Presidency of the Council of the European Union

Presidency of the Council of the European Union
Current Presidency logo
Incumbent Belgium
Term length	Six months
Inaugural holder	Belgium
Formation	1958
Website	www.eutrio.be

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Presidency of the Council of the European Union is the responsibility for the functioning of the Council of the European Union that rotates between the member states of the European Union (EU) every six months. The presidency is not a single president but rather the task is undertaken by a national government. Three successive presidencies, known as presidency trios, cooperate to provide additional continuity by sharing common political programmes. The current trio consists of Spain, Belgium and Hungary.

History

When the Council was established, its work was minimal and the presidency rotated between each of the then-six members every six months. However as the work load of the Council grew and the membership increased, the lack of coordination between each successive six month presidency hindered the development of long-term priorities for the EU.

In order to rectify the situation, the idea of trio presidencies were put forward where groups of three successive presidencies cooperated on a common political program. This was implemented in 2007 and formally laid down in the EU treaties in 2009 via the Treaty of Lisbon.

The Treaty of Lisbon also reduced the importance of the Presidency significantly by officially separating the European Council (EU heads of state or government) from the Council of the European Union, thus terminating the capacity of the head of state or government of the member state holding the Presidency to be President of the European Council. Simultaneously it split the foreign affairs Council configuration from the General Affairs configuration and made the High Representative the chairman rather than the foreign minister of the Presidency state.

On top of the intended downgrading of the rotating Council presidency, the presidency has become even less influential in practice than planned. The High Representative has been taking on roles previously guarded by the presidency country's foreign minister and the European Council president has begun acting on finance policy; the most important policy area left to the rotating presidency. It is expected that the European Council president would be strengthened further when Belgium holds the rotating Presidency.^[1] There was some previous opposition to downgrading the rotating presidency too much, with Sweden claiming it would disengage member states from feeling actively engaged in running the EU, especially smaller states.

Functioning

The Council meets in various formations where its composition depends on the topic discussed. For example, the Agriculture Council is composed of the national ministers responsible for Agriculture.

The primary responsibility of the Presidency is to organise and chair all meetings of the Council, apart from the Foreign Affairs Council which is chaired by the High Representative. So the Minister of Agriculture for the state holding the presidency chairs the Agriculture council. This role includes working out compromises capable of resolving difficulties.

Article 16(9) of the Treaty on European Union 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.

Each three successive presidencies cooperate on 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. This ensures more consistency in comparison to a usual single six month presidency and each three includes a new member state. This allows new member states to hold the presidency sooner and helps old member states pass their experience to the new members.

