Parties in the Council of the European Union, January–April 2004
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Prior to 1 May 2004 the European Union had fifteen members. On that date ten new member states were admitted. This article describes the party affiliations of the leaders of each member-state represented in the Council of the European Union from the beginning of 2004 until the 1 May. 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 only two changes of government occurred: in Greece and Spain, and taken together these left the overall balance of party affilitions in the Council unchanged.
Contents |
[edit] Summary
| Party | January 1, 2004 | April 30, 2004 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | QMV | # | QMV | |
| European People's Party | 7 | 44 | 7 | 41 |
| Party of European Socialists | 4 | 29 | 4 | 32 |
| European Liberal, Democrat, and Reform Group | 3 | 11 | 3 | 11 |
| Alliance for Europe of the Nations | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 |
[edit] List of leaders (January 1, 2004)
| Member-state | Votes | Leader | National party | European party |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Germany | 10 | Gerhard Schröder | SPD | PES |
| France | 10 | Jacques Chirac | UMP | 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 | Jan Peter Balkenende | CDA | EPP |
| Greece | 5 | Costas Simitis | PASOK | PES |
| Belgium | 5 | Guy Verhofstadt | VLD | ELDR |
| Portugal | 5 | José Manuel Durão Barroso | PSD | EPP |
| Sweden | 4 | Göran Persson | SAP | PES |
| Austria | 4 | Wolfgang Schüssel | ÖVP | EPP |
| Denmark | 3 | Anders Fogh Rasmussen | Venstre | ELDR |
| Finland | 3 | Matti Vanhanen | Centre Party | ELDR |
| Ireland, Republic of | 3 | Bertie Ahern | Fianna Fáil | AEN |
| Luxembourg | 2 | Jean-Claude Juncker | CSV | EPP |
[edit] Changes
| Date | Member-state | Leader | National party | European group |
| 10 March | Greece | Costas Caramanlis | New Democracy | EPP |
| 27 April | Spain | José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero | PSOE | PES |
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Council of the European Union (official website)
| Preceded by 2003 political makeup |
Parties in the Council of the European Union Jan. 2004 – May 2004 |
Succeeded by 2004 political makeup (post-enlargement) |
