. Although the European Council has no direct legislative power, under the "emergency brake" procedure, a state outvoted in the Council of Ministers may refer contentious legislation to the European Council. However, the state may still be outvoted in the European Council.^[11][13][14] Hence with powers over the supranational executive of the EU, in addition to its other powers, the European Council has been described by some as the Union's "supreme political authority".^{[6][8][11][15]}

Composition

The European Council consists of the heads of state or government of the member states, alongside its own President and the Commission President (non-voting). The meetings used to be regularly attended by the national foreign minister as well, and the Commission President likewise accompanied by another member of the Commission. However, since the Treaty of Lisbon, this has been discontinued, as the size of the body had become somewhat large following successive accessions of new Member States to the Union.^[1][5][6]

Meetings can also include other invitees, such as the President of the European Central Bank, as required. The President of the European Parliament also attends to give an opening speech outlining the European Parliament's position before talks begin.^[1][5][6]

Additionally, the negotiations involve a large number of other people working behind the scenes. Most of those people, however, are not allowed to the conference room, except for two delegates per state to relay messages. At the push of a button members can also call for advice from a Permanent Representative via the "Antici Group" in an adjacent room. The group is composed of diplomats and assistants who convey information and requests. Interpreters are also required for meetings as members are permitted to speak in their own languages.^[1]

The European Council meeting in Brussels in March 2011

As the composition is not precisely defined, some states which have a considerable division of executive power can find it difficult to decide who should attend the meetings. While an MEP, President of Poland and the Prime Minister of Poland were of different parties and had a different foreign policy response to the crisis.^[17] A similar situation arose in Romania between President Traian Băsescu and Prime Minister Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu in 2007–2008 and again in 2012 with Prime Minister Victor Ponta, who both opposed the president.

Eurozone summits

A number of ad hoc meetings of Heads of State or Government of the Euro area countries were held in 2010 and 2011 to discuss the Sovereign Debt crisis. It was agreed in October 2011 that they should meet regularly twice a year (with extra meetings if needed). This will normally be at the end of a European Council meeting and according to the same format (chaired by the President of the European Council and including the President of the Commission), but usually restricted to the (currently 17) Heads of State or Government of countries whose currency is the euro.

President

The President of the European Council, currently Donald Tusk of Poland, is elected for a once-renewable term of two and a half years. The President must report to the European Parliament after each European Council meeting.^[6][15]

The post was created by the Treaty of Lisbon and was subject to a debate over its exact role. Prior to Lisbon, the Presidency rotated in accordance with the Presidency of the Council of the European Union.^[6][15] The role of that President-in-Office was in no sense (other than protocol) equivalent to an office of a head of state, merely a primus inter pares (first among equals) role among other European heads of government. The President-in-Office was primarily responsible for preparing and chairing the Council meetings, and had no executive powers other than the task of representing the Union externally. Now the leader of the Council Presidency country can still act as president when the permanent president is absent.

