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| The Van Rompuy Report 20/01/2011 |
| (2011-01-20) |
| Last updated: 2011-01-21 13:56 EET |
On 19 November 2009, Herman Van Rompuy of Belgium was the first person to be elected to the permanent presidency of the European Council by the 27 heads of state and government gathered in Brussels.
This position, with a term of five years, is a result of community institutional reform applied through the Treaty of Lisbon. It was created to help bring about agreement between the 27 leaders on defining and adopting the EU’s political directions, especially in foreign policy.
One year after taking over the position, on 1 January 2010, Herman Van Rompuy submitted his report on the first year of activity, 50 pages long. He confessed that, in spite of the drab sounding name of the document, ‘The European Council in 2010’, he worked on it like a reporter, and that the document was not bureaucratic, but a political narrative presenting the main events and challenges of 2010, along with the decisions made by the heads of state and government.
He admitted that, last year, there were moments when political decision-makers seemed overcome by events, but they also had some unexpected results. Van Rompuy said that no one imagined that a small country, hinting at Greece, would cause such huge problems for the Eurozone. The head of the European Council said that Eurozone countries this year would make all the decisions needed to maintain the stability of this troubled area.
The text of the report also refers to mutual trust among the 27, which the president strove to build up. As Van Rompuy wrote in his report, it is impossible to sit down together at a table and not look each other in the eye. He said that these council meetings were essential, because only trust on a personal level could help draw a common line.
The president of the European Council has announced three meetings of European leaders in the next 6 months. Energy, innovation and migration will be the main topics, but the public debt crisis in the Eurozone will continue to be the main issue holding the attention of European leaders.
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