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Presidency of the Council of the European Union |
| Presidency of the EU Council | |
 Current Presidency insignia |
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Incumbent
France |
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| Term length | Six months |
|---|---|
| Inaugural holder | Belgium |
| Formation | 1958 |
| Website | www.ue2008.fr |
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.
Contents |
The Presidency, which is sometimes informally called the EU Presidency, has as its primary responsibility to organize 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.
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 formalize 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.
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.
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.
| Trio | Year | Half-year | Presidency holder | Website | Council President (Minister responsible) | Priorities | Insignias |
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| T1 | 2007 | Jan-Jun |  Germany |
eu2007.de | Frank-Walter Steinmeier |
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| Jul-Dec |  Portugal |
eu2007.pt | Luís Amado | ||||
| 2008 | Jan-Jun |  Slovenia |
eu2008.si | Dimitrij Rupel | |||
| T2 | Jul-Dec |  France |
ue2008.fr | Bernard Kouchner |
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| 2009 | Jan-Jun |  Czech Republic |
eu2009.cz | Karel Schwarzenberg, Alexandr Vondra | |||
| Jul-Dec |  Sweden |
TBD | Carl Bildt | ||||
| T3 | 2010 | Jan-Jun |  Spain |
ue2010.es | Miguel Ángel Moratinos | TBD | |
| Jul-Dec | .svg){kind=small} Belgium |
TBD | TBD | ||||
| 2011 | Jan-Jun |  Hungary |
eu2011.hu | TBD | |||
| T4 | Jul-Dec |  Poland |
TBD | TBD | TBD | ||
| 2012 | Jan-Jun |  Denmark |
TBD | TBD | |||
| Jul-Dec |  Cyprus |
TBD | TBD | ||||
| T5 | 2013 | Jan-Jun |  Ireland |
eu2013.ie4 | TBD | TBD | |
| Jul-Dec |  Lithuania |
TBD | TBD | ||||
| 2014 | Jan-Jun |  Greece |
TBD | TBD | |||
| T6 | Jul-Dec |  Italy |
TBD | TBD | TBD | ||
| 2015 | Jan-Jun |  Latvia |
TBD | TBD | |||
| Jul-Dec |  Luxembourg |
TBD | TBD | ||||
| T7 | 2016 | Jan-Jun |  Netherlands |
TBD | TBD | TBD | |
| Jul-Dec |  Slovakia |
TBD | TBD | ||||
| 2017 | Jan-Jun |  Malta |
TBD | TBD | |||
| T8 | Jul-Dec |  United Kingdom |
TBD | TBD | TBD | ||
| 2018 | Jan-Jun |  Estonia |
eu2018.ee | TBD | |||
| Jul-Dec |  Bulgaria |
TBD | TBD | ||||
| T9 | 2019 | Jan-Jun |  Austria |
TBD | TBD | TBD | |
| Jul-Dec |  Romania |
TBD | TBD | ||||
| 2020 | Jan-Jun |  Finland |
TBD | TBD |
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