List of rotations

Period		Trio	Holder	Website
1958	Jan-Jun		Belgium
	Jul-Dec		West Germany
1959	Jan-Jun		France
	Jul-Dec		Italy
1960	Jan-Jun		Luxembourg
	Jul-Dec		Netherlands
1961	Jan-Jun		Belgium
	Jul-Dec		West Germany
1962	Jan-Jun		France
	Jul-Dec		Italy
1963	Jan-Jun		Luxembourg
	Jul-Dec		Netherlands
1964	Jan-Jun		Belgium
	Jul-Dec		West Germany
1965	Jan-Jun		France
	Jul-Dec		Italy
1966	Jan-Jun		Luxembourg
	Jul-Dec		Netherlands
1967	Jan-Jun		Belgium
	Jul-Dec		West Germany
1968	Jan-Jun		France
	Jul-Dec		Italy
1969	Jan-Jun		Luxembourg
	Jul-Dec		Netherlands
1970	Jan-Jun		Belgium
	Jul-Dec		West Germany
1971	Jan-Jun		France
	Jul-Dec		Italy
1972	Jan-Jun		Luxembourg
	Jul-Dec		Netherlands
1973	Jan-Jun		Belgium
	Jul-Dec		Denmark
1974	Jan-Jun		West Germany
	Jul-Dec		France
1975	Jan-Jun		Ireland
	Jul-Dec		Italy
1976	Jan-Jun		Luxembourg
	Jul-Dec		Netherlands
1977	Jan-Jun		United Kingdom
	Jul-Dec		Belgium
1978	Jan-Jun		Denmark
	Jul-Dec		West Germany
1979	Jan-Jun		France
	Jul-Dec		Ireland
1980	Jan-Jun		Italy
	Jul-Dec		Luxembourg
1981	Jan-Jun		Netherlands
	Jul-Dec		United Kingdom
1982	Jan-Jun		Belgium
	Jul-Dec		Denmark
1983	Jan-Jun		West Germany
	Jul-Dec		Greece
1984	Jan-Jun		France
	Jul-Dec		Ireland
1985	Jan-Jun		Italy
	Jul-Dec		Luxembourg
1986	Jan-Jun		Netherlands
	Jul-Dec		United Kingdom
1987	Jan-Jun		Belgium
	Jul-Dec		Denmark
1988	Jan-Jun		West Germany
	Jul-Dec		Greece
1989	Jan-Jun		Spain
	Jul-Dec		France
1990	Jan-Jun	Ireland
	Jul-Dec	Italy
1991	Jan-Jun	Luxembourg
	Jul-Dec	Netherlands
1992	Jan-Jun	Portugal
	Jul-Dec	United Kingdom
1993	Jan-Jun	Denmark
	Jul-Dec	Belgium
1994	Jan-Jun	Greece
	Jul-Dec	Germany
1995	Jan-Jun	France
	Jul-Dec	Spain
1996	Jan-Jun	Italy	?
	Jul-Dec	Ireland	?
1997	Jan-Jun	Netherlands	?
	Jul-Dec	Luxembourg	?
1998	Jan-Jun	United Kingdom	presid.fco.gov.uk
	Jul-Dec	Austria	?
1999	Jan-Jun	Germany	?
	Jul-Dec	Finland	presidency.finland.fi
2000	Jan-Jun	Portugal	?
	Jul-Dec	France	?
2001	Jan-Jun	Sweden	eu2001.se
	Jul-Dec	Belgium	eu2001.be
2002	Jan-Jun	Spain	ue2002.es
	Jul-Dec	Denmark	eu2002.dk
2003	Jan-Jun	Greece	eu2003.gr
	Jul-Dec	Italy	eu2003.it
2004	Jan-Jun	Ireland	eu2004.ie
	Jul-Dec	Netherlands	eu2004.nl
2005	Jan-Jun	Luxembourg	eu2005.lu
	Jul-Dec	United Kingdom	eu2005.gov.uk
2006	Jan-Jun	Austria	eu2006.at
	Jul-Dec	Finland1	eu2006.fi
2007	Jan-Jun	T1	Germany	eu2007.de
	Jul-Dec		Portugal	eu2007.pt
2008	Jan-Jun		Slovenia	eu2008.si
	Jul-Dec	T2	France	ue2008.fr
2009	Jan-Jun		Czech Republic	eu2009.cz
	Jul-Dec		Sweden	se2009.eu
2010	Jan-Jun	T3	Spain	eu2010.es[2]	[1]
	Jul-Dec		Belgium	eutrio.be[2]
2011	Jan-Jun		Hungary	eutrio.hu[2]
	Jul-Dec	T4	Poland	pl2011.eu[3]
2012	Jan-Jun		Denmark	TBD
	Jul-Dec		Cyprus	TBD
2013	Jan-Jun	T5	Ireland	eu2013.ie[4]
	Jul-Dec		Lithuania	TBD
2014	Jan-Jun		Greece	TBD
	Jul-Dec	T6	Italy	TBD
2015	Jan-Jun		Latvia	TBD
	Jul-Dec		Luxembourg	TBD
2016	Jan-Jun	T7	Netherlands	TBD
	Jul-Dec		Slovakia	TBD
2017	Jan-Jun		Malta	TBD
	Jul-Dec	T8	United Kingdom	TBD
2018	Jan-Jun		Estonia	TBD
	Jul-Dec		Bulgaria	TBD
2019	Jan-Jun	T9	Austria	TBD
	Jul-Dec		Romania	TBD
2020	Jan-Jun		Finland	TBD

¹Germany 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.

See also

• List of presidents of EU institutions
  • President of the European Parliament
  • President of the European Council
  • President of the European Commission

References

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

Council of the European Union Operation Presidency (Current trio: Spain • Belgium • Hungary) • Voting 150px Configurations Economic and Financial Affairs Council (Euro Group) • Foreign Affairs Council • General Affairs Council Administration General Secretariat • Secretary-General: Pierre de Boissieu • COREPER Buildings Justus Lipsius • Lex • Résidence Palace European Union Portal