Presidency of the Council of the European Union

Not to be confused with President of the European Council.

Presidency of the Council of the European Union
Incumbent Ireland
Term length	Six months
Website	eu2013.ie

European Union

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of the European Union

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The Presidency of the Council of the European Union is responsible for the functioning of the Council of the European Union, the upper house of the EU legislature. It rotates among the member states of the EU every six months. The presidency is not an individual, but rather the position is held by a national government. It is sometimes incorrectly referred to as the President of the European Union. The presidency's function is to chair meetings of the Council, determine its agendas, set a work programme and facilitate dialogue both at Council meetings and with other EU institutions. The current presidency (as of early 2013) is held by Ireland.

Three successive presidencies, known as presidency trios, cooperate for an 18-month period to provide continuity by sharing common political programmes. The 2013–2014 trio consists of Ireland (1 January - 30 June 2013), Lithuania (1 July - 31 December 2013) and Greece (1 January - 30 June 2014).

History

When the Council was established, its work was minimal and the presidency rotated between each of the then six members every six months. However as the work load of the Council grew and the membership increased, the lack of coordination between each successive six-month presidency hindered the development of long-term priorities for the EU.

In order to rectify the lack of coordination, the idea of trio presidencies was put forward where groups of three successive presidencies cooperated on a common political program. This was implemented in 2007 and formally laid down in the EU treaties in 2009 by the Treaty of Lisbon.

Until 2009, the Presidency had assumed political responsibility in all areas of European integration and it played a vital role in brokering high level political decisions.

The Treaty of Lisbon reduced the importance of the Presidency, significantly by officially separating the European Council from the Council of the European Union. Simultaneously it split the foreign affairs Council configuration from the General Affairs configuration and created the position of High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

Functioning

The Council meets in various formations where its composition depends on the topic discussed. For example, the Agriculture Council is composed of the national ministers responsible for Agriculture.

The primary responsibility of the Presidency is to organise and chair all meetings of the Council, apart from the Foreign Affairs Council which is chaired by the High Representative. So, for instance, the Minister of Agriculture for the state holding the presidency chairs the Agriculture council. This role includes working out compromises capable of resolving difficulties.

Article 16(9) of the Treaty on European Union provides:

The Presidency of Council configurations, other than that of Foreign Affairs, shall be held by Member State representatives in the Council on the basis of equal rotation, in accordance with the conditions established in accordance with Article 236 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

Each three successive presidencies cooperate on a "triple-shared presidency" work together over an 18-month period to accomplish a common agenda by the current president simply continuing the work of the previous "lead-president" after the end of his/her term. This ensures more consistency in comparison to a usual single six-month presidency and each three includes a new member state. This allows new member states to hold the presidency sooner and helps old member states pass their experience to the new members.

The role of the rotating Council Presidency includes:

• agenda-setting powers: in its 6-month programme, it decides on the order to discuss propositions, after they have been submitted by the Commission in its agenda monopoly powers;
• brokering inter-institutional compromise: trialogues between Commission, Parliament and Council are held to reach early consensus in the codecision legislative procedure; the Presidency takes part to the Conciliation Committee between Parliament and Council in the 3rd stage of the codecision legislative procedure;
• coordinating national policies and brokering compromise between member states in the Council (“confessional system”)
• management and administration of the Council, external and internal representation;

Holding the rotating Council Presidency includes both advantages and disadvantages for member states; The opportunities include:

1. member states have the possibility to show their negotiating skills, as “honest brokers”, thus gaining influence and prestige;
2. member states gain a privileged access to information: at the end of their term, they know member states' preferences better than anyone else
3. the Council programme may enable member states to focus Council discussion on issues of particular national/regional interest (e.g.: Finland and the Northern Dimension initiative)

The burdens include:

1. lack of administrative capacities and experience, especially for small and new member states; the concept of trio/troika has been introduced to enable member states to share experiences and ensure coherence on a 18-months base;
2. expenses in time and money, needed to support the administrative machine;
3. not being able to push through their own interests, as the role of Council Presidency is seen as an impartial instance; member states trying to push for initiatives of their own national interest are likely to see them failing in the medium run (e.g. the French 2008 Presidency and the Mediterranean Union project), as they need consensus and do not have enough time to reach it. This element is particularly substantial: holding the presidency may be, on balance, a disadvantage for member states .

The rotating presidency is probably not needed any more, with the 2009 reforms by the Lisbon Treaty, but reforming it has proved incredibly difficult: it still enables little states to stand up and try to push forward vital policies; it represents a sharing of administrative burdens, enabling the coordination of policies, the stability of the Council agenda (through the troika) and providing learning and experience for member states' public administrations.

