The European Council, informally called the European summit, is a meeting of the heads of state or government of the European Union, and the President of the European Commission.

The establishment of the Council was agreed at the December 1974 Paris summit of the European Economic Community Heads of Government following a proposal from Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. The inaugural Council was held in Dublin on 10-11 March 1975 during Ireland's first Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Approximately three annual meetings were held, there are now on average four European Councils each year. Discussion and decisions take place on the matters of key issues and direction of the EU. This institution is different from the Council of the European Union (which includes the ministers with the relevant portfolios) and the Council of Europe (which is an unrelated international organization).

Council venues

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Traditionally the summits of the European Councils have been held in the country currently holding the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. However, in late 2000 it was agreed at the Nice European Council that in the future half the European Councils would be held in Brussels and eventually all would be held there.

Two factors prompted this decision. Firstly, with the impending enlargement of the European Union to 25 or more members, rotating the site of the Council meeting between member states was going to become more difficult. Secondly, Belgium was threatening to hold up the Treaty of Nice, unhappy with the way larger states were going to hold more power in European institutions. Holding the summits in Brussels was meant to encourage Belgium to accept the deal.

The decision was further justified by the increasing violence at European Council meetings, which culminated in the shooting of a protester at the Gothenburg European Council in Sweden in June 2001. It was felt that the Belgian government had more experience at dealing with anti-EU protests, and that putting them in one location would enable increased security.

The proposal has since been strongly criticised by many European Union member states, principally the smaller states and those furthest from Brussels, who have argued that it would in practice be impossible for their leaders to fulfill all the functions of the presidency in Brussels and govern effectively in their own states, the suspicion being that the idea was designed to reduce the practical control exercised by the state nominally holding the presidency, with the day-to-day running of the presidency resting permanently in Brussels among Eurocrats. New members of the EU were particularly opposed and were seeking to overturn the Nice decision.

The proposed Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe proposed to switch the rotating presidency to a 2½-year chair (see below) and all member states' governments have supported the proposal, this issue now seems to be off the political agenda - even though the Treaty itself has failed to gain ratification.

Council presidents

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The role of President of the assembled European Council is performed by the head of government or head of state of the member state currently holding the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The role as president is in no sense equivalent to a head of stateship, merely a primus inter pares (first among equals) role with other European heads of government. The President is primarily responsible for preparing and chairing Council meetings, and has no executive powers.

The current President is Matti Vanhanen of Finland, whose term expires in December 2006. For information on upcoming Presidents see Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Under the provisions contained in the proposed Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, which has yet to be ratified by all member states, the rotating Presidency will be replaced by a permanent 2½-year chair, chosen by the heads of government themselves. The role and responsibilities of the President will be the same as at present, i.e. administrative and non-executive.

Current composition of the European Council

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Main article: Parties in the Council of the European Union

The leaders of each member state generally belong to political parties at the national level, and many of these national parties belong to pan-European political parties. However there are no formal political groups or alliances in the Council, and countries led by similar political parties are often not in agreement on questions that come before the body. Nonetheless the table below describes the current breakdown of party affiliations in the Council, as of May 2006, in terms of the European political alliances with which the leader of each member state is indirectly associated.

