List of presidents of the institutions of the European Union

This is a list of presidents of the institutions of the European Union (EU). Each of the institutions is headed by a president or a presidency, with some being more prominent than others. Both the President of the European Council and the President of the European Commission are sometimes wrongly termed the President of the European Union. Most go back to 1957 but others, such as the Presidents of the Auditors or the European Central Bank have been created recently. Currently (2024), the President of the European Commission is Ursula von der Leyen and the President of the European Council is Charles Michel.

Current officeholders

President of the European Council
	Institution	European Council		The duty of the European Council president is primarily that of preparing and chairing the meetings of the European Council. The position became 30-month appointed position, elected by the members of the European Council, in 2009 by virtue of the Treaty of Lisbon. Before, it rotated around between the head of state or government of the country holding the Presidency of the Council of the European Union (see below). This longer term President of the European Council has been described directly by some as a new "President of the European Union". According to the Financial Times, "the president would have few formal powers, but would give the EU strategic leadership and represent the bloc on the world stage on issues such as climate change, bilateral relations and development."[1]
	Current holder	Charles Michel
	Member State	Belgium
	Party		Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party
	Since	1 December 2019
Presidency of the Council of the European Union
	Institution	Council of the EU		The Presidency of the Council of the European Union (Council of Ministers) is rotated between member states every 6 months. The council is composed of the relevant national ministers depending on the topic being discussed with minister from the state holding the presidency chairing. The country holding the Presidency is able to affect the overall policy direction for the six months. Since 2007, the Presidency has been co-ordinated every 18 months by three countries (a "triplet"), though one still takes a lead position every 6 months.
	Current holder	Belgium
	Prime Minister	Alexander De Croo
	Party		Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party
	Since	1 January 2024
President of the European Commission
	Institution	European Commission		The President of the European Commission is head of the 27-member college of commissioners. The commission's responsibilities include drafting legislative proposals and managing the day-to-day running of the EU. It is also responsible for a degree of the EU's external representation, for example attending G8 meetings. The commission president is proposed by the European Council, who take account of the previous European Elections, before being elected by the European Parliament for a five-year mandate. It has been described by some as the "President of the European Union" but a more common analogy is "Prime Minister of the European Union" given the style of position over a cabinet government.[2][3]
	Current holder	Ursula von der Leyen
	Member State	Germany
	Party		European People's Party
	Since	1 December 2019
President of the European Parliament
	Institution	European Parliament		The President of the European Parliament presides over the plenary of the Parliament, which is one-half of the legislative branch of the Union. The President also chairs the Bureau and Conference of Presidents as well as representing the Parliament. The President's role is similar to that of a speaker in a national parliament, but also represents the Parliament externally and vis a vis the other institutions, which is a more political role.
	Current holder	Roberta Metsola
	Member State	Malta
	Party		European People's Party
	Since	11 January 2022
President of the Court of Justice
	Institution	Court of Justice of the European Union (Court of Justice)		The President of the Court of Justice is elected from and by the judges for a renewable term of three years. The President presides over hearings and deliberations, directing both judicial business and administration. The European Court of Justice is the highest court in the European Union in matters of European Union law. As a part of the Court of Justice of the European Union it is tasked with interpreting EU law and ensuring its equal application across all EU member states.[4] The Court is based in Luxembourg and is composed of one judge per member state – currently 27 – although it normally hears cases in panels of three, five or thirteen judges.
	Current holder	Koen Lenaerts
	Member State	Belgium
	Party		None
	Since	8 October 2015
President of the General Court
	Institution	Court of Justice of the European Union (General Court)		The President of the General Court is elected from and by the judges for a renewable term of three years. The President presides over hearings and deliberations, directing both judicial business and administration.General Court is the second (unofficially lower) court of the Court of Justice of the European Union. It is responsible for cases in the fields of environment and consumers, freedom to provide services, law on the EU institutions, trade marks and intellectual and industrial property, competition, state aid, agriculture, public health, EU external relations, economic policy and access to documents. The Court is based in Luxembourg and is composed of two judges from each EU Member state. Cases are heard by the chambers of 5 or 3 judges, presidents of which are elected for a term of three years.Unlike the Court of Justice, the General Court does not have Advocates General, but similar tasks can occasionally be performed by a judge of the General Court.
	Current holder	Marc van der Woude
	Member State	Netherlands
	Party		None
	Since	27 September 2019
President of the European Central Bank
	Institution	European Central Bank		The President of the European Central Bank is the head of the European Central Bank (ECB), the institution responsible for the management of the euro and monetary policy in the Eurozone of the European Union. The President heads the executive board, governing council and general council of the ECB and represents the bank abroad, for example at the G20. The President is appointed by majority in the European Council, de facto by those who have adopted the euro, for an eight-year non-renewable term. The primary objective of the European Central Bank, as mandated in Article 2 of the Statute of the ECB,[5] is to maintain price stability within the Eurozone.
	Current holder	Christine Lagarde
	Member State	France
	Party		European People's Party
	Since	1 November 2019
President of the European Court of Auditors
	Institution	European Court of Auditors		The duties of the President of the European Court of Auditors (which may be delegated) are to convene and chair the meetings of the Court, ensuring that decisions are implemented and the departments (and other activities) are soundly managed. Despite its name, the Court has no judicial functions. It is rather a professional external investigatory audit agency. The primary role of the court is to externally check if the budget of the European Union has been implemented correctly, in that EU funds have been spent legally and with sound management.
	Current holder	Tony Murphy
	Member State	Ireland
	Party		None
	Since	1 October 2022

