Presidency of the Council of the European Union

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Presidency of the EU Council
Current Presidency logo
Incumbent Sweden
Term length	Six months
Inaugural holder	Belgium
Formation	1958
Website	www.se2009.eu

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Presidency of the Council of the European Union (commonly referred to as presidency of the European Union) is the responsibility for the functioning of the Council of the European Union which is rotated between European Union member states every six months. There is no single president but rather the task is undertaken by an entire national government, hence that state influences the direction of European Union policy during its term. Although it rotates every six months, since 2007 the current presidency has worked with the last and next one on a common political programme.

Article 16(9) of the Treaty on European Union (as amended by the Treaty of Lisbon) 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.

[edit] Functioning

The Presidency, which is sometimes informally called the EU Presidency, has as its primary responsibility to organise and chair all meetings of the Council. However, working out compromises capable of resolving difficulties is in practice also a primary responsibility. The post as President of the Council of the European Union is for each separate meeting held by the responsible government minister of the member state holding the Presidency.

[edit] Trio presidencies

The presidency in some regards is now being executed in a shared manner in order to cope with the rather short six month term of the presidency. Three successive presidents forming a "triple-shared presidency" work together over a 1.5 year 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. It should be noted that the legal structure has not officially been modified; rather, it is a de facto method of operation. However, the Final Act of the Intergovernmental Conference for the Treaty of Lisbon would formalise this procedure. This was set out in the Declaration on Article 16(9) of the Treaty on European Union concerning the European Council decision on the exercise of the Presidency of the Council. This process also allows new member states to hold the presidency sooner, and at the same time the triplets are arranged so that, in each of them, there are both new and old member states, with the assumption that the old member states will pass their experience to the co-presidency new-members.

[edit] European Council

Separate from the Council of the European Union (or synonymously the Council of Ministers) there is the European Council, which meets at European summits at about four times per year. Article 10(2) of the Treaty on European Union provides:

Citizens are directly represented at Union level in the European Parliament.

Member States are represented in the European Council by their Heads of State or Government and in the Council by their governments, themselves democratically accountable either to their national Parliaments, or to their citizens.

The task of President of the European Council has been performed by the head of government or head of state of the member state holding the presidency of the Council of the European Union. This post is primarily responsible for preparing and chairing the meetings of the European Council, and has no executive powers. Under the Treaty of Lisbon (effective from 2010 onwards), these positions will be separated and the European Council will have a full-time president who will not hold any national office.

[edit] List of rotations

[edit] 1958 to 2006

The Council of the European Union is presided over for a period of six months by each member state of the European Union in turn, in accordance with a pre-established rota unless the Council makes a new decision.