List of councils

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Year	Date	Venue	President	Details	bgcolor=#FFE8E8
1975	10 March - 11 March	Dublin	Liam Cosgrave	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001921
	16 July - 17 July	Brussels	Aldo Moro	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001427
	1 December - 2 December	Rome	Aldo Moro	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001407
1976	1 April - 2 April	Luxembourg	Gaston Thorn	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001412/
	12 July - 13 July	Brussels	Joop den Uyl	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001428/
	29 November - 30 November	The Hague	Joop den Uyl	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001450/
1977	25 March - 27 March?	Rome	James Callaghan	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001405/
	29 June - 30 June	London	James Callaghan	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001410/
	5 December - 6 December	Brussels	Leo Tindemans	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001423/
1978	7 April - 8 April	Copenhagen	Anker Jørgensen	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001440/
	6 July - 7 July	Bremen	Helmut Schmidt	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001454/
	4 December - 5 December	Brussels	Helmut Schmidt	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001424/
1979	12 March - 13 March	Paris	Valéry Giscard d'Estaing	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001458/
	21 June - 22 June	Strasbourg	Valéry Giscard d'Estaing	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001394/
	29 November - 30 November	Dublin	Jack Lynch	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001402/
1980	17 April - 18 April	Luxembourg	Francesco Cossiga	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001413/
	12 June - 13 June	Venice	Francesco Cossiga	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001393/
	1 December - 2 December	Luxembourg	Pierre Werner	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001415/
1981	23 March - 24 March	Maastricht	Dries van Agt	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001419/
	29 June - 30 June	Luxembourg	Dries van Agt	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001417/
	26 November - 27 November	London	Margaret Thatcher	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001411/
1982	29 March - 30 March	Brussels	Wilfried Martens	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001431/
	28 June - 29 June	Brussels	Wilfried Martens	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001429/
	3 December - 4 December	Copenhagen	Poul Schlüter	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001441/
1983	21 March - 22 March	Brussels	Helmut Kohl	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001432/
	17 June - 19 June	Stuttgart	Helmut Kohl	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001396/
	4 December - 6 December	Athens	Andreas Papandreou	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001437/
1984	19 March - 20 March	Brussels	François Mitterrand	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001433/
	25 June - 26 June	Fontainebleau	François Mitterrand	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001448/ British rebate agreed
	3 December - 4 December	Dublin	Garret FitzGerald	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001400/
1985	29 March - 30 March	Brussels	Bettino Craxi	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001434/
	28 June - 29 June	Milan	Bettino Craxi	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001421/
	2 December - 3 December	Luxembourg	Jacques Santer	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001416/
1986	26 June - 27 June	The Hague	Ruud Lubbers	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001449/
	5 December - 6 December	London	Margaret Thatcher	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001409/
1987	29 June - 30 June	Brussels	Wilfried Martens	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001430/
	4 December - 5 December	Copenhagen	Poul Schlüter	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001442/
1988	11 February - 13 February	Brussels	Helmut Kohl	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001426/
	27 June - 28 June	Hanover	Helmut Kohl	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001422/
	2 December - 3 December	Rhodes	Andreas Papandreou	http://aei.pitt.edu/archive/00001483/