Members

Representative		Picture	Member State	Title	Political party	Member since	Elections		% population[a 1]
								Tusk, DonaldDonald Tusk			President Non voting position	0 !President	European People's Party National: Civic Platform of the Republic of Poland (PO)	02014-12-01-00001 December 2014 (Prime Minister of Poland: 2007–2014)	–	–	50000000000000000000.0%
	Juncker, Jean-ClaudeJean-Claude Juncker		Commission Non voting representation	0 !President	European People's Party National: Christian Social People's Party (CSV)	02014-11-01-00001 November 2014 (Prime Minister of Luxembourg: 1995–2013)	2014	2019	50000000000000000000.0%
	Faymann, WernerWerner Faymann		Austria	1 !Federal Chancellor	Party of European Socialists National: Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ)	02008-12-02-00002 December 2008	2013	2018?	70001670000000000001.67%
	Michel, CharlesCharles Michel		Belgium	1 !First Minister / Prime Minister	Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party National: Reformist Movement (MR)	02014-10-11-000011 October 2014	2014	2019?	70002210000000000002.21%
	Borisov, BoykoBoyko Borisov Cyrillic script: Бойко Борисов		Bulgaria	1 !Minister-Chairman[a 2]	European People's Party National: GERB (ГЕРБ)	02014-11-07-00007 November 2014 (also in office: 2009–2013)	2014	2018?	70001440000000000001.44%
	Milanović, ZoranZoran Milanović		Croatia	1 !President of the Government[a 2]	Party of European Socialists National: Social Democratic Party of Croatia (SDP)	02013-07-01-00001 July 2013 (in office since 23 December 2011; note that Croatia has been a member state of the EU from 1st of July 2013)	2011	2016?	69998400000000000000.84%
	Anastasiades, NicosNicos Anastasiades Greek script: Νίκος Αναστασιάδης		Cyprus	0 !President	European People's Party National: Democratic Rally (ΔΗ.ΣΥ.)	02013-02-28-000028 February 2013	2013	2018?	69991700000000000000.17%
	Sobotka, BohuslavBohuslav Sobotka		Czech Republic	1 !Chairman of the Government[a 2]	Party of European Socialists National: Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD)	02014-01-29-000029 January 2014	2013	2017?	70002080000000000002.08%
	Thorning-Schmidt, HelleHelle Thorning-Schmidt		Denmark	1 !Minister of State[a 2]	Party of European Socialists National: Social Democrats (A)	02011-10-03-00003 October 2011	2011	2015?	70001110000000000001.11%
	Rõivas, TaaviTaavi Rõivas		Estonia	1 !Head Minister[a 2]	Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party National: Estonian Reform Party (RE)	02014-03-26-000026 March 2014	2011	2015?	69992600000000000000.26%
	Stubb, AlexanderAlexander Stubb		Finland	1 !Head Minister / Minister of the State[a 2]	European People's Party National: National Coalition Party (Kok. / Saml.)	02014-06-24-000024 June 2014	2011	2015?	70001070000000000001.07%
	Hollande, FrançoisFrançois Hollande		France	0 !President	Party of European Socialists National: Socialist Party (PS)	02012-05-15-000015 May 2012	2012	2017?	700112980000000000012.98%
	Merkel, AngelaAngela Merkel née Kasner		Germany	1 !Federal Chancellor	European People's Party National: Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU)	02005-11-22-000022 November 2005	2013	2017?	700115930000000000015.93%
	Samaras, AntonisAntonis Samaras Greek script: Αντώνης Σαμαράς		Greece	1 !Prime Minister	European People's Party National: New Democracy (Ν.Δ.)	02012-06-20-000020 June 2012	2012	2016?	70002190000000000002.19%
	Orbán, ViktorViktor Orbán Eastern name order, as used in Hungary: Orbán Viktor		Hungary	1 !Minister-President[a 2]	European People's Party National: Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Alliance (Fidesz)	02010-05-29-000029 May 2010 (also in office: 1998-2002; note that Hungary has been a member state of the EU from 1st of May 2004)	2014	2018?	70001960000000000001.96%
	Kenny, EndaEnda Kenny Irish language: Éanna Ó Coinnigh		Ireland	1 !Taoiseach[a 3]	European People's Party National: Fine Gael (FG)	02011-03-09-00009 March 2011	2011	2016?	69999100000000000000.91%
	Renzi, MatteoMatteo Renzi		Italy	1 !President of the Council of Ministers[a 2]	Party of European Socialists National: Democratic Party (PD)	02014-02-22-000022 February 2014	2013	2018?	700111810000000000011.81%
	Straujuma, LaimdotaLaimdota Straujuma		Latvia	1 !Minister-President[a 2]	European People's Party National: Party ‘UNITY’ (V)	02014-01-22-000022 January 2014	2014	2018?	69994000000000000000.40%
	Grybauskaitė, DaliaDalia Grybauskaitė		Lithuania	1 !President	Independent	02009-07-12-000012 July 2009	2014	2019?	69995900000000000000.59%
	Bettel, XavierXavier Bettel		Luxembourg	1 !Prime Minister	Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party National: Democratic Party (DP)	02013-12-04-00004 December 2013	2013	2019?	69991100000000000000.11%
	Muscat, JosephJoseph Muscat		Malta	1 !Prime Minister	Party of European Socialists National: Labour Party (PL)	02013-03-11-000011 March 2013	2013	2018?	69988000000000000000.08%
	Rutte, MarkMark Rutte		Netherlands	1 !Minister-President[a 2]	Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party National: People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD)	02010-10-14-000014 October 2010	2012	2017?	70003320000000000003.32%
	Kopacz, EwaEwa Kopacz		Poland	1 !President of the Council of Ministers[a 2]	European People's Party National: Civic Platform of the Republic of Poland (PO)	02014-09-22-000022 September 2014	2011	2015?	70007620000000000007.62%
	Passos Coelho, PedroPedro Passos Coelho		Portugal	1 !Prime Minister	European People's Party National: Social Democratic Party (PPD/PSD)	02011-06-21-000021 June 2011	2011	2015?	70002070000000000002.07%
	Băsescu, TraianTraian Băsescu		Romania	1 !President	European People's Party[a 4] National: Independent[a 5]	02012-08-27-000027 August 2012 (also in office: 2004-2007, 2007-2012; note that Romania has been a member state of the EU from 1st of January 2007)	2014	2019?	70003970000000000003.97%
	Fico, RobertRobert Fico		Slovakia	1 !Chairman of the Government[a 2]	Party of European Socialists National: DIRECTION – Social Democracy (SMER-SD)	02012-04-04-00004 April 2012 (also in office: 2006-2010)	2012	2016?	70001070000000000001.07%
	Cerar, MiroMiro Cerar		Slovenia	1 !President of the Government[a 2]	Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party National: Party of Miro Cerar (SMC)	02014-09-18-000018 September 2014	2014	2018?	69994100000000000000.41%
	Rajoy, MarianoMariano Rajoy		Spain	1 !President of the Government[a 2]	European People's Party National: People's Party (PP)	02011-12-21-000021 December 2011	2011	2015?	70009240000000000009.24%
	Löfven, StefanStefan Löfven		Sweden	1 !Minister of the State[a 2]	Party of European Socialists National: Social Democratic Workers' Party of Sweden (S)	02014-10-03-00003 October 2014	2014	2015	70001890000000000001.89%
	Cameron, DavidDavid Cameron		United Kingdom	1 !Prime Minister	Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists National: Conservative Party (Con)	02010-05-11-000011 May 2010	2010	2015?	700112610000000000012.61%

