Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union

In December 1974, the European Council was formally founded by the final communiqué of the Paris summit. It met for the first time in 1975. The European Council replaced the European summits that took place between 1961 and 1974. The Single European Act of 1986 gave the European Council a legal basis, while the Treaty of Maastricht specified its duties.

On 1 December 2009, when the Treaty of Lisbon entered into force, the European Council became an official European Institution. It also acquired a permanent President. Until then, this role had been performed by the Member State that was holding the rotating six-month Presidency.

Role

The European Council is the body of the European Union that meets at the highest political level. The European Council provides the necessary impetus for the development of the Union and sets the general political policy outlines and priorities. It does not actually make any laws.

The European Council also plays a major role in treaty changes. For standard treaty changes, the European Council either summons a convention (in the event of major changes) or it directly determines the mandate of an Intergovernmental Conference (IGC). This IGC consists of representatives of member state governments and establishes treaty changes in mutual consent. In the event of simplified review procedures, the European Council itself decides by unanimous vote. 

The European Council can also take a number of decisions of an institutional nature, such as determining the composition of the European Parliament, the list of configurations of the Council (with the exception of the General Affairs Council and the Foreign Affairs Council) and the Presidency of the configurations of the Council (with the exception of the Foreign Affairs Council).

Composition

The European Council consists of the Heads of State and Government of the 27 Member States of the European Union, its own President and the President of the European Commission. In practice, it is mostly the Heads of Government who represent their countries.

The members of the European Council can decide to have the support of one minister each, while the President of the Commission can be supported by a member of the Commission. This depends on what is on the agenda.

The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy takes part in the activities of the European Council.

President

The European Council chooses its own permanent President via qualified majority voting. Since 1 January 2010, that has been the Belgian, Herman Van Rompuy. His term of office is two-and-a-half years and he can be reappointed for one further term. The permanent President prepares the meetings of the European Council and then chairs them. In so doing, he is the guardian of the continuity of its activities.

In principle, the High Representative represents the GBVB in the Union, including –among others- the political dialogue with third parties and expressing the stand of the Union in international organisations and at international conferences. The permanent president of the European Council also represents the European Union in the field of Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) but on ‘his level and in his capacity’, i.e. in contact with government leaders and heads of state. The High Representative, on the other hand, represents the Union in the CFSP in terms of its other aspects: political dialogue with third parties and giving a voice to the Union’s point of view in international organisations and at international conferences.

It is also the permanent President who convokes extraordinary meetings of the European Council when the situation so requires.

Operation

The European Council meets at least four times a year for two days in Brussels. These meetings are carefully prepared by the permanent President of the European Council in consultation with the President of the Commission. This takes place on the basis of the activities of the General Affairs Council (GAC). The General Affairs Council, in turn, is prepared by the ambassadors of the Member States to the European Union (Coreper II). It is the General Affairs Council that is responsible for following up on the activities of the European Council.

Alongside the four formal European Councils in Brussels each year there are also informal European Councils.

Want to know more about the European Council?

Did you know...
that the Heads of State and Government mostly make their decisions by consensus, unless the Treaties dictate otherwise?