Presidency of the Council of the European Union (commonly referred to as presidency 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.

Article 16(9) of the Treaty on European Union (as amended by the Treaty of Lisbon) provides:

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 Intergovernmental Conference for the Treaty of Lisbon would formalise this procedure. This was set out in the Declaration on Article 16(9) of the Treaty on European Union concerning the European Council decision on the exercise of the Presidency of the Council. 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 (or synonymously the Council of Ministers) there is the European Council, which meets at European summits at about four times per year. Article 10(2) of the Treaty on European Union provides:

The task of President of the European Council has been performed by the head of government or head of state of the member state holding the presidency of the Council of the European Union. This post is primarily responsible for preparing and chairing the meetings of the European Council, and has no executive powers. Under the Treaty of Lisbon (effective from 2010 onwards), these positions will be separated and the European Council 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.

year	half-year	Presidency holder	Website	Council President (Responsible national minister)	Logo
1958	Jan-Jun		N/A	Victor Larock	Spain 1995 Finland 1999 Portugal 2000 France 2000 Sweden 2001 Belgium 2001 Spain 2002 Denmark 2002 Greece 2003 Italy 2003 Ireland 2004 Netherlands 2004 Luxembourg 2005 Austria 2006 Finland 2006
	Jul-Dec		N/A	Siegfried Balke
1959	Jan-Jun		N/A	Maurice Couve de Murville
	Jul-Dec		N/A	Giuseppe Pella
1960	Jan-Jun		N/A	Eugène Schaus
	Jul-Dec		N/A	Joseph Luns
1961	Jan-Jun		N/A	Paul-Henri Spaak
	Jul-Dec		N/A	Gerhard Schröder
1962	Jan-Jun		N/A	Maurice Couve de Murville
	Jul-Dec		N/A	Emilio Colombo
1963	Jan-Jun		N/A	Eugène Schaus
	Jul-Dec		N/A	Joseph Luns
1964	Jan-Jun		N/A	Hendrik Fayat
	Jul-Dec		N/A	Gerhard Schröder
1965	Jan-Jun		N/A	Maurice Couve de Murville
	Jul-Dec		N/A	Amintore Fanfani
1966	Jan-Jun		N/A	Pierre Werner
	Jul-Dec		N/A	Barend Biesheuvel
1967	Jan-Jun		N/A	Renaat Van Elslande
	Jul-Dec		N/A	Willy Brandt
1968	Jan-Jun		N/A	Maurice Couve de Murville
	Jul-Dec		N/A	Giuseppe Medici
1969	Jan-Jun		N/A	Pierre Grégoire
	Jul-Dec		N/A	Joseph Luns
1970	Jan-Jun		N/A	Pierre Harmel
	Jul-Dec		N/A	Walter Scheel
1971	Jan-Jun		N/A	Maurice Schumann
	Jul-Dec		N/A	Aldo Moro
1972	Jan-Jun		N/A	Gaston Thorn
	Jul-Dec		N/A	Norbert Schmelzer
1973	Jan-Jun		N/A	Pierre Harmel
	Jul-Dec		N/A	Ivar Nørgaard
1974	Jan-Jun		N/A	Walter Scheel
	Jul-Dec		N/A	Jean Sauvagnargues
1975	Jan-Jun		N/A	Garret FitzGerald
	Jul-Dec		N/A	Mariano Rumor
1976	Jan-Jun		N/A	Gaston Thorn
	Jul-Dec		N/A	Max van der Stoel
1977	Jan-Jun		N/A	Anthony Crosland, then David Owen
	Jul-Dec		N/A	Henri Simonet
1978	Jan-Jun		N/A	Knud Børge Andersen
	Jul-Dec		N/A	Hans-Dietrich Genscher
1979	Jan-Jun		N/A	Jean François-Poncet
	Jul-Dec		N/A	Michael O'Kennedy
1980	Jan-Jun		N/A	Attilio Ruffini
	Jul-Dec		N/A	Colette Flesch
1981	Jan-Jun		N/A	Chris van der Klaauw
	Jul-Dec		N/A	Peter Carrington
1982	Jan-Jun		N/A	Leo Tindemans
	Jul-Dec		N/A	Uffe Ellemann-Jensen
1983	Jan-Jun		N/A	Hans-Dietrich Genscher
	Jul-Dec		N/A	Grigoris Varfis
1984	Jan-Jun		N/A	Roland Dumas
	Jul-Dec		N/A	Peter Barry
1985	Jan-Jun		N/A	Giulio Andreotti
	Jul-Dec		N/A	Jacques Poos
1986	Jan-Jun		N/A	Hans van den Broek
	Jul-Dec		N/A	Geoffrey Howe
1987	Jan-Jun		N/A	Leo Tindemans
	Jul-Dec		N/A	Uffe Ellemann-Jensen
1988	Jan-Jun		N/A	Hans-Dietrich Genscher
	Jul-Dec		N/A	Theodoros Pangalos
1989	Jan-Jun		N/A	Francisco Fernández Ordóñez
	Jul-Dec		N/A	Roland Dumas
1990	Jan-Jun		N/A	Gerry Collins
	Jul-Dec		N/A	Gianni De Michelis
1991	Jan-Jun		N/A	Jacques Poos
	Jul-Dec		N/A	Hans van den Broek
1992	Jan-Jun		N/A	João de Deus Pinheiro
	Jul-Dec		N/A	Douglas Hurd
1993	Jan-Jun		N/A	Poul Nyrup Rasmussen
	Jul-Dec		N/A	Willy Claes
1994	Jan-Jun		N/A	Karolos Papoulias
	Jul-Dec		N/A	Klaus Kinkel
1995	Jan-Jun		N/A	Alain Juppé
	Jul-Dec		N/A	Javier Solana
1996	Jan-Jun		?	Lamberto Dini, then Romano Prodi
	Jul-Dec		?	Dick Spring
1997	Jan-Jun		?	Hans van Mierlo
	Jul-Dec		?	Jacques Poos
1998	Jan-Jun		presid.fco.gov.uk	Robin Cook
	Jul-Dec		?	Wolfgang Schüssel
1999	Jan-Jun		?	Joschka Fischer
	Jul-Dec		presidency.finland.fi	Tarja Halonen
2000	Jan-Jun		?	Jaime Gama
	Jul-Dec		?	Hubert Védrine
2001	Jan-Jun		eu2001.se	Anna Lindh
	Jul-Dec		eu2001.be	Louis Michel
2002	Jan-Jun		ue2002.es	Josep Piqué i Camps
	Jul-Dec		eu2002.dk	Per Stig Møller
2003	Jan-Jun		eu2003.gr	George Papandreou
	Jul-Dec		eu2003.it	Franco Frattini
2004	Jan-Jun		eu2004.ie	Bertie Ahern
	Jul-Dec		eu2004.nl	Bernard Bot
2005	Jan-Jun		eu2005.lu	Jean Asselborn
	Jul-Dec		eu2005.gov.uk	Jack Straw Douglas Alexander
2006	Jan-Jun		eu2006.at	Ursula Plassnik
	Jul-Dec	1	eu2006.fi	Erkki Tuomioja