Notes

1. ^ Used in the calculation of the qualified majority voting. The share of the total population is based on the decision of the Council of the European Union on Member States populations for 2014
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o} English media dub the post as Prime Minister.
3. ^ The Irish Prime Minister is commonly referred to as the Taoiseach in both Irish and English. See: Article 28.5.1° of the Constitution of Ireland.
4. ^ Member of the EPP Congress in quality of EPP Head of State although officially not member of PD-L. See for instance the EPP webpage [1], or press releases from EPP congresses, such as the EPP Summit discusses the situation in Ukraine, banking union; adopts declaration on Industrial Competitiveness in Europe", Brussels, 20 March 2014.
5. ^ Previously Democratic Party (PD); supported by the PD-L during the 2009 presidential campaign; officially not affiliated during presidency according to the Constitution.

Political parties

The states of the European Union by the European party affiliations of their leaders, as of 24 January 2015
Does not account for coalitions. Key to colours is as follows;

  European People's Party

  Party of European Socialists

  Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists

  Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party

  Independent

Almost all members of the European Council are members of a political party at national level, and most of these are members of a European-level political party. These frequently hold pre-meetings of their European Council members, prior to its meetings. However, the European Council is composed to represent the EU's states rather than political parties and decisions are generally made on these lines, though ideological alignment can colour their political agreements and their choice of appointments (such as their president).

The table below outlines the number of leaders affiliated to each party and their total voting weight. The map to the right indicates the alignment of each individual country.

Seat and meetings

Meetings of the European Council usually take place four times a year in Brussels. Meetings traditionally last for two days, sometimes even longer when contentious issues were on the agenda.^[1] However, former President Van Rompuy preferred to keep the summit to a single day.^[18] Until 2002, the venue of the council meeting rotated between member states, as its location was decided by the country holding the rotating presidency. However, the 22nd declaration attached to the Treaty of Nice stated that; "As from 2002, one European Council meeting per Presidency will be held in Brussels. When the Union comprises 18 members, all European Council meetings will be held in Brussels."^[19]

