the European Council

Contrary to what the European Council said, the private sector participation will be a blueprint for bail-outs that are yet to come.

I have yet to be convinced that the European Council is capable of reaching such a substantive agreement, given its past record.

President of the European Council Herman van Rompuy said the doomsayers are wrong.

On March 27th the European Council approved the "general approach" of this directive, which includes some things the banks will not like.

The European Council is a rough, swaggering sort of grouping.

The proposals are meant to help avoid another Greek-style crisis. They would need to be approved by EU governments in the European Council.

More properly, the new office-holder will be the standing president of the European Council (the body that represents national leaders).

The Lisbon treaty created a permanent president of the European Council and a foreign-policy supremo, leaving less scope for agenda-setting.

The post replaces a system in which national leaders chaired the European Council in rotation for six months at a time.

Just as the eurozone is a microcosm of the global economy, the dysfunctional G20 is a macrocosm of the European Council.

Under continued market pressure, the European Council might have to find a stopgap arrangement to avoid a calamity.

with separate summits that would be chaired, like euro-zone summits, by Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council.

Jostling continues for the two top jobs of president of the European Council and foreign-policy supremo, which may be filled next week.

A start needs to be made at the European Council meeting of the heads of state and government in Brussels in mid-October.

"There is now a small window for rapprochement, " said Mark Leonard, executive director of the European Council on Foreign Relations.

The idea of a permanent president of the European Council was resisted by many smaller countries.

The European Council should by now have doubled or trebled the size of the European financial stability facility, the rescue umbrella.

Under Lisbon the European Council is to gain a semi-permanent president, to replace the system of rotating presidencies.

Since the Lisbon treaty created a permanent president of the European Council the role has become less important.

Another, from the European Council on Foreign Relations, alleges that Germany is "going global alone" .

Mitterrand further insisted that the opening of the IGC be announced in December 1989 during the French presidency of the European Council.

The European Council makes the final judgment on whether a member state fulfils the necessary conditions for the adoption of the euro.

Herman Van Rompuy, Belgium's prime minister, was elevated to the lofty position of permanent president of the European Council.

Her appointment "gives Britain a powerful voice both within the European council and the commission, " the prime minister said.

The treaty creates a full-time standing president of the European Council (which represents national leaders).

Thomas Klau, head of the Paris office of the European Council on Foreign Relations, doubts the leaders in Paris will back that plan.

LAST night Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, addressed a packed audience in New York.

But Poland, whose six-month presidency of the European Council begins in July, is in a good position to influence what it says.

The eurozone needs a treasury, properly staffed, not ad hoc co-ordination by the European Council over coffee and desert.

Thomas Klau of the European Council of Foreign Relations sees this as a useful step.

Tony Blair has accordingly been coy about whether he wants to become the first full-time president of the European Council.

Those close to him say that he is set on attending the G8 summit in early June and the European Council meeting a fortnight later.

The French UEFA president is a guest of the European Council which has passed three resolutions on sport.

The country is pursuing a new "non-aligned foreign policy, " claims a recent paper by the European Council on Foreign Relations.

The agreement by the European Council to a 20 per cent target reduction in emissions by 2020 is welcome but insufficient.

The European Council, which includes all 27 members, is now the EU's most powerful body.

For all these reasons, Tony Blair is unlikely to emerge as the first full-time President of the European Council.

They would need to be approved by EU governments in the European Council.

At the European Council in December, we should agree on establishing a convention for a limited treaty change.

This is exactly what the president of the European Council will have to do.

The demand, it said, would be made "in the coming weeks, " after reviewing the final decision from the European Council of Ministers.

The European Council is currently rebooted every six months.

Based on previous performance, it is hard to imagine that the European Council will rise to the occasion.

Olaf Boehnke of the European Council on Foreign Relations agrees.

In addition, Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council will pay a visit to China.

As The Economist went to press, Mr Cameron was making his debut at the European Council in Brussels.

The proposal will now pass to the European Council.

Together with President Sarkozy of France, the current President of the European Council, I went last weekend to Camp David.

It is being left to Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, to find a compromise and avert a breakdown.

On budgetary discipline, the consensus in the European Council is that there is a need for more sanctions.

You have to give it to the European Council.

Globalisation is entering a political phase, says Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, and the European Union is ready

Opening speech at the European Business Summit by President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy

The writer is director of the European Council on Foreign Relations

The writer is a researcher at EPRG (Cambridge University) and the European Council on Foreign Relations

Framework laws of the European Council

Sidebar: Oral Report to the European Council