President of the European Union
The official title President of the European Union (or President of Europe) does not exist, but there are a number of presidents of European Union institutions, including:
Alongside these the Council of the European Union (also known as the Council of Ministers or simply "the Council") containing 27 national ministers, one of each nation, rotates its presidency by country. This presidency is held by a country, not a person; meetings are chaired by the minister from the country holding the presidency (depending on the topic, or "configuration"), except for the Foreign Affairs Council (one so-called "configuration" of the Council of the EU), which is usually chaired by the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.[1] The Presidency of the Council of the European Union has been held by Belgium since 1 January 2024.
According to protocol, it is the President of the Parliament who comes first, as it is listed first in the treaties.[2] However, on the world stage, the principal representative of the EU is considered to be the President of the European Council,[3] but the President of the European Commission, as head of the executive branch of the European Union, takes part in the G7 and other international summits as well.[1]
In media[edit]
All four offices have been described in the media as the President of Europe, but none are analogous to the head in a presidential system such as the President of the United States (who is both head of state and head of government). Comparisons with other political system have attempted to explain the complex nature of the European institutions. As each institution has its own leader, it has been suggested that the terms "Speaker" of the European Parliament, "Governor" of the European Central Bank, "Chairman" of the Council of the European Union, "President" of the European Council and "Prime Commissioner" would give a clearer indication of their respective roles.[4]
During the height of the Commission President's powers in the late-1980s and 1990s, the Commission President was sometimes described in the media as "the Union's Prime Minister".[5][6] Use of the term "President" in this sense is not unusual in Europe; for comparison, the title for the Prime Minister of Spain in Spanish is the Presidente del Gobierno ("President of the Government"), not Prime Minister.[7][8]
The Presidents of each institution are chosen in a slightly different way;