1989	26 June - 27 June	Madrid	Felipe González	http://aei.pitt.edu/1453/
	18 November	Paris	François Mitterrand	http://aei.pitt.edu/1457/ Informal
	8 December - 9 December	Strasbourg	François Mitterrand	http://aei.pitt.edu/1395/
1990	28 April	Dublin	Charles Haughey	http://aei.pitt.edu/1397/
	25 June - 26 June	Dublin	Charles Haughey	http://aei.pitt.edu/1401/
	27 October - 28 October	Rome	Giulio Andreotti	http://aei.pitt.edu/1404/
	14 December - 15 December	Rome	Giulio Andreotti	http://aei.pitt.edu/1406/
1991	8 April	Luxembourg	Jacques Santer	http://aei.pitt.edu/1414/
	28 June - 29 June	Luxembourg	Jacques Santer	http://aei.pitt.edu/1935/
	9 December - 10 December	Maastricht	Ruud Lubbers	http://aei.pitt.edu/1418/ See Treaty of Maastricht
1992	27 June - 27 June	Lisbon	Aníbal Cavaco Silva	http://aei.pitt.edu/1420/
	16 October	Birmingham	John Major	http://aei.pitt.edu/1455/
	11 December - 12 December	Edinburgh	John Major	http://aei.pitt.edu/1445/
1993	21 June - 22 June	Copenhagen	Poul Nyrup Rasmussen	http://aei.pitt.edu/1443/ See Copenhagen criteria
	29 October	Brussels	Jean-Luc Dehaene	http://aei.pitt.edu/1435/
	10 December - 11 December	Brussels	Jean-Luc Dehaene	http://aei.pitt.edu/1425/
1994	24 June - 25 June	Corfu	Andreas Papandreou	http://aei.pitt.edu/1444/ Signing of the Treaty of the 1995 Accession of Austria, Finland and Sweden (and Norway which later fails to ratify and stays out of the EU)
	9 December - 10 December	Essen	Helmut Kohl	http://aei.pitt.edu/1447/
1995	26 June - 27 June	Cannes	Jacques Chirac	http://aei.pitt.edu/1446/
	15 December - 16 December	Madrid	Felipe González	http://aei.pitt.edu/1452/
1996	29 March - 30 March	Turin	Lamberto Dini
	21 June - 22 June	Florence	Romano Prodi
	13 December - 14 December	Dublin	John Bruton
1997	16 June - 17 June	Amsterdam	Wim Kok	See Treaty of Amsterdam
	20 November - 21 November	Luxembourg	Jean-Claude Juncker	Special council on Employment
	12 December - 13 December	Luxembourg	Jean-Claude Juncker
1998	15 June - 16 June	Cardiff	Tony Blair
	11 December - 12 December	Vienna	Viktor Klima
1999	25 March - 26 March	Berlin	Gerhard Schröder
	3 June - 4 June	Cologne	Gerhard Schröder
	15 October - 16 October	Tampere	Paavo Lipponen
	10 December - 11 December	Helsinki	Paavo Lipponen
2000	23 March - 24 March	Lisbon	António Guterres	See Lisbon Strategy
	19 June - 20 June	Santa Maria da Feira	António Guterres
	13 October - 14 October	Biarritz	Jacques Chirac	Informal European council
	7 December - 9 December	Nice	Jacques Chirac	See Treaty of Nice
2001	23 March - 24 March	Stockholm	Göran Persson
	15 June - 16 June	Gothenburg	Göran Persson
	21 September	Brussels	Guy Verhofstadt	Emergency council - Terrorism
	19 October	Ghent	Guy Verhofstadt	Informal council
	14 December - 15 December	Laeken	Guy Verhofstadt	See Laeken European Council
2002	15 March - 16 March	Barcelona	José María Aznar López
	21 June - 22 June	Seville	José María Aznar López
	24 October - 25 October	Brussels	Anders Fogh Rasmussen
	12 December - 13 December	Copenhagen	Anders Fogh Rasmussen
2003	17 February	Brussels	Costas Simitis	Extraordinary council - Iraq
	20 March - 21 March	Brussels	Costas Simitis
	16 April - 17 April	Athens	Costas Simitis	Informal council - Signing of the Treaty of Accession 2003
	20 June	Thessaloniki	Costas Simitis
	4 October	Rome	Silvio Berlusconi	Extraordinary council to begin IGC on EU Constitution
	16 October - 17 October	Brussels	Silvio Berlusconi
	12 December - 13 December	Brussels	Silvio Berlusconi
2004	25 March - 26 March	Brussels	Bertie Ahern
	17 June - 18 June	Brussels	Bertie Ahern
	4 November - 5 November	Brussels	Jan Peter Balkenende
	16 December - 17 December	Brussels	Jan Peter Balkenende
2005	22 March - 23 March	Brussels	Jean-Claude Juncker
	16 June - 17 June	Brussels	Jean-Claude Juncker
	27 October	Hampton Court Palace	Tony Blair	Informal council on globalisation
	15 December - 16 December	Brussels	Tony Blair
2006	23 March - 24 March	Brussels	Wolfgang Schüssel
	15 June - 16 June	Brussels	Wolfgang Schüssel

See also

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• Presidency of the Council of the European Union
• Institutions of the European Union
• Model European Communities Project

External links

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• The European Council
• The Council of the European Union
• European Parliament's list of summits since 1985
• University of Pittsburgh - Archive of European Integration - Summit Guide

European Union

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