Euro summit

Not to be confused with EU summit.

The Euro summit (also referred to as the eurozone summit or euro area summit) is the meeting of the heads of state or government of the member states of the eurozone (those EU states which have adopted the euro). It is distinct from the EU summit held regularly by the European Council, the meeting of all EU leaders.

History

The Euro summit began as an offshoot of the Euro Group, which is the meeting of the eurozone member's finance ministers.^[1] French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for the Euro summit to replace the Euro Group as a "clearly identified economic government" for the eurozone, stating it was not possible for the eurozone to continue without it. The eurozone economic government would discuss issues with the European Central Bank, which would remain independent.^[2] Sarkozy stated that "only heads of state and government have the necessary democratic legitimacy" for the role. This idea was based on the meeting of eurozone leaders in 2008 who met to agree a co-ordinated eurozone response to the banking crisis.^[3]

They first met in the summit format in October 2008, in response to the debt crisis. Subsequent meetings took place in March 2010, May 2010, March 2011, July 2011 and October 2011.^[1] In the October 2011 meeting, it was agreed to formalise the Euro summit, as at least twice yearly meeting. This change was formalised in the 2012 Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union. Since this formalisation, Heads of State or Government have failed to meet this target of twice yearly meetings in 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017.^[4] A Euro summit President, separate from the Euro Group President, would be elected at the same time as the President of the European Council and under the same rules. Until such an election takes place, the European Council President fulfils that role.^[5][6]

Meetings

In October 2011, the Eurozone head of states agreed to meet at least twice per year,^[7] as part of measures to improve governance of the Eurozone. Meetings were chaired by president Herman Van Rompuy from March 2010^[8] to November 2014. Donald Tusk has been the Euro Summit president since 1 December 2014, and ends his term on 31 May 2017.^[9] The table below lists the date and summary reports of all previous Euro Summits.

#	Euro summit dates[1]	Conclusions[10]	Press conference
1	12 October 2008[11]	Launch of a bank crisis solution
2	25 March 2010[12]	Statement
3	7 May 2010[13]	Statement	Video
4	11 March 2011[14]	Conclusions	Video
5	21 July 2011[15]	Statement	Video
6	23–26 October 2011[16]	Remarks by President, Statement	Video: 1 Archived 22 April 2014 at the Wayback Machine and 2 Archived 29 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine
7	9 December 2011[17]	Statement
8	30 January 2012[18]	Agreed lines of communication
9	2 March 2012[19]	Statement
10	29 June 2012[20]	Statement	Video
11	14 March 2013[21]	New procedure rules for Euro summits, Presidential Remarks	Video
12	24 October 2014[22]	Statement	Video^[permanent dead link‍]
13	22 June 2015[23]	Website, Presidential remarks on Greece: 1 and 2	Video^[permanent dead link‍]
14	7 July 2015[24][25]	Website, Eurogroup meeting, Presidential Remarks	Video^[permanent dead link‍]
15	12 July 2015	Website, Eurogroup meeting, Presidential Remarks, Statement	Video^[permanent dead link‍]
16	15 December 2017[26]	Website, Presidential Remarks
17	23 March 2018	Website
18	29 June 2018	Website, Statement
19	18 October 2018	Website
20	14 December 2018	Website, Statement
21	21 June 2019	Website, Statement
22	13 December 2019	Website, Statement
23	11 December 2020	Website, Statement
24	25 March 2021 (informal video conference)	Website, Statement
25	25 June 2021	Website, Statement
26	16 December 2021	Website, Statement
27	24 June 2022	Website, Statement
28	24 March 2023	Website, Statement
29	27 October 2023	Website, Statement
30	22 March 2024	Website, Statement

New procedure rules for Euro summits were adopted on 14 March 2013,^[27] regulating the Euro Summit shall meet at least twice a year, convened by its president on preferably one of the same dates as the EU summits.^[28] However, for unknown reasons, only one Euro Summit meeting per year took place in 2013 and 2014, and none took place in 2016.

President

In its informal capacity, the de facto summit President has been the European Council President, meaning that Herman Van Rompuy chaired all meetings since March 2010 to December 2014. The proposals for formalisation of the summit include electing a President along the same lines (and term) as the European Council President,^[29] and until then Van Rompuy continues to chair the summit. On 1 March 2012, according to the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union (TSCG), he was formally elected as President of the Euro Summit for the term 1 June 2012 to 30 November 2014.^[8] New president for the term 1 December 2014 until 31 May 2017, is the former Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.^[9] Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel was elected new president on 2 July 2019, taking office on 1 December 2019.^[30]

