Euro summit

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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, via a possible new treaty change. 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.^[4][5]

Meetings

In October 2011, the Eurozone head of states agreed to meet at least twice per year,^[6] as part of measures to improve governance of the Eurozone. Meetings were chaired by president Herman Van Rompuy from March 2010^[7] to November 2014. Donald Tusk has been the Euro Summit president since December 1, 2014, and ends his term on May 31, 2017.^[8] The table below lists the date and summary reports of all previous Euro Summits.

New procedure rules for Euro summits were adopted on 14 March 2013,^[26] 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.^[27] However, for unknown reasons, only one Euro Summit meeting per year took place in 2013 and 2014.

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,^[28] and until then Van Rompuy continues to chair the summit. On 1 March 2012, he was formally elected as President of the Euro Summit for the term 1 June 2012 to 30 November 2014.^[7] New president for the term 1 December 2014 until 31 May 2017, is the former Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.^[8]

Members

The eurozone

	Representative	Picture	Member State	In office since
	Faymann, WernerWerner Faymann		Austria	000000002008-12-02-00002 December 2008
	Michel, CharlesCharles Michel		Belgium	000000002014-10-11-000011 October 2014
	Anastasiades, NicosNicos Anastasiades		Cyprus	000000002013-02-28-000028 February 2013
	Rõivas, TaaviTaavi Rõivas		Estonia	000000002014-03-26-000026 March 2014
	Sipilä, JuhaJuha Sipilä		Finland	000000002015-05-29-000029 May 2015
	Hollande, FrançoisFrançois Hollande		France	000000002012-05-15-000015 May 2012
	Merkel, AngelaAngela Merkel		Germany	000000002005-11-22-000022 November 2005
	Tsipras, AlexisAlexis Tsipras		Greece	000000002015-01-26-000026 January 2015
	Kenny, EndaEnda Kenny		Ireland	000000002011-03-09-00009 March 2011
	Renzi, MatteoMatteo Renzi		Italy	000000002014-02-22-000022 February 2014
	Straujuma, LaimdotaLaimdota Straujuma		Latvia	000000002014-02-22-000022 February 2014
	Grybauskaitė, DaliaDalia Grybauskaitė		Lithuania	000000002009-07-12-000012 July 2009
	Bettel, XavierXavier Bettel		Luxembourg	000000002013-12-04-00004 December 2013
	Muscat, JosephJoseph Muscat		Malta	000000002013-03-11-000011 March 2013
	Rutte, MarkMark Rutte		Netherlands	000000002010-10-14-000014 October 2010
	Costa, AntónioAntónio Costa		Portugal	000000002015-11-26-000026 November 2015
	Fico, RobertRobert Fico		Slovakia	000000002012-04-04-00004 April 2012
	Cerar, MiroMiro Cerar		Slovenia	000000002014-09-18-000018 September 2014
	Rajoy, MarianoMariano Rajoy		Spain	000000002011-12-21-000021 December 2011
	Tusk, DonaldDonald Tusk Non-voting chair		European Union	000000002014-12-01-00001 December 2014

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

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union

• European Fiscal Compact
• European sovereign debt crisis
• Euro Group

References

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Coordinates: 50°50′29″N 4°22′53″E / 50.8414°N 4.3814°E / 50.8414; 4.3814