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.
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. This change was formalised in the 2012 Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union. Since this formalisation, Heads of State or Government have failed to meet this target of twice yearly meetings in 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017. [4] 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. [5] [6]
In October 2011, the Eurozone head of states agreed to meet at least twice per year, [7] as part of measures to improve governance of the Eurozone. Meetings were chaired by president Herman Van Rompuy from March 2010 [8] to November 2014. Donald Tusk has been the Euro Summit president since 1 December 2014, and ends his term on 31 May 2017. [9] 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, [27] 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. [28] However, for unknown reasons, only one Euro Summit meeting per year took place in 2013 and 2014, and none took place in 2016.
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, [29] and until then Van Rompuy continues to chair the summit. On 1 March 2012, according to the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union (TSCG), he was formally elected as President of the Euro Summit for the term 1 June 2012 to 30 November 2014. [8] New president for the term 1 December 2014 until 31 May 2017, is the former Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. [9] Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel was elected new president on 2 July 2019, taking office on 1 December 2019. [30]
| Representative | Picture | Member State | In office since | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Karl Nehammer |  |  Austria | 6 December 2021 | |
| Alexander De Croo |  |  Belgium | 1 October 2020 | |
| Andrej Plenković |  |  Croatia | 16 October 2016 | |
| Nicos Anastasiades |  |  Cyprus | 28 February 2013 | |
| Kaja Kallas |  |  Estonia | 26 January 2021 | |
| Petteri Orpo |  |  Finland | 20 June 2023 | |
| Emmanuel Macron |  |  France | 14 May 2017 | |
| Olaf Scholz |  |  Germany | 8 December 2021 | |
| Kyriakos Mitsotakis |  |  Greece | 8 July 2019 | |
| Micheál Martin |  |  Ireland | 27 June 2020 | |
| Giorgia Meloni |  |  Italy | 22 October 2022 | |
| Arturs Krišjānis Kariņš |  |  Latvia | 23 January 2019 | |
| Gitanas Nausėda |  |  Lithuania | 12 July 2019 | |
| Xavier Bettel |  |  Luxembourg | 4 December 2013 | |
| Robert Abela |  |  Malta | 13 January 2020 | |
| Mark Rutte |  |  Netherlands | 14 October 2010 | |
| António Costa |  |  Portugal | 26 November 2015 | |
| Eduard Heger |  |  Slovakia | 1 April 2021 | |
| Robert Golob |  |  Slovenia | 1 June 2022 | |
| Pedro Sánchez |  |  Spain | 2 June 2018 | |
| Charles Michel Non-voting chair |  |  European Union | 1 December 2019 |
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.
The European Council is a collegiate body that defines the overall political direction and priorities of the European Union. The European Council is part of the executive of the European Union (EU), beside the European Commission. It is composed of the heads of state or government of the EU member states, the President of the European Council, and the President of the European Commission. The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy also takes part in its meetings.
The euro area, commonly called the eurozone (EZ), is a currency union of 20 member states of the European Union (EU) that have adopted the euro (€) as their primary currency and sole legal tender, and have thus fully implemented EMU policies.
The president of the European Council is the person presiding over and driving forward the work of the European Council on the world stage. This institution comprises the college of heads of state or government of EU member states as well as the president of the European Commission, and provides political direction to the European Union (EU).
Jean-Claude Juncker is a Luxembourgish politician who was the 23rd prime minister of Luxembourg from 1995 to 2013 and 12th president of the European Commission from 2014 to 2019. He also was Finance Minister from 1989 to 2009 and President of the Eurogroup from 2005 to 2013.
Donald Franciszek Tusk is a Polish politician and historian who has served as the prime minister of Poland since 2023, having previously held the post from 2007 to 2014. From 2014 to 2019 Tusk served as President of the European Council, and from 2019 to 2022 he was the president of the European People's Party (EPP). He co-founded the Civic Platform (PO) party in 2001 and has served as its long-time leader, first from 2003 to 2014 and again since 2021.
Poland does not use the euro as its currency. However, under the terms of their Treaty of Accession with the European Union, all new Member States "shall participate in the Economic and Monetary Union from the date of accession as a Member State with a derogation", which means that Poland is obliged to eventually replace its currency, the złoty, with the euro.
Herman Achille, Count Van Rompuy is a Belgian politician, who served as the prime minister of Belgium from 2008 to 2009, and then as the first permanent president of the European Council from 2009 to 2014.
The euro came into existence on 1 January 1999, although it had been a goal of the European Union (EU) and its predecessors since the 1960s. After tough negotiations, the Maastricht Treaty entered into force in 1993 with the goal of creating an economic and monetary union (EMU) by 1999 for all EU states except the UK and Denmark.
The enlargement of the eurozone is an ongoing process within the European Union (EU). All member states of the European Union, except Denmark which negotiated an opt-out from the provisions, are obliged to adopt the euro as their sole currency once they meet the criteria, which include: complying with the debt and deficit criteria outlined by the Stability and Growth Pact, keeping inflation and long-term governmental interest rates below certain reference values, stabilising their currency's exchange rate versus the euro by participating in the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, and ensuring that their national laws comply with the ECB statute, ESCB statute and articles 130+131 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. The obligation for EU member states to adopt the euro was first outlined by article 109.1j of the Maastricht Treaty of 1992, which became binding on all new member states by the terms of their treaties of accession.
Events in the year 2010 in the European Union.
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The Eurogroup is the recognised collective term for the informal meetings of the finance ministers of the eurozone—those member states of the European Union (EU) which have adopted the euro as their official currency. The group has 20 members. It exercises political control over the currency and related aspects of the EU's monetary union such as the Stability and Growth Pact. The current President of the Eurogroup is Paschal Donohoe, the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform of Ireland.
The European Stability Mechanism (ESM) is an intergovernmental organization located in Luxembourg City, which operates under public international law for all eurozone member states having ratified a special ESM intergovernmental treaty. It was established on 27 September 2012 as a permanent firewall for the eurozone, to safeguard and provide instant access to financial assistance programmes for member states of the eurozone in financial difficulty, with a maximum lending capacity of €500 billion. It has replaced two earlier temporary EU funding programmes: the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism (EFSM).
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Events in the year 2014 in the European Union.
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