List of rotations

Period		Trio	Holder	Website
1958	Jan–Jun		Belgium
	Jul–Dec		West Germany
1959	Jan–Jun		France
	Jul–Dec		Italy
1960	Jan–Jun		Luxembourg
	Jul–Dec		Netherlands
1961	Jan–Jun		Belgium
	Jul–Dec		West Germany
1962	Jan–Jun		France
	Jul–Dec		Italy
1963	Jan–Jun		Luxembourg
	Jul–Dec		Netherlands
1964	Jan–Jun		Belgium
	Jul–Dec		West Germany
1965	Jan–Jun		France
	Jul–Dec		Italy
1966	Jan–Jun		Luxembourg
	Jul–Dec		Netherlands
1967	Jan–Jun		Belgium
	Jul–Dec		West Germany
1968	Jan–Jun		France
	Jul–Dec		Italy
1969	Jan–Jun		Luxembourg
	Jul–Dec		Netherlands
1970	Jan–Jun		Belgium
	Jul–Dec		West Germany
1971	Jan–Jun		France
	Jul–Dec		Italy
1972	Jan–Jun		Luxembourg
	Jul–Dec		Netherlands
1973	Jan–Jun		Belgium
	Jul–Dec		Denmark
1974	Jan–Jun		West Germany
	Jul–Dec		France
1975	Jan–Jun		Ireland
	Jul–Dec		Italy
1976	Jan–Jun		Luxembourg
	Jul–Dec		Netherlands
1977	Jan–Jun		United Kingdom
	Jul–Dec		Belgium
1978	Jan–Jun		Denmark
	Jul–Dec		West Germany
1979	Jan–Jun		France
	Jul–Dec		Ireland
1980	Jan–Jun		Italy
	Jul–Dec		Luxembourg
1981	Jan–Jun		Netherlands
	Jul–Dec		United Kingdom
1982	Jan–Jun		Belgium
	Jul–Dec		Denmark
1983	Jan–Jun		West Germany
	Jul–Dec		Greece
1984	Jan–Jun		France
	Jul–Dec		Ireland
1985	Jan–Jun		Italy
	Jul–Dec		Luxembourg
1986	Jan–Jun		Netherlands
	Jul–Dec		United Kingdom
1987	Jan–Jun		Belgium
	Jul–Dec		Denmark
1988	Jan–Jun		West Germany
	Jul–Dec		Greece
1989	Jan–Jun		Spain
	Jul–Dec		France
1990	Jan–Jun	Ireland
	Jul–Dec	Italy
1991	Jan–Jun	Luxembourg
	Jul–Dec	Netherlands
1992	Jan–Jun	Portugal
	Jul–Dec	United Kingdom
1993	Jan–Jun	Denmark
	Jul–Dec	Belgium
1994	Jan–Jun	Greece
	Jul–Dec	Germany
1995	Jan–Jun	France
	Jul–Dec	Spain
1996	Jan–Jun	Italy
	Jul–Dec	Ireland
1997	Jan–Jun	Netherlands
	Jul–Dec	Luxembourg
1998	Jan–Jun	United Kingdom	presid.fco.gov.uk
	Jul–Dec	Austria	presidency.gv.at
1999	Jan–Jun	Germany	?
	Jul–Dec	Finland	presidency.finland.fi
2000	Jan–Jun	Portugal	?
	Jul–Dec	France	?
2001	Jan–Jun	Sweden	eu2001.se
	Jul–Dec	Belgium	eu2001.be
2002	Jan–Jun	Spain	ue2002.es
	Jul–Dec	Denmark	eu2002.dk
2003	Jan–Jun	Greece	eu2003.gr
	Jul–Dec	Italy	ueitalia2003.it
2004	Jan–Jun	Ireland	eu2004.ie
	Jul–Dec	Netherlands	eu2004.nl
2005	Jan–Jun	Luxembourg	eu2005.lu
	Jul–Dec	United Kingdom	eu2005.gov.uk
2006	Jan–Jun	Austria	eu2006.at
	Jul–Dec	Finland	eu2006.fi
2007	Jan–Jun	T1	Germany	eu2007.de
	Jul–Dec		Portugal	eu2007.pt
2008	Jan–Jun		Slovenia	eu2008.si
	Jul–Dec	T2	France	ue2008.fr
2009	Jan–Jun		Czech Republic	eu2009.cz
	Jul–Dec		Sweden	se2009.eu
2010	Jan–Jun	T3	Spain	eu2010.es eutrio.es
	Jul–Dec		Belgium	eutrio.be
2011	Jan–Jun		Hungary	eu2011.hu
	Jul–Dec	T4	Poland	pl2011.eu
2012	Jan–Jun		Denmark	eu2012.dk
	Jul–Dec		Cyprus	cy2012.eu
2013	Jan–Jun	T5	Ireland	eu2013.ie
	Jul–Dec		Lithuania	eu2013.lt
2014	Jan–Jun		Greece	TBD
	Jul–Dec	T6	Italy	TBD
2015	Jan–Jun		Latvia	eu2015.lv
	Jul–Dec		Luxembourg	TBD
2016	Jan–Jun	T7	Netherlands	TBD
	Jul–Dec		Slovakia	TBD
2017	Jan–Jun		Malta	TBD
	Jul–Dec	T8	United Kingdom	TBD
2018	Jan–Jun		Estonia	TBD
	Jul–Dec		Bulgaria	TBD
2019	Jan–Jun	T9	Austria	TBD
	Jul–Dec		Romania	TBD
2020	Jan–Jun		Finland	TBD

See also

• List of presidents of EU institutions
  • President of the European Parliament
  • President of the European Council
  • President of the European Commission
• Council of the EU

External links

• Presidency of the Council of the European Union
• Logos of the Council Presidencies
• Presidency order of Rotation List to 2020
• Implications of the Polish Presidency of the EU for Europe and Transatlantic Affairs, lecture by Maciej Pisarski (Deputy Chief of Mission of the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Washington, DC), delivered at the University of Illinois, 2 December 2011
• Cyprus takes over EU presidency amid doubts