Members

The eurozone

	Representative	Picture	Member State	In office since
	Karl Nehammer		Austria	6 December 2021
	Alexander De Croo		Belgium	1 October 2020
	Andrej Plenković		Croatia	16 October 2016
	Nicos Anastasiades		Cyprus	28 February 2013
	Kaja Kallas		Estonia	26 January 2021
	Petteri Orpo		Finland	20 June 2023
	Emmanuel Macron		France	14 May 2017
	Olaf Scholz		Germany	8 December 2021
	Kyriakos Mitsotakis		Greece	8 July 2019
	Micheál Martin		Ireland	27 June 2020
	Giorgia Meloni		Italy	22 October 2022
	Arturs Krišjānis Kariņš		Latvia	23 January 2019
	Gitanas Nausėda		Lithuania	12 July 2019
	Xavier Bettel		Luxembourg	4 December 2013
	Robert Abela		Malta	13 January 2020
	Mark Rutte		Netherlands	14 October 2010
	António Costa		Portugal	26 November 2015
	Eduard Heger		Slovakia	1 April 2021
	Robert Golob		Slovenia	1 June 2022
	Pedro Sánchez		Spain	2 June 2018
	Charles Michel Non-voting chair		European Union	1 December 2019

Notes

Presidents of other EU institutions, such as the President of the European Commission and the European Central Bank President also attend. Presidents of the Euro Group and of the European Parliament may be invited and the President of the Euro Summit shall present a report to the European Parliament after each of the meetings of the Euro Summit. Heads of state or government of non-eurozone signatories to the European Fiscal Compact treaty participate, at least once a year, for those policies of the treaty that apply to them. In some summits, other leaders might attend discussions, for example the British Prime Minister attending the 2008 summit.

See also

• European Fiscal Compact
• European sovereign debt crisis
• Euro Group
• List of European Council meetings

References

1. "History of the Euro Summit". European Council. Archived from the original on 8 October 2014. Retrieved 18 December 2012.
2. "Sarkozy pushes eurozone 'economic government' Archived 21 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine, France 24 (21 October 2008)
3. Germany rejects idea of eurozone 'economic government': report, EU Business (21 October 2008)
4. "Meeting Calendar". European Council. Retrieved 9 November 2018.
5. Possible changes in the EU Treaty, European Council
6. EU states to speed up austerity, embrace 'limited' treaty change, EU Observer
7. "European Council". www.consilium.europa.eu.
8. "Herman Van Rompuy re-elected president" (PDF). Council of the European Union. 1 March 2012. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
9. "Special meeting of the European Council (30 August 2014): Conclusions" (PDF). European Council. 30 August 2014.
10. "Council meeting conclusions". European Council. Archived from the original on 7 January 2015. Retrieved 15 September 2014.
11. "Summit of the euro area countries – Declaration on a concerted European action plan of the euro area countries (12 October 2008)" (PDF). Council of the European Union. 12 October 2008. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
12. "Statement by the heads of state and government of the euro area (25 March 2010)" (PDF). Council of the European Union. 25 March 2010. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
13. "Statement of the heads of state or government of the euro area (7 May 2010)" (PDF). Council of the European Union. 7 May 2010. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
14. "Conclusions of the heads of state or government of the euro area (11 March 2011)" (PDF). Council of the European Union. 11 March 2011. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
15. "Statement by the heads of state or government of the euro area and EU institutions (21 July 2011)" (PDF). Council of the European Union. 21 July 2011. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
16. "Remarks by President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy following the meeting of the Euro Summit (26 October 2011)" (PDF). Council of the European Union. 27 October 2011. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
17. "Statement by the Euro area Heads of State or Government (9 December 2011)" (PDF). Council of the European Union. 9 December 2011. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
18. "Agreed lines of communication by euro area Member States (30 January 2012)" (PDF). Council of the European Union. 30 January 2012. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
19. "Statement Euro area Heads of State or Government (2 March 2012)" (PDF). Council of the European Union. 2 March 2012. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
20. "Euro area summit statement (29 June 2012)" (PDF). Council of the European Union. 29 October 2012. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
21. "Eurozone summit family photo (14 March 2013)" (PDF). Council of the European Union. 15 March 2013. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
22. "Euro Summit (24 October 2014) – Annotated Draft Agenda" (PDF). General Secretariat of the Council. 26 September 2014. Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 October 2014. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
23. "President Donald Tusk convenes a Euro Summit on Greece Monday 22 June at 19h00" (PDF). General Secretariat of the Council. 18 June 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 October 2016. Retrieved 19 June 2015.
24. "Invitation letter by President Donald Tusk to the Euro Summit" (PDF). General Secretariat of the Council. 6 July 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 September 2017. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
25. "Un sommet de la zone euro sur la Grèce se tiendra dès le 7 juillet". Le Monde (in French). 6 July 2015.
26. "Non-euro states should take part in euro reform talks - EU's Tusk". Reuters. 21 October 2017. Archived from the original on 21 October 2017.
27. "Remarks by President Herman Van Rompuy following first session of the European Council" (PDF). European Council. 14 March 2013.
28. "Rules for the organisation of the proceedings of the Euro Summits" (PDF). Council of the EU. 14 March 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 April 2014. Retrieved 28 May 2014.
29. "Euro summit statement (26 October 2011)" (PDF). Council of the European Union. 26 October 2011. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
30. "Special meeting of the European Council". European Council. 2 July 2019. Retrieved 1 January 2023.

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