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 remained.

2007 onwards: trio presidencies

Trio	Year	Half-year	Presidency holder	Website	Council President (Minister responsible)	Priorities	Logo
T1	2007	Jan-Jun		eu2007.de	Frank-Walter Steinmeier	Treaty of Lisbon Lisbon Strategy Security, Freedom & Justice	Germany 2007 Portugal 2007 Slovenia 2008 France 2008 Czech Republic 2009 Sweden 2009 Spain 2010 Belgium 2010 Hungary 2011
		Jul-Dec		eu2007.pt	Luís Amado
	2008	Jan-Jun		eu2008.si	Dimitrij Rupel
T2		Jul-Dec		ue2008.fr	Bernard Kouchner	Defence integration Europe without barriers Kosovo Union for the Mediterranean Climate Change Economy and Employment The Stockholm Programme
	2009	Jan-Jun		eu2009.cz	Karel Schwarzenberg Jan Kohout
		Jul-Dec		se2009.eu	Cecilia Malmström
T3	2010			eutrio.es	Miguel Ángel Moratinos	TBD
		Jul-Dec		eutrio.be	Yves Leterme
	2011	Jan-Jun		eutrio.hu	TBD
T4		Jul-Dec		pl2011.eu	TBD	TBD
	2012	Jan-Jun		TBD	TBD
		Jul-Dec		TBD	TBD
T5	2013	Jan-Jun		eu2013.ie	TBD	TBD
		Jul-Dec		[34594]	TBD
	2014	Jan-Jun		TBD	TBD
T6		Jul-Dec		TBD	TBD	TBD
	2015	Jan-Jun		TBD	TBD
		Jul-Dec		TBD	TBD
T7	2016	Jan-Jun		TBD	TBD	TBD
		Jul-Dec		TBD	TBD
	2017	Jan-Jun		TBD	TBD
T8		Jul-Dec		TBD	TBD	TBD
	2018	Jan-Jun		eu2018.ee	TBD
		Jul-Dec		TBD	TBD
T9	2019	Jan-Jun		TBD	TBD	TBD
		Jul-Dec		TBD	TBD
	2020	Jan-Jun		TBD	TBD

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
  • President of the European Parliament
  • President of the European Council
  • President of the European Commission

References

1. 18-month programme German 2007 Presidency
2. EUobserver.com
3. Work programme for the Swedish Presidency Swedish Presidency of the European Union; retrieved on 29 November 2009.
4. The Organisation of the Presidency Swedish Presidency of the European Union; retrieved on 29 November 2009.
5. Next Presidency logo presented Swedish Presidency of the European Union; retrieved on 29 November 2009.
6. The official website for the Polish Presidency of the EU Council Polish Presidency of the EU Council; 22 October 2009; retrieved on 29 November 2009.
7. .ie WHOIS lookup showing registration of eu2013.ie to Dept. Foreign Affairs

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