The European Council, sometimes 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 (not to be confused with the Council of the European Union, or the Council of Europe). On average four European Councils are held every year in which discussion is held on the matters of key issues and direction of the EU.

Summits

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. 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 fulfil 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.

As the proposed new Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe now proposes to switch the rotating presidency to a 2½-year chair (see below) and all member states' governments have supported the draft, this issue now seems to be off the political agenda.

List of summits

1985

• Brussels, March 1985
• Milan, June 1985
• Luxembourg, December 1985

1986

• The Hague, June 1986
• London, December 1986

1987

• Brussels, June 1987

1988

• Brussels, February 1988
• Hannover, June 1988
• Rhodes, December 1988

1989

• Madrid, June 1989
• Strasbourg, December 1989

1990

• Dublin, June 1990
• Rome, October 1990
• Rome, December 1990

1991

• Luxembourg, June 1991
• Maastricht, December 1991 . See Treaty of Maastricht.

1992

• Lisbon, June 1992
• Birmingham, October 1992
• Edinburgh, December 1992

1993

• Copenhagen, June 1993 . See Copenhagen criteria.
• Brussels, October 1993
• Brussels, December 1993

1994

• Corfu, June 1994 . 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).
• Essen, December 1994

1995

• Cannes, June 1995
• Madrid, December 1995

1996

• Turin, March 1996
• Florence, June 1996
• Dublin, December 1996

1997

• Amsterdam, June 1997 . See Treaty of Amsterdam.
• Luxembourg, November 1997
• Luxembourg, December 1997

1998

• Cardiff, June 1998
• Vienna, December 1998

1999

• Berlin, March 1999
• Cologne, June 1999
• Tampere, October 1999
• Helsinki, December 1999

2000

• Lisbon, March 2000 See Lisbon Strategy
• Santa Maria da Feira, June 2000
• Nice, December 2000. See Treaty of Nice.

2001

• Stockholm, March 2001.
• Gothenburg, June 2001
• Brussels, September 2001
• Gent, October 2001
• Laeken, December 2001. See Laeken European Council.

2002

• Barcelona, March 2002
• Seville, June 2002
• Brussels, October 2002
• Copenhagen, December 2002.

2003

• Brussels, February 2003
• Brussels, March 2003
• Athens, April 2003. Signing of the Treaty of Accession 2003.
• Thessaloniki, June 2003
• Rome, October 2003
• Brussels, October 2003
• Brussels, December 2003

2004

• Brussels, March 2004
• Brussels, June 2004

President

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 Council 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.

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.

See also

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

List of presidents

• Tony Blair, United Kingdom (First half-year 1998)
• Viktor Klima, Austria (Second half-year 1998)
• Gerhard Schröder, Germany (First half-year 1999)
• Paavo Lipponen, Finland (Second half-year 1999)
• António Guterres, Portugal (First half-year 2000)
• Jacques Chirac, France (Second half-year 2000)
• Göran Persson, Sweden (First half-year 2001)
• Guy Verhofstadt, Belgium (Second half-year 2001)
• José María Aznar López, Spain (First half-year 2002)
• Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Denmark (Second half-year 2002)
• Costas Simitis, Greece (First half-year 2003)
• Silvio Berlusconi, Italy (Second half-year 2003)
• Bertie Ahern, Ireland (First half-year 2004)
• Jan Peter Balkenende, Netherlands (Second half-year 2004)
• Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg (First half-year 2005)