year	half-year	Presidency holder	Website	Council President (Responsible national minister)	Logo
1958	Jan-Jun	Belgium	N/A	Victor Larock	Spain 1995 Finland 1999 Portugal 2000 France 2000 Sweden 2001 Belgium 2001 Spain 2002 Denmark 2002 Greece 2003 Italy 2003 Ireland 2004 Netherlands 2004 Luxembourg 2005 Austria 2006 Finland 2006
	Jul-Dec	West Germany	N/A	Siegfried Balke
1959	Jan-Jun	France	N/A	Maurice Couve de Murville
	Jul-Dec	Italy	N/A	Giuseppe Pella
1960	Jan-Jun	Luxembourg	N/A	Eugène Schaus
	Jul-Dec	Netherlands	N/A	Joseph Luns
1961	Jan-Jun	Belgium	N/A	Paul-Henri Spaak
	Jul-Dec	West Germany	N/A	Gerhard Schröder
1962	Jan-Jun	France	N/A	Maurice Couve de Murville
	Jul-Dec	Italy	N/A	Emilio Colombo
1963	Jan-Jun	Luxembourg	N/A	Eugène Schaus
	Jul-Dec	Netherlands	N/A	Joseph Luns
1964	Jan-Jun	Belgium	N/A	Hendrik Fayat
	Jul-Dec	West Germany	N/A	Gerhard Schröder
1965	Jan-Jun	France	N/A	Maurice Couve de Murville
	Jul-Dec	Italy	N/A	Amintore Fanfani
1966	Jan-Jun	Luxembourg	N/A	Pierre Werner
	Jul-Dec	Netherlands	N/A	Barend Biesheuvel
1967	Jan-Jun	Belgium	N/A	Renaat Van Elslande
	Jul-Dec	West Germany	N/A	Willy Brandt
1968	Jan-Jun	France	N/A	Maurice Couve de Murville
	Jul-Dec	Italy	N/A	Giuseppe Medici
1969	Jan-Jun	Luxembourg	N/A	Pierre Grégoire
	Jul-Dec	Netherlands	N/A	Joseph Luns
1970	Jan-Jun	Belgium	N/A	Pierre Harmel
	Jul-Dec	West Germany	N/A	Walter Scheel
1971	Jan-Jun	France	N/A	Maurice Schumann
	Jul-Dec	Italy	N/A	Aldo Moro
1972	Jan-Jun	Luxembourg	N/A	Gaston Thorn
	Jul-Dec	Netherlands	N/A	Norbert Schmelzer
1973	Jan-Jun	Belgium	N/A	Pierre Harmel
	Jul-Dec	Denmark	N/A	Ivar Nørgaard
1974	Jan-Jun	West Germany	N/A	Walter Scheel
	Jul-Dec	France	N/A	Jean Sauvagnargues
1975	Jan-Jun	Ireland	N/A	Garret FitzGerald
	Jul-Dec	Italy	N/A	Mariano Rumor
1976	Jan-Jun	Luxembourg	N/A	Gaston Thorn
	Jul-Dec	Netherlands	N/A	Max van der Stoel
1977	Jan-Jun	United Kingdom	N/A	Anthony Crosland, then David Owen
	Jul-Dec	Belgium	N/A	Henri Simonet
1978	Jan-Jun	Denmark	N/A	Knud Børge Andersen
	Jul-Dec	West Germany	N/A	Hans-Dietrich Genscher
1979	Jan-Jun	France	N/A	Jean François-Poncet
	Jul-Dec	Ireland	N/A	Michael O'Kennedy
1980	Jan-Jun	Italy	N/A	Attilio Ruffini
	Jul-Dec	Luxembourg	N/A	Colette Flesch
1981	Jan-Jun	Netherlands	N/A	Chris van der Klaauw
	Jul-Dec	United Kingdom	N/A	Peter Carrington
1982	Jan-Jun	Belgium	N/A	Leo Tindemans
	Jul-Dec	Denmark	N/A	Uffe Ellemann-Jensen
1983	Jan-Jun	West Germany	N/A	Hans-Dietrich Genscher
	Jul-Dec	Greece	N/A	Grigoris Varfis
1984	Jan-Jun	France	N/A	Roland Dumas
	Jul-Dec	Ireland	N/A	Peter Barry
1985	Jan-Jun	Italy	N/A	Giulio Andreotti
	Jul-Dec	Luxembourg	N/A	Jacques Poos
1986	Jan-Jun	Netherlands	N/A	Hans van den Broek
	Jul-Dec	United Kingdom	N/A	Geoffrey Howe
1987	Jan-Jun	Belgium	N/A	Leo Tindemans
	Jul-Dec	Denmark	N/A	Uffe Ellemann-Jensen
1988	Jan-Jun	West Germany	N/A	Hans-Dietrich Genscher
	Jul-Dec	Greece	N/A	Theodoros Pangalos
1989	Jan-Jun	Spain	N/A	Francisco Fernández Ordóñez
	Jul-Dec	France	N/A	Roland Dumas
1990	Jan-Jun	Ireland	N/A	Gerry Collins
	Jul-Dec	Italy	N/A	Gianni De Michelis
1991	Jan-Jun	Luxembourg	N/A	Jacques Poos
	Jul-Dec	Netherlands	N/A	Hans van den Broek
1992	Jan-Jun	Portugal	N/A	João de Deus Pinheiro
	Jul-Dec	United Kingdom	N/A	Douglas Hurd
1993	Jan-Jun	Denmark	N/A	Poul Nyrup Rasmussen
	Jul-Dec	Belgium	N/A	Willy Claes
1994	Jan-Jun	Greece	N/A	Karolos Papoulias
	Jul-Dec	Germany	N/A	Klaus Kinkel
1995	Jan-Jun	France	N/A	Alain Juppé
	Jul-Dec	Spain	N/A	Javier Solana
1996	Jan-Jun	Italy	?	Lamberto Dini, then Romano Prodi
	Jul-Dec	Ireland	?	Dick Spring
1997	Jan-Jun	Netherlands	?	Hans van Mierlo
	Jul-Dec	Luxembourg	?	Jacques Poos
1998	Jan-Jun	United Kingdom	presid.fco.gov.uk	Robin Cook
	Jul-Dec	Austria	?	Wolfgang Schüssel
1999	Jan-Jun	Germany	?	Joschka Fischer
	Jul-Dec	Finland	presidency.finland.fi	Tarja Halonen
2000	Jan-Jun	Portugal	?	Jaime Gama
	Jul-Dec	France	?	Hubert Védrine
2001	Jan-Jun	Sweden	eu2001.se	Anna Lindh
	Jul-Dec	Belgium	eu2001.be	Louis Michel
2002	Jan-Jun	Spain	ue2002.es	Josep Piqué i Camps
	Jul-Dec	Denmark	eu2002.dk	Per Stig Møller
2003	Jan-Jun	Greece	eu2003.gr	George Papandreou
	Jul-Dec	Italy	eu2003.it	Franco Frattini
2004	Jan-Jun	Ireland	eu2004.ie	Bertie Ahern
	Jul-Dec	Netherlands	eu2004.nl	Bernard Bot
2005	Jan-Jun	Luxembourg	eu2005.lu	Jean Asselborn
	Jul-Dec	United Kingdom	eu2005.gov.uk	Jack Straw Douglas Alexander
2006	Jan-Jun	Austria	eu2006.at	Ursula Plassnik
	Jul-Dec	Finland1	eu2006.fi	Erkki Tuomioja

