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This is a list of meetings of the European Council (informally referred to as EU summits); the meetings of the European Council, an institution of the European Union (EU) comprising heads of state or government of EU member states. They started in 1975 as tri-annual meetings. The number of meetings grew to minimum four per year between 1996 and 2007, and minimum six per year since 2008. From 2008 to 2019, an average of seven council meetings per year took place. A record number of meetings (13) were held during 2020 - although mostly as informal video conferences; as the meeting frequency and format was changed this specific year by the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 2021, an average of eight council meetings per year took place (see list below).
Since 2008, an annual average of two special Euro summits were also organized in addition – and often in parallel – to the EU summits. As the agenda of Euro summits is restricted solely to discuss issues for the eurozone and only invite political leaders of the eurozone member states, such meetings are not counted as European Councils. Neither are any of the Tripartite Social Summits, that were held bi-annually since May 2021 between the EU Council presidency, Council President, Commission President and the European social partners at top management level (BusinessEurope, European Trade Union Confederation, SGI Europe, SMEunited and CEC European Managers).
The current practice is that meetings are always called and organized to the extent found needed by the European Council president. The upcoming ordinary meetings are scheduled by the end of each semester for the third following semester (minimum one year in advance), [1] and can take form either as "scheduled ordinary meetings" (resulting in a published document entitled "conclusions") or "informal ordinary meetings" (resulting in a published document entitled "statement"). A called scheduled/informal ordinary upcoming meeting might occasionally be moved or cancelled within a short notice, with such change then being notified by the Council president through the issue of a revised calendar plan for the ordinary meetings within the semester in concern. If extra meetings are called outside the procedure of notification minimum a half-year in advance, they are referred to as being "extraordinary meetings". The phrase "special meeting" is synonymously used for an "extraordinary meeting".
Extraordinary meetings can - just like the ordinary meetings - be held either in a formal or informal format. The list does not specify whether or not an extraordinary meeting was formal or informal, but this can be indirectly observed when checking the title of the published document summarizing the outcome of the meeting, as "conclusions" can only be published if the extraordinary meeting had a formal format.
The first seven summit meetings were held between 1961 and 1974, but this was before the formal establishment of the European Council. Some sources however consider them to be the informal seven first meetings of the European Council. [2]
# | Year | Date | Type | EU Council presidency | President-in-Office | Commission President | Host city | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1975 | 10–11 March | ― | Ireland | Liam Cosgrave | François-Xavier Ortoli | Dublin | Inaugural formal Council |
2 | 16–17 July | ― | Italy | Aldo Moro | Brussels | |||
3 | 1–2 December | ― | Rome | Established TREVI | ||||
4 | 1976 | 1–2 April | ― | Luxembourg | Gaston Thorn | Luxembourg | ||
5 | 12–13 July | ― | Netherlands | Joop den Uyl | Brussels | |||
6 | 29–30 November | ― | The Hague | |||||
7 | 1977 | 25–27 March | ― | UK | James Callaghan | Roy Jenkins | Rome | |
8 | 29–30 June | ― | London | |||||
9 | 5–6 December | ― | Belgium | Leo Tindemans | Brussels | |||
10 | 1978 | 7–8 April | ― | Denmark | Anker Jørgensen | Copenhagen | ||
