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Presidency of the Council of the European Union
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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 which is rotated between European Union member states every six months. There is no single president but rather the task is undertaken by an entire national government, hence that state influences the direction of European Union policy during its term. Although it rotates every six months, since 2007 the current presidency has worked with the last and next one on a common political programme.
Presidency, which is sometimes informally called the EU Presidency, has as its primary responsibility to organise and chair all meetings of the Council.
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Encyclopedia
Presidency of the Council of the European Union is the responsibility for the functioning of the Council of the European Union which is rotated between European Union member states every six months. There is no single president but rather the task is undertaken by an entire national government, hence that state influences the direction of European Union policy during its term. Although it rotates every six months, since 2007 the current presidency has worked with the last and next one on a common political programme.
Functioning
The Presidency, which is sometimes informally called the EU Presidency, has as its primary responsibility to organise and chair all meetings of the Council. However, working out compromises capable of resolving difficulties is in practice also a primary responsibility. The post as President of the Council of the European Union is for each separate meeting held by the responsible government minister of the member state holding the Presidency.
Trio presidencies
The presidency in some regards is now being executed in a shared manner in order to cope with the rather short six month term of the presidency. Three successive presidents forming 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. It should be noted that the legal structure has not officially been modified; rather, it is a de-facto method of operation. However, the Final Act of the IGC in the Treaty of Lisbon would formalise this procedure. This process also allows new member states to hold the presidency sooner, and at the same time the triplets are arranged so that, in each of them, there are both new and old member states, with the assumption that the old member states will pass their experience to the co-presidency new-members.
European Council
Separate from the Council of the European Union there is also the European Council, which meets at European summits at about four times per year. The task of President of the European Council is similarly performed by the head of government or head of state of the member state holding the presidency. The president is primarily responsible for preparing and chairing Council meetings, and has no executive powers. As of 2009, under the Treaty of Lisbon, the European Council will no longer use the presidency system of the Council, but will have a full-time president who will not hold any national office.
List of rotations
1958 to 2006
The Council of the European Union is presided over for a period of six months by each member state of the European Union in turn, in accordance with a pre-established rota unless the Council makes a new decision.
1 Germany 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 remains.
2007 onwards (Trio Presidencies)
See also
- There is a recent tendency among the countries of the union to mint high value commemorative coins celebrating their presidency. One of the most recent samples is the 100 euro, 30 euro and 3 euro issues made by Slovenia, minted in January 2008. On this particular coin, on the reverse side, there are 27 stars, one for each of the 27 EU Member States.
- List of presidents of EU institutions
other
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