¹ Germany was due to succeed Austria in 2006 but stepped aside as general elections were scheduled for that period. Finland, as next in line, took their place. In the event, the German elections took place in 2005 due to a loss of confidence vote, but the re-arrangement remained.

[edit] 2007 onwards: trio presidencies

Trio	Year	Half-year	Presidency holder	Website	Council President (Minister responsible)	Priorities	Logo
T1	2007	Jan-Jun	Germany	eu2007.de	Frank-Walter Steinmeier	Treaty of Lisbon Lisbon Strategy Security, Freedom & Justice[1]	Germany 2007 Portugal 2007 Slovenia 2008 France 2008 Czech Republic 2009 Sweden 2009 Spain 2010 Belgium 2010 Hungary 2011
		Jul-Dec	Portugal	eu2007.pt	Luís Amado
	2008	Jan-Jun	Slovenia	eu2008.si	Dimitrij Rupel
T2		Jul-Dec	France	ue2008.fr	Bernard Kouchner	Defence integration[2] Europe without barriers[3] Kosovo Union for the Mediterranean Climate Change[4] Economy and Employment[4] The Stockholm Programme[4]
	2009	Jan-Jun	Czech Republic	eu2009.cz	Karel Schwarzenberg Jan Kohout
		Jul-Dec	Sweden	se2009.eu	Cecilia Malmström[5]
T3	2010	Jan-Jun	Spain	eutrio.es [6]	Miguel Ángel Moratinos	TBD
		Jul-Dec	Belgium	eutrio.be [6]	Yves Leterme
	2011	Jan-Jun	Hungary	eutrio.hu [6]	TBD
T4		Jul-Dec	Poland	pl2011.eu [7]	TBD	TBD
	2012	Jan-Jun	Denmark	TBD	TBD
		Jul-Dec	Cyprus	TBD	TBD
T5	2013	Jan-Jun	Ireland	eu2013.ie[8]	TBD	TBD
		Jul-Dec	Lithuania	[1]	TBD
	2014	Jan-Jun	Greece	TBD	TBD
T6		Jul-Dec	Italy	TBD	TBD	TBD
	2015	Jan-Jun	Latvia	TBD	TBD
		Jul-Dec	Luxembourg	TBD	TBD
T7	2016	Jan-Jun	Netherlands	TBD	TBD	TBD
		Jul-Dec	Slovakia	TBD	TBD
	2017	Jan-Jun	Malta	TBD	TBD
T8		Jul-Dec	United Kingdom	TBD	TBD	TBD
	2018	Jan-Jun	Estonia	eu2018.ee	TBD
		Jul-Dec	Bulgaria	TBD	TBD
T9	2019	Jan-Jun	Austria	TBD	TBD	TBD
		Jul-Dec	Romania	TBD	TBD
	2020	Jan-Jun	Finland	TBD	TBD

[edit] See also

Slovenian Presidency of the European Union commemorative coin

• There is a recent tendency among the countries of the union to mint high value commemorative coins celebrating their presidency. One of the most recent samples is the 100 euro, 30 euro and 3 euro issues made by Slovenia, minted in January 2008. On this particular coin, on the reverse side, there are 27 stars, one for each of the 27 EU Member States.
• List of presidents of EU institutions
  • President of the European Parliament
  • President of the European Council
  • President of the European Commission

[edit] References

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Angela Merkel's 2007 Speech to the European Parliament

[edit] External links

• Presidency of the Council of the European Union
• Logos of the Council Presidencies
• Presidency order of Rotation List to 2020
• Radio France International dossier on French 6 month EU Presidency