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'Presidency of the Council of the European Union' refers to the responsibility of presiding over all aspects of the Council of the European Union, when exercised collectively by a government, on a pre-established rota of the member states, of the European Union. The Presidency, which is sometimes informally called the ''European 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. 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 as President of the assembled 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.

Contents

List of rotations

1958 to 2006

2007 onwards

See also

External links

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	Responsible national minister	Insignia
1958	Jan-Jun	Belgium	N/A	Victor Larock	N/A
	Jul-Dec	Germany	N/A	Siegfried Balke	N/A
1959	Jan-Jun	France	N/A	Maurice Couve de Murville	N/A
	Jul-Dec	Italy	N/A	Giuseppe Pella	N/A
1960	Jan-Jun	Luxembourg	N/A	Eugène Schaus	N/A
	Jul-Dec	Netherlands	N/A	Joseph Luns	N/A
1961	Jan-Jun	Belgium	N/A	Paul-Henri Spaak	N/A
	Jul-Dec	Germany	N/A	Gerhard Schröder	N/A
1962	Jan-Jun	France	N/A	Maurice Couve de Murville	N/A
	Jul-Dec	Italy	N/A	Emilio Colombo	N/A
1963	Jan-Jun	Luxembourg	N/A	Eugène Schaus	N/A
	Jul-Dec	Netherlands	N/A	Joseph Luns	N/A
1964	Jan-Jun	Belgium	N/A	Hendrik Fayat	N/A
	Jul-Dec	Germany	N/A	Gerhard Schröder	N/A
1965	Jan-Jun	France	N/A	Maurice Couve de Murville	N/A
	Jul-Dec	Italy	N/A	Amintore Fanfani	N/A
1966	Jan-Jun	Luxembourg	N/A	Pierre Werner	N/A
	Jul-Dec	Netherlands	N/A	Barend Biesheuvel	N/A
1967	Jan-Jun	Belgium	N/A	Renaat Van Elslande	N/A
	Jul-Dec	Germany	N/A	Willy Brandt	N/A
1968	Jan-Jun	France	N/A	Maurice Couve de Murville	N/A
	Jul-Dec	Italy	N/A	Giuseppe Medici	N/A
1969	Jan-Jun	Luxembourg	N/A	Pierre Grégoire	N/A
	Jul-Dec	Netherlands	N/A	Joseph Luns	N/A
1970	Jan-Jun	Belgium	N/A	Pierre Harmel	N/A
	Jul-Dec	Germany	N/A	Walter Scheel	N/A
1971	Jan-Jun	France	N/A	Maurice Schumann	N/A
	Jul-Dec	Italy	N/A	Aldo Moro	N/A
1972	Jan-Jun	Luxembourg	N/A	Gaston Thorn	N/A
	Jul-Dec	Netherlands	N/A	Norbert Schmelzer	N/A
1973	Jan-Jun	Belgium	N/A	Pierre Harmel	N/A
	Jul-Dec	Denmark	N/A	Ivar Nørgaard	N/A
1974	Jan-Jun	Germany	N/A	Walter Scheel	N/A
	Jul-Dec	France	N/A	Jean Sauvagnargues	N/A
1975	Jan-Jun	Ireland	N/A	Garret FitzGerald	N/A
	Jul-Dec	Italy	N/A	Mariano Rumor	N/A
1976	Jan-Jun	Luxembourg	N/A	Gaston Thorn	N/A
	Jul-Dec	Netherlands	N/A	Max van der Stoel	N/A
1977	Jan-Jun	United Kingdom	N/A	Anthony Crosland, then David Owen	N/A
	Jul-Dec	Belgium	N/A	Henri Simonet	N/A
1978	Jan-Jun	Denmark	N/A	Knud Børge Andersen	N/A
	Jul-Dec	Germany	N/A	Hans-Dietrich Genscher	N/A
1979	Jan-Jun	France	N/A	Jean François-Poncet	N/A
	Jul-Dec	Ireland	N/A	Michael O'Kennedy	N/A
1980	Jan-Jun	Italy	N/A	Attilio Ruffini	N/A
	Jul-Dec	Luxembourg	N/A	Colette Flesch	N/A
1981	Jan-Jun	Netherlands	N/A	Chris van der Klaauw	N/A
	Jul-Dec	United Kingdom	N/A	Peter Carrington	N/A
1982	Jan-Jun	Belgium	N/A	Leo Tindemans	N/A
	Jul-Dec	Denmark	N/A	Uffe Ellemann-Jensen	N/A
1983	Jan-Jun	Germany	N/A	Hans-Dietrich Genscher	N/A
	Jul-Dec	Greece	N/A	Grigoris Varfis	N/A
1984	Jan-Jun	France	N/A	Roland Dumas	N/A
	Jul-Dec	Ireland	N/A	Peter Barry	N/A
1985	Jan-Jun	Italy	N/A	Giulio Andreotti	N/A
	Jul-Dec	Luxembourg	N/A	Jacques Poos	N/A
1986	Jan-Jun	Netherlands	N/A	Hans van den Broek	N/A
	Jul-Dec	United Kingdom	N/A	Geoffrey Howe	N/A
1987	Jan-Jun	Belgium	N/A	Leo Tindemans	N/A
	Jul-Dec	Denmark	N/A	Uffe Ellemann-Jensen	N/A
1988	Jan-Jun	Germany	N/A	Hans-Dietrich Genscher	N/A
	Jul-Dec	Greece	N/A	Theodoros Pangalos	N/A
1989	Jan-Jun	Spain	N/A	Francisco Fernández Ordóñez	N/A
	Jul-Dec	France	N/A	Roland Dumas	N/A
1990	Jan-Jun	Ireland	N/A	Gerard Collins	N/A
	Jul-Dec	Italy	N/A	Gianni De Michelis	N/A
1991	Jan-Jun	Luxembourg	N/A	Jacques Poos	N/A
	Jul-Dec	Netherlands	N/A	Hans van den Broek	N/A
1992	Jan-Jun	Portugal	N/A	João de Deus Pinheiro	?
	Jul-Dec	United Kingdom	N/A	Douglas Hurd	?
1993	Jan-Jun	Denmark	N/A	Poul Nyrup Rasmussen	?
	Jul-Dec	Belgium	N/A	Willy Claes	?
1994	Jan-Jun	Greece	N/A	Karolos Papoulias	?
	Jul-Dec	Germany	N/A	Klaus Kinkel	?
1995	Jan-Jun	France	N/A	Alain Juppé	?
	Jul-Dec	Spain	N/A	Javier Solana
1996	Jan-Jun	Italy	?	Lamberto Dini	?
	Jul-Dec	Ireland	?	Dick Spring	?
1997	Jan-Jun	Netherlands	?	Hans van Mierlo	?
	Jul-Dec	Luxembourg	?	Jacques Poos	?
1998	Jan-Jun	United Kingdom	?	Robin Cook	?
	Jul-Dec	Austria	?	Wolfgang Schüssel	?
1999	Jan-Jun	Germany	?	Joschka Fischer	?
	Jul-Dec	Finland	precidency.finland.fi	Tarja Halonen	75x75px
2000	Jan-Jun	Portugal	?	Jaime Gama	75x75px
	Jul-Dec	France	?	Hubert Védrine	75x75px
2001	Jan-Jun	Sweden	?	Anna Lindh	75x75px
	Jul-Dec	Belgium	eu2001.be	Louis Michel	75x75px
2002	Jan-Jun	Spain	ue2002.es	Josep Piqué i Camps	75x75px
	Jul-Dec	Denmark	?	Per Stig Møller	75x75px
2003	Jan-Jun	Greece	?	George Papandreou	75x75px
	Jul-Dec	Italy	?	Franco Frattini	75x75px
2004	Jan-Jun	Ireland	eu2004.ie	Bertie Ahern	75x75px
	Jul-Dec	Netherlands	eu2004.nl	Bernard Bot	75x75px
2005	Jan-Jun	Luxembourg	eu2005.lu	Jean Asselborn	75x75px
	Jul-Dec	United Kingdom	eu2005.gov.uk	Jack Straw (Foreign Secretary); Douglas Alexander (Minister for Europe)	75x75px
2006	Jan-Jun	Austria	eu2006.at	Ursula Plassnik	75x75px
	Jul-Dec	Finland1	eu2006.fi	Matti Vanhanen	75x75px

