European Council

The European Council (ER, informally also EUCO, from the English European Council) is the body of the heads of state and government of the European Union (EU). The Council meets at least twice every six months, also known as the EU Summit. The European Council plays a special role in the EU's political system: it is not involved in the day-to-day lawmaking of the EU, but serves as a superordinate institution, in particular to find compromises between member states on important political issues and to provide fundamental impetus for the further development of the Union. Its tasks and functioning are set out in Article 15 of the EU Treaty and Article 235 et seq. of the TFEU. TFEU Treaty.

The European Council represents the governments of the EU Member States and therefore forms the second important intergovernmental institution of the European Union alongside the Council of the European Union (also called the Council of Ministers), which can be understood as a chamber of states. It is thus distinct from supranational bodies such as the European Parliament (chamber of citizens), the European Commission (executive) and the European Court of Justice.

A President of the European Council, who may not otherwise hold a national political office, is elected to chair the summits for two and a half years at a time. He or she is to ensure continuity in the work of the European Council, mediate in conflicts and draw up compromise proposals, but has no voting rights of his or her own. He also represents the Union externally, together with the President of the Commission. The incumbent has been Charles Michel since 1 December 2019.

Tasks

According to Article 15 of the EU Treaty, the European Council "shall provide the EU with the necessary impetus for its development and shall define the general political guidelines and priorities for it". In addition, the European Council also deals with important issues for which no consensus could be found at ministerial level (i.e. in the Council of the European Union). The Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) is also frequently discussed. The results of the Council meetings are recorded in the "Presidency Conclusions". These are initially not legally binding within the EU political system. However, since the heads of state and government usually have a directive competence within the government of their own state, the results of the negotiations of the European Council also serve as a guideline for the meetings of the Council of Ministers. The European Commission also usually acts in accordance with the compromises reached at the summit meetings.

Some operational decisions on EU policy provided for in the TFEU are also taken by the European Council. These include the nomination of the President of the Commission and the High Representative of the EU, through which the European Council has an influence on the EU executive. Elections are made by qualified majority. The European Council has a further function in connection with the passerelle provision in Article 48 of the EU Treaty: this enables it to introduce qualified majority voting or the ordinary legislative procedure for certain policy areas which, according to the EU Treaty, actually require unanimity in the Council of the EU. However, the national parliaments have a veto right for such passerelle decisions.

The European Council elects the members of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank by a qualified majority after non-binding votes in the Economic Committee and in the plenary of the European Parliament on a recommendation from the Council of the EU (Article 283 (2), second subparagraph, TFEU).

The European Council plays a special role in EU treaty reforms (such as the Treaty of Nice or the Treaty of Lisbon). These are international treaties under international law between the individual member states and must therefore be negotiated and signed by their governments. Again, the guiding decisions are usually taken at summit meetings of the European Council, which then convenes an intergovernmental conference at which officials of the member states negotiate the precise wording. The signing of the treaties again takes place at meetings of the European Council.

Old logo of the European Council until 30 June 2014

Composition

The European Council is officially composed of the Heads of State or Government of the Union, the President of the European Council and the President of the Commission, the latter having no voting rights. The High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy also participates in an advisory capacity (Article 15 (2) of the EU Treaty). As a rule, the summits are also attended by another Commissioner and the Secretary-General of the Council, who assists the President of the Council in his work. At the beginning of the summits, the President of the European Parliament also presents Parliament's position on the issues at stake. These participants also feature in the so-called "family photos" taken at each summit. In individual cases, the European Council invites other participants, such as senior officials, to its meetings in an advisory capacity.

Since the term "Heads of State or Government" is not clearly defined, the decision as to who exactly represents a Member State in the European Council is left to the respective national regulations. The purpose of the wording is that the government representative with the broadest decision-making powers is present in each case. In most countries this is the head of government; only for Lithuania and France, where the constitutional competence for foreign policy lies with the President of the Republic and not with the Prime Minister, does the respective head of state take part in the summit meetings. The national arrangement is particularly important in states with a semi-presidential system of government, where both heads of state and government have political influence but may belong to different parties. In the past, for example, there have been disputes in Finland and Poland as to whether the respective President of the Republic should attend the meetings alongside or instead of the Head of Government.

If a Head of State or Government is unable to attend a meeting, he or she may transfer his or her voting rights to another Member State. However, each State may represent no more than one other State (Article 235 TFEU).