Historic officeholders

Conservative/Christian democrat

Socialist

Liberal/Centrist

Communist

Independent

Year	President of the European Commission	President of the European Council	President of the European Parliament	Presidency of the Council of the European Union		President of the European Court of Justice
1958	1: Walter Hallstein (I)		1: Robert Schuman	Belgium		1: André Donner
				Belgium
				West Germany
1959				France
				Italy
1960			2: Hans Furler	Luxembourg
				Netherlands
1961				Belgium
				West Germany
1962	1: Walter Hallstein (II)		3: Gaetano Martino	France
				Italy
1963				Luxembourg
				Netherlands
1964			4: Jean Duvieusart	Belgium		2: Charles Léon Hammes
				West Germany
1965			5: Victor Leemans	France
				Italy
1966			6: Alain Poher	Luxembourg
				Netherlands
1967				Belgium		3: Robert Lecourt
	2: Jean Rey			West Germany
1968				France
				Italy
1969			7: Mario Scelba	Luxembourg
				Netherlands
1970				Belgium
	3: Franco Maria Malfatti			West Germany
1971			8: Walter Behrendt	France
				Italy
1972	4: Sicco Mansholt			Luxembourg
				Netherlands
1973	5: François-Xavier Ortoli		9: Cornelis Berkhouwer	Belgium
				Belgium
				Denmark
				Denmark
1974				West Germany
				France
1975		Liam Cosgrave	10: Georges Spénale	Ireland
		Aldo Moro		Italy
1976		Gaston Thorn		Luxembourg		4: Hans Kutscher
		Joop den Uyl		Netherlands
1977	6: Roy Jenkins	James Callaghan	11: Emilio Colombo	United Kingdom
		Leo Tindemans		Belgium
1978		Anker Jørgensen		Denmark
		Helmut Schmidt		West Germany
1979		Valéry Giscard d'Estaing		France
		Jack Lynch	1: Simone Veil	Ireland
		Charles Haughey		Ireland
1980		Francesco Cossiga		Italy		5: Josse Mertens de Wilmars
		Pierre Werner		Luxembourg
1981	7: Gaston Thorn	Dries van Agt		Netherlands
		Margaret Thatcher		United Kingdom
1982		Wilfried Martens	2: Piet Dankert	Belgium
		Anker Jørgensen		Denmark
		Poul Schlüter		Denmark
1983		Helmut Kohl		West Germany
		Andreas Papandreou		Greece
1984		François Mitterrand	3: Pierre Pflimlin	France		6: Alexander Mackenzie Stuart
		Garret FitzGerald		Ireland
1985		Bettino Craxi		Italy
		Jacques Santer		Luxembourg
1986	8: Jacques Delors (I)	Ruud Lubbers		Netherlands
		Margaret Thatcher		United Kingdom
1987		Wilfried Martens	4: Henry Plumb	Belgium
		Poul Schlüter		Denmark
1988		Helmut Kohl		West Germany		7: Ole Due
		Andreas Papandreou		Greece
1989	8: Jacques Delors (II)	Felipe González		Spain
		François Mitterrand	5: Enrique Barón Crespo	France
1990		Charles Haughey		Ireland
		Giulio Andreotti		Italy
1991		Jacques Santer		Luxembourg
		Ruud Lubbers		Netherlands
1992		Aníbal Cavaco Silva	6: Egon Klepsch	Portugal
		John Major		United Kingdom
1993	8: Jacques Delors (III)	Poul Schlüter		Denmark
		Poul Nyrup Rasmussen		Denmark