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

From 2007 the presidency will be triple-shared for periods of 1.5 years with one of the three countries assuming "leading role" during each half-year [citation needed on legal provision]. This change was made so that the new member states get to hold a presidency sooner, but 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. It is also assumed that 1.5 year presidencies (even triple-shared) will be better at accomplishing policies, because the main agenda items will not be changed each half-year, but each 1.5 years (each three states will execute a common programme).

Triplet	Year	Half-year	Presidency holder	Website	Minister responsible (usually the Foreign minister)	Insignia
T1	2007	Jan-Jun	Germany	eu2007.de	Frank-Walter Steinmeier	75x75px
		Jul-Dec	Portugal	eu2007.pt	Luís Amado	75x75px
	2008	Jan-Jun	Slovenia	eu2008.si (?)
T2		Jul-Dec	France	eu2008.fr (?)
	2009	Jan-Jun	Czech Republic	eu2009.cz (?)
		Jul-Dec	Sweden	(?)
T3	2010	Jan-Jun	Spain	eu2010.es (?)
		Jul-Dec	Belgium	eu2010.be (?)
	2011	Jan-Jun	Hungary	eu2011.hu (?)
T4		Jul-Dec	Poland
	2012	Jan-Jun	Denmark	eu2012.dk (?)
		Jul-Dec	Cyprus
T5	2013	Jan-Jun	Ireland
		Jul-Dec	Lithuania
	2014	Jan-Jun	Greece
T6		Jul-Dec	Italy
	2015	Jan-Jun	Latvia
		Jul-Dec	Luxembourg
T7	2016	Jan-Jun	Netherlands
		Jul-Dec	Slovakia
	2017	Jan-Jun	Malta
T8		Jul-Dec	United Kingdom
	2018	Jan-Jun	Estonia
		Jul-Dec	Bulgaria
T9	2019	Jan-Jun	Austria
		Jul-Dec	Romania
	2020	Jan-Jun	Finland

See also

★ Presidents of the European Union

★
★ President of the European Parliament

★
★ President-in-Office of the European Council

★
★ President of the European Commission

External links

★ Presidency of the Council of the European Union

★ Logos of the Council Presidencies

★ Presidency order of Rotation List to 2020