Political alliances

Although the negotiating and voting behaviour of the heads of state and government is primarily determined by national interests, their party affiliations also offer an explanatory approach to the policies of the European Council as a whole. The heads of state and government of the major European parties or groups - Christian Democrats (EPP), Social Democrats (PES) and Liberals (ALDE or Renew Europe) - regularly consult with each other at separate meetings before the summit. These are usually attended by the leaders of the political groups in the Parliament, sometimes the Commissioners and other guests. For example, the then Greek Prime Minister Tsipras (European Left) was regularly invited to the meetings of the social democratic heads of government.

Current composition

The following table of the current members of the European Council also names the national political party and the European political party to which each politician belongs (as of 15 June 2021):

Member State	Office	Position	Incumbent		national party	European party		Incoming
Belgium Belgium	Prime Minister	Head of government		Alexander De Croo	Open VLD		ALDE	1 October 2020
Bulgaria Bulgaria	Prime Minister	Head of government		Stefan Janew (acting)	nonpartisan		nonpartisan	12 May 2021
Denmark Denmark	Minister of State	Government leader		Mette Frederiksen	A		SPE	June 27, 2019
Germany Germany	Chancellor	Government leader		Angela Merkel	CDU		EVP	22 November 2005
Estonia Estonia	Prime Minister	Government leader		Kaja Kallas	RE		ALDE	26 January 2021
Finland Finland	Prime Minister	Government leader		Sanna Marin	SDP		SPE	December 10, 2019
France France	President of the Republic	Head of State		Emmanuel Macron	REM		Independent (ALDE-affiliated)	May 14, 2017
Greece Greece	Prime Minister	Head of government		Kyriakos Mitsotakis	ND		EVP	July 8, 2019
Ireland Ireland	Taoiseach	Head of government		Micheál Martin	FF		ALDE	27 June 2020
Italy Italy	President of the Council of Ministers	Head of government		Mario Draghi	nonpartisan		nonpartisan	13 February 2021
Croatia Croatia	Prime Minister	Head of government		Andrej Plenković	HDZ		EVP	19 October 2016
Latvia Latvia	Prime Minister	Head of government		Krišjānis Kariņš	Vienotība		EVP	January 23, 2019
Lithuania Lithuania	President	Head of State		Gitanas Nausėda	nonpartisan		nonpartisan	July 12, 2019
Luxembourg Luxembourg	Prime Minister	Head of government		Xavier Bettel	DP		ALDE	December 4, 2013
Malta Malta	Prime Minister	Head of government		Robert Abela	PL		SPE	13 January 2020
Netherlands Netherlands	Prime Minister	Head of government		Mark Rutte	VVD		ALDE	October 14, 2010
Austria Austria	Chancellor	Head of government		Sebastian Kurz	ÖVP		EVP	January 7, 2020
Poland Poland	President of the Council of Ministers	Head of government		Mateusz Morawiecki	PiS		EKR	11 December 2017
Portugal Portugal	Prime Minister	Head of government		António Costa	PS		SPE	24 November 2015
Romania Romania	President	Head of State		Klaus Johannis	PNL*		EVP	21 December 2014
Sweden Sweden	Minister of State	Head of government		Stefan Löfven	S		SPE	October 2, 2014
Slovakia Slovakia	President of the Government	Head of government		Eduard Heger	OĽaNO		independent (close to EPP)	1 April 2021
Slovenia Slovenia	Prime Minister	Head of government		Janez Janša	SDS		EVP	13 March 2020
Spain Spain	Prime Minister	Head of government		Pedro Sánchez	PSOE		SPE	June 1, 2018
Czech Republic Czech Republic	President of the Government	Head of government		Andrej Babiš	ANO		ALDE	13 December 2017
Hungary Hungary	Prime Minister	Head of government		Viktor Orbán	Fidesz		independent (close to EKR or ID)	May 29, 2010
Cyprus Republic ofCyprus	President	heads of state and government		Nikos Anastasiadis	DISY		EVP	February 28, 2013
European Union European Commission	President of the European Commission (without voting rights)			Ursula von der Leyen	CDU		EVP	December 1, 2019
European Union European Commission	High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (without voting rights)			Josep Borrell	PSC		SPE	December 1, 2019
European Union Presidency	President of the European Council (without voting rights)			Charles Michel	MR		ALDE	December 1, 2019

Photo of the members of the European Council at the Brussels Summit in 1987