		Jean-Luc Dehaene		Belgium
1994		Andreas Papandreou		Greece		8: Gil Carlos Rodríguez Iglesias
		Helmut Kohl	7: Klaus Hänsch	Germany
1995	9: Jacques Santer	François Mitterrand		France
		Jacques Chirac		France
		Felipe González		Spain
1996		Lamberto Dini		Italy
		Romano Prodi		Italy
		John Bruton		Ireland
1997		Wim Kok	8: José María Gil-Robles	Netherlands
		Jean-Claude Juncker		Luxembourg
1998		Tony Blair		United Kingdom
		Viktor Klima		Austria
1999		Gerhard Schröder		Germany
	Manuel Marín (acting)
	10: Romano Prodi	Paavo Lipponen	9: Nicole Fontaine	Finland
2000		António Guterres		Portugal
		Jacques Chirac		France
2001		Göran Persson		Sweden
		Guy Verhofstadt		Belgium
2002		José María Aznar López	10: Pat Cox	Spain
		Anders Fogh Rasmussen		Denmark
2003		Costas Simitis		Greece		9: Vassilios Skouris
		Silvio Berlusconi		Italy
2004		Bertie Ahern		Ireland
	11: José Manuel Barroso (I)	Jan Peter Balkenende	11: Josep Borrell	Netherlands
2005		Jean-Claude Juncker		Luxembourg
		Tony Blair		United Kingdom
2006		Wolfgang Schüssel		Austria
		Matti Vanhanen		Finland
2007		Angela Merkel	12: Hans-Gert Pöttering	T1	Germany
		José Sócrates			Portugal
2008		Janez Janša			Slovenia
		Nicolas Sarkozy		T2	France
2009		Mirek Topolánek			Czechia
		Jan Fischer			Czechia
		Fredrik Reinfeldt	13: Jerzy Buzek		Sweden
2010	11: José Manuel Barroso (II)	1. Herman Van Rompuy		T3	Spain
					Belgium
2011					Hungary
				T4	Poland
2012			14: Martin Schulz		Denmark
					Cyprus
2013				T5	Ireland
					Lithuania
2014					Greece
				T6	Italy
2015	12: Jean-Claude Juncker	2. Donald Tusk			Latvia
					Luxembourg
2016				T7	Netherlands	10: Koen Lenaerts Term expires 6 Oct 2024
			15: Antonio Tajani		Slovakia
2017					Malta
				T8	Estonia
2018					Bulgaria
					Austria
2019				T9	Romania
			16: David Sassoli		Finland
2020	13: Ursula von der Leyen Term expires 31 Oct 2024	3. Charles Michel Term expires 30 November 2024			Croatia
				T10	Germany
2021					Portugal
					Slovenia
2022				T11	France
			17: Roberta Metsola
					Czechia
2023					Sweden
				T12	Spain
2024					Belgium

See also

• President of the European Union

References

1. Push for Blair as new EU president Financial Times 16 June 2007
2. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 27 January 2008. Retrieved 1 October 2007.
3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 10 February 2012. Retrieved 1 October 2007.
4. "The Court of Justice". Europa (web portal). Archived from the original on 8 July 2007. Retrieved 13 July 2007.
5. Statute of the ECB

External links

• EU Website – European Union Presidents
• President of the European Council European-council.europa.eu
• President of the European Commission ec.europa.eu
• President of the European Parliament europarl.europa.eu