President of the European Council

The President of the European Council is a position that was created by the Treaty of Lisbon. The President is the chairman of the European Council, which is the meeting of the leaders of all the member states.

President of the European Council
Emblem of European Council
Flag of Europe
Incumbent Charles Michel since 1 December 2019
European Council
Style	Mr. President
Status	Presiding and chief administrative officer
Member of	European Council (non-voting)
Residence	Europa building
Seat	Brussels, Belgium
Appointer	European Council by qualified majority
Term length	2.5 years, renewable once
Constituting instrument	Treaties of the European Union
Precursor	Chairman of the European Council
Formation	1 December 2009
First holder	Herman Van Rompuy
Website	consilium.europa.eu

Background

It's a very diplomatic figure, and it's not like a head of state: the President does not have any power to make decisions about the European Union. The Union has several other presidents, such as the president of the European Parliament and the president of the European Commission. But the President of the European Council, casually but wrongly known as The President of Europe, is the face by which the European Union is known to the rest of the world. The more practical aspects of this task are the responsibility of the High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, the Commissioner responsible for external affairs.

On 2 July 2019, the European Council elected Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel as the successor to Donald Tusk as President of the European Council for the period from 1 December 2019 to 31 May 2022.

Rotating presidents (1975–2009)

Year	Period	Office Holder	European party		State
1975	Jan–Jun	Liam Cosgrave		European People's Party	Ireland
	Jul–Dec	Aldo Moro		European People's Party	Italy
1976	Jan–Jun	Gaston Thorn		Liberal and Democratic Group	Luxembourg
	Jul–Dec	Joop den Uyl		Party of European Socialists	Netherlands
1977	Jan–Jun	James Callaghan		Party of European Socialists	United Kingdom
	Jul–Dec	Leo Tindemans		European People's Party	Belgium
1978	Jan–Jun	Anker Jørgensen		Party of European Socialists	Denmark
	Jul–Dec	Helmut Schmidt		Party of European Socialists	West Germany
1979	Jan–Jun	Valéry Giscard d'Estaing		European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party	France
	Jul–Dec	Jack Lynch		European Progressive Democrats	Ireland
	Dec	Charles Haughey		European Progressive Democrats
1980	Jan–Jun	Francesco Cossiga		European People's Party	Italy
	Jul–Dec	Pierre Werner		European People's Party	Luxembourg
1981	Jan–Jun	Dries van Agt		European People's Party	Netherlands
	Jul–Dec	Margaret Thatcher		Independent	United Kingdom
1982	Jan–Jun	Wilfried Martens		European People's Party	Belgium
	Jul–Sep	Anker Jørgensen		Party of European Socialists	Denmark
	Sep–Dec	Poul Schlüter		European People's Party
1983	Jan–Jun	Helmut Kohl		European People's Party	West Germany
	Jul–Dec	Andreas Papandreou		Party of European Socialists	Greece
1984	Jan–Jun	François Mitterrand		Party of European Socialists	France
	Jul–Dec	Garret FitzGerald		European People's Party	Ireland
1985	Jan–Jun	Bettino Craxi		Party of European Socialists	Italy
	Jul–Dec	Jacques Santer		European People's Party	Luxembourg
1986	Jan–Jun	Ruud Lubbers		European People's Party	Netherlands
	Jul–Dec	Margaret Thatcher		Independent	United Kingdom
1987	Jan–Jun	Wilfried Martens		European People's Party	Belgium
	Jul–Dec	Poul Schlüter		European People's Party	Denmark
1988	Jan–Jun	Helmut Kohl		European People's Party	West Germany
	Jul–Dec	Andreas Papandreou		Party of European Socialists	Greece
1989	Jan–Jun	Felipe González		Party of European Socialists	Spain
	Jul–Dec	François Mitterrand		Party of European Socialists	France
1990	Jan–Jun	Charles Haughey		European Democratic Alliance	Ireland
	Jul–Dec	Giulio Andreotti		European People's Party	Italy
1991	Jan–Jun	Jacques Santer		European People's Party	Luxembourg
	Jul–Dec	Ruud Lubbers		European People's Party	Netherlands
1992	Jan–Jun	Aníbal Cavaco Silva		European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party	Portugal
