Parties in the Council of the European Union, 2002

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This article describes the party affiliations of the leaders of each member-state represented in the Council of the European Union during the year 2002. The list below gives the political party that each head of government, or head of state, belonged to at the national level, as well as the European political alliance to which that national party belonged. The states are listed from most to least populous. More populous states have greater influence in the council, in accordance with the system of Qualified Majority Voting.

During the period in question there were changes of the governing party in Portugal and the Netherlands, with PES parties in both getting replaced by EPP parties. This prompted a reversal of which party held a plurality of seats on the Council; the EPP has (as of the end of 2006) maintained that plurality ever since.

1 Summary
2 List of leaders (January 1, 2002)
3 Changes
- 3.1 Change of affiliation
- 3.2 National party changes
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Summary

Party	January 1, 2003		December 31, 2003
Party	#	QMV	#	QMV
Party of European Socialists	7	42	5	32
European People's Party	5	34	7	44
European Liberal, Democrat, and Reform Group	2	8	2	8
Alliance for Europe of the Nations	1	3	1	3

[edit] List of leaders (January 1, 2002)

Member-state	Votes	Leader	National party	European party
Germany	10	Gerhard Schröder	SPD	PES
France	10	Jacques Chirac	RPR	EPP
United Kingdom	10	Tony Blair	Labour	PES
Italy	10	Silvio Berlusconi	Forza Italia	EPP
Spain	8	José María Aznar López	PP	EPP
Netherlands	5	Wim Kok	Labour	PES
Greece	5	Costas Simitis	PASOK	PES
Belgium	5	Guy Verhofstadt	VLD	ELDR
Portugal	5	António Guterres	PS	PES
Sweden	4	Göran Persson	SAP	PES
Austria	4	Wolfgang Schüssel	ÖVP	EPP
Denmark	3	Anders Fogh Rasmussen	Venstre	ELDR
Finland	3	Paavo Lipponen	SDP	PES
Ireland, Republic of	3	Bertie Ahern	Fianna Fáil	AEN
Luxembourg	2	Jean-Claude Juncker	CSV	EPP

[edit] Changes

[edit] Change of affiliation

Date	Member-state	Leader	National party	European party
6 April	Portugal	José Manuel Durão Barroso	PSD	EPP
22 July	Netherlands	Jan Peter Balkenende	CDA	EPP

[edit] National party changes

On 17 November, the governing French RPR merged with other right-wing parties to form the UMP. The successor party continued the RPR's EPP membership.