Between 2002 and 2004, half the councils were held in Brussels and, after the 2004 enlargement, all were. The European Council uses the same building as the Council of the European Union, i.e., the Justus Lipsius building. However, some extraordinary councils have taken place in the member state holding the Presidency, e.g., 2003 in Rome or 2005 in Hampton Court Palace. A new building (the "Europa building") is currently being built at the northern end of the adjacent historical Résidence Palace complex for use as a purpose built summit building by the European Council and the Council. It is due to be completed in 2013.^[8][20]

The choice of a single seat was due to a number of factors, mostly logistical (organising the meetings became ever more onerous with the enlargement of the EU, especially for smaller countries) and security (the experience of the Belgian police in dealing with protesters (a protester in Gothenburg was shot by police)) as well as Brussels having fixed facilities for the Council and journalists at every meeting. Having a permanent seat in Brussels also emphasised that the European Council is an EU institution rather than a summit of sovereign States in the manner of the G20. Some have argued it is the de facto EU government,^[8] while others underline that it is the Commission that is the EU's day-to-day government and the European Council can best be compared to a collective head of state.

In 2007, the new situation for locating meetings became a source of contention with the Portuguese government wanting to sign the Lisbon Treaty in Lisbon, Portugal. The Belgian government, however, was keen not to set a precedent and insisted that the regular end of year summit took place in Brussels as usual. This meant that after the signing, photo suit, and formal dinner, the attendees of the summit were transferred from Lisbon to Brussels.^[21] Mirrored with the "travelling circus" of the European Parliament, this garnered protests from environmental groups describing the hypocrisy of demanding lower carbon emissions while flying across Europe for the same summit for political reasons.^[22]

There are no current plans to hold meetings outside of Brussels, except for force majeure (for instance a strike by air traffic controllers nearly caused the January 2012 informal meeting to be switched to Luxembourg).

President's cabinet

Although the European Council is, under the terms of the Lisbon treaty, a separate institution of the EU, it does not have its own administration. The administrative support for both the European Council and its president is provided by the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union. The president does have, however, his own private office (cabinet) of close advisers. Van Rompuy chose as his chief of staff (chef de cabinet) Baron Frans van Daele, formerly Belgian ambassador to, variously, the USA, the UN, the EU and NATO and chief of staff of several Belgian foreign ministers. Also in his team are the former UK Labour MEP Richard Corbett, former Hungarian Ambassador to NATO Zoltán Martinusz, former head of the EU's economic & financial committee Odile Renaud-Basso, and Van Rompuy's long standing press officer Dirk De Backer.

Reflection Group "Horizon 2020–2030"

The European Council of December 2007 established the Reflection Group "Horizon 2020–2030" to assist the European Union in effectively anticipating and meeting challenges in the longer term horizon of 2020 to 2030. The group of 12 is chaired by Felipe González. It started the work in December 2008 and presented its report to the European Council in May 2010.^[6][23]

Its Members were:

Felipe González

• Felipe González (Chair)
• Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga (Vice Chair)
• Jorma Ollila (Vice Chair)
• Lykke Friis
• Rem Koolhaas
• Richard Lambert
• Mario Monti
• Rainer Münz, head of Research & Development at Erste Group Bank AG and Senior Fellow at the German National Library of Economics (HWWI)^[24]
• Kalypso Nicolaïdis
• Nicole Notat, ex secretary-general of the trade union CFDT and she is currently chief executive officer of Vigeo.
• Wolfgang Schuster
• Lech Wałęsa

See also

• Laeken indicators
• Euro summit
• Presidency of the Council of the European Union

References

External links

• Official website
• Archive of European Integration – Summit Guide
• European Council Collection of documents - CVCE
• Reflection Group established by the European Council

European Council List of meetings Party composition '98 '99 '00 '01 '02 '03 '04 (Jan–Apr) '04 (May–Dec) '05 '06 '07 '08 '09 '10 '11 '12 '13 (Jan–Jun) '13 (Jul–Dec) '14 Tusk (President of the European Council) Juncker (President of the European Commission)   Faymann   Michel   Borisov   Milanović   Anastasiades   Sobotka   Thorning-Schmidt   Rõivas   Stubb   Hollande   Merkel   Samaras   Orbán   Kenny   Renzi   Straujuma   Grybauskaitė   Bettel   Muscat   Rutte   Kopacz   Passos Coelho   Băsescu   Fico   Cerar   Rajoy   Löfven   Cameron European Union Portal