	Jul–Dec	John Major		Independent	United Kingdom
1993	Jan	Poul Schlüter		European People's Party	Denmark
	Jan–Jun	Poul Nyrup Rasmussen		Party of European Socialists
	Jul–Dec	Jean-Luc Dehaene		European People's Party	Belgium
1994	Jan–Jun	Andreas Papandreou		Party of European Socialists	Greece
	Jul–Dec	Helmut Kohl		European People's Party	Germany
1995	Jan–May	François Mitterrand		Party of European Socialists	France
	May–Jun	Jacques Chirac		Independent
	Jul–Dec	Felipe González		Party of European Socialists	Spain
1996	Jan–May	Lamberto Dini		European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party	Italy
	May–Jun	Romano Prodi		Party of European Socialists
	Jul–Dec	John Bruton		European People's Party	Ireland
1997	Jan–Jun	Wim Kok		Party of European Socialists	Netherlands
	Jul–Dec	Jean-Claude Juncker		European People's Party	Luxembourg
1998	Jan–Jun	Tony Blair		Party of European Socialists	United Kingdom
	Jul–Dec	Viktor Klima		Party of European Socialists	Austria
1999	Jan–Jun	Gerhard Schröder		Party of European Socialists	Germany
	Jul–Dec	Paavo Lipponen		Party of European Socialists	Finland
2000	Jan–Jun	António Guterres		Party of European Socialists	Portugal
	Jul–Dec	Jacques Chirac		European People's Party	France
2001	Jan–Jun	Göran Persson		Party of European Socialists	Sweden
	Jul–Dec	Guy Verhofstadt		European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party	Belgium
2002	Jan–Jun	José María Aznar		European People's Party	Spain
	Jul–Dec	Anders Fogh Rasmussen		European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party	Denmark
2003	Jan–Jun	Costas Simitis		Party of European Socialists	Greece
	Jul–Dec	Silvio Berlusconi		European People's Party	Italy
2004	Jan–Jun	Bertie Ahern		Union for Europe of the Nations	Ireland
	Jul–Dec	Jan Peter Balkenende		European People's Party	Netherlands
2005	Jan–Jun	Jean-Claude Juncker		European People's Party	Luxembourg
	Jul–Dec	Tony Blair		Party of European Socialists	United Kingdom
2006	Jan–Jun	Wolfgang Schüssel		European People's Party	Austria
	Jul–Dec	Matti Vanhanen		European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party	Finland
2007	Jan–Jun	Angela Merkel		European People's Party	Germany
	Jul–Dec	José Sócrates		Party of European Socialists	Portugal
2008	Jan–Jun	Janez Janša		European People's Party	Slovenia
	Jul–Dec	Nicolas Sarkozy		European People's Party	France
2009	Jan–May	Mirek Topolánek		Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists	Czech Republic
	May–Jun	Jan Fischer		Independent
	Jul–Nov	Fredrik Reinfeldt		European People's Party	Sweden

Permanent presidents (since 2009)

Nº	Portrait	Name (birth–death)	Country	Term of office		European political party	National political party
1		Herman Van Rompuy (born 1947)	Belgium	1 December 2009	30 November 2014	EPP	CD&V
			Previously Prime Minister of Belgium (2008–2009), Van Rompuy was the first permanent officeholder, chosen as a low profile consensus builder. He led a task force on reforming the EU's economic governance, drafting the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) treaty and amendment. He is a supporter of greater economic integration but against the accession of Turkey to the EU.
2		Donald Tusk (born 1957)	Poland	1 December 2014	30 November 2019	EPP	PO
			Previously Prime Minister of Poland (2007–2014), he is the longest serving head of government of the Third Republic of Poland. Tusk's Civic Platform won a plurality of seats in the 2011 parliamentary election, meaning that he became the first Polish Prime Minister to be reelected since the fall of communism.
3		Charles Michel (born 1975)	Belgium	1 December 2019		ALDE	MR
			Prime Minister of Belgium (since 2014).

President Of The European Council Media

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  President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, during a visit to the Paranal Observatory.

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  Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council

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  Charles Michel 2019 (cropped)