11 | 6–7 July | ― | West Germany | Helmut Schmidt | Bremen | |||
12 | 4–5 December | ― | Brussels | |||||
13 | 1979 | 12–13 March | ― | France | Valéry Giscard d'Estaing | Paris | ||
14 | 21–22 June | ― | Strasbourg | |||||
15 | 29–30 November | ― | Ireland | Jack Lynch | Dublin |
# | Year | Date | Type | EU Council presidency | President-in-Office | Commission President | Host city | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
16 | 1980 | 17–18 April | ― | Italy | Francesco Cossiga | Roy Jenkins | Luxembourg | |
17 | 12–13 June | ― | Venice | |||||
18 | 1–2 December | ― | Luxembourg | Pierre Werner | Luxembourg | |||
19 | 1981 | 23–24 March | ― | Netherlands | Dries van Agt | Gaston Thorn | Maastricht | |
20 | 29–30 June | ― | Luxembourg | |||||
21 | 26–27 November | ― | UK | Margaret Thatcher | London | |||
22 | 1982 | 29–30 March | ― | Belgium | Wilfried Martens | Brussels | ||
23 | 28–29 June | ― | Brussels | |||||
24 | 3–4 December | ― | Denmark | Poul Schlüter | Copenhagen | |||
25 | 1983 | 21–22 March | ― | West Germany | Helmut Kohl | Brussels | ||
26 | 17–19 June | ― | Stuttgart | |||||
27 | 4–6 December | ― | Greece | Andreas Papandreou | Athens | |||
28 | 1984 | 19–20 March | ― | France | François Mitterrand | Brussels | ||
29 | 25–26 June | ― | Fontainebleau | British rebate agreed | ||||
30 | 3–4 December | ― | Ireland | Garret FitzGerald | Dublin | |||
31 | 1985 | 29–30 March | ― | Italy | Bettino Craxi | Jacques Delors | Brussels | Initiated the IGC leading to the Single European Act |
32 | 28–29 June | ― | Milan | |||||
33 | 2–3 December | ― | Luxembourg | Jacques Santer | Luxembourg | |||
34 | 1986 | 26–27 June | ― | Netherlands | Ruud Lubbers | The Hague | ||
35 | 5–6 December | ― | UK | Margaret Thatcher | London | |||
36 | 1987 | 29–30 June | ― | Belgium | Wilfried Martens | Brussels | ||
37 | 4–5 December | ― | Denmark | Poul Schlüter | Copenhagen | |||
38 | 1988 | 11–13 February | ― | West Germany | Helmut Kohl | Brussels | ||
39 | 27–28 June | ― | Hanover | |||||
40 | 2–3 December | ― | Greece | Andreas Papandreou | Rhodes | |||
41 | 1989 | 26–27 June | ― | Spain | Felipe González | Madrid | ||
42 | 18 November | Informal | France | François Mitterrand | Paris | |||
43 | 8–9 December | ― | Strasbourg | European Council endorses German reunification despite some Anglo-French opposition. |
# | Year | Date | Type | EU Council presidency | President-in-Office | Commission President | Host city | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
44 | 1990 | 28 April | Extraordinary | Ireland | Charles Haughey | Jacques Delors | Dublin | |
45 | 25–26 June | ― | Dublin | |||||
46 | 27–28 October | ― | Italy | Giulio Andreotti | Rome | |||
47 | 14–15 December | ― | Rome | |||||
48 | 1991 | 8 April | Informal | Luxembourg | Jacques Santer | Luxembourg | ||
49 | 28–29 June | ― | Luxembourg | |||||
50 | 9–10 December | ― | Netherlands | Ruud Lubbers | Maastricht | Signing of the Treaty of Maastricht | ||
51 | 1992 | 27 June | ― | Portugal | Aníbal Cavaco Silva | Lisbon | ||
52 | 16 October | ― | UK | John Major | Birmingham | |||
53 | 11–12 December | ― | Edinburgh | |||||
54 | 1993 | 21–22 June | ― | Denmark | Poul Nyrup Rasmussen | Copenhagen | Copenhagen criteria agreed | |
55 | 29 October | ― | Belgium | Jean-Luc Dehaene | Brussels | |||
56 | 10–11 December | ― | Brussels | |||||
57 | 1994 | 24–25 June | ― | Greece | Andreas Papandreou | Corfu | Signing of the Accession Treaty of Austria, Finland, Sweden and Norway (Norway did not ratify) | |
58 | 15 July | Extraordinary | Germany | Helmut Kohl | Brussels | |||
59 | 9–10 December | ― | Essen | |||||
60 | 1995 | 26–27 June | ― | France | Jacques Chirac | Jacques Santer | Cannes | |
61 | 22–23 October | Extraordinary | Spain | Felipe González | Majorca | |||
62 | 15–16 December | ― | Madrid | |||||
63 | 1996 | 29 March | ― | Italy | Lamberto Dini | Turin | ||
64 | 21–22 June | ― | Romano Prodi | Florence | ||||
65 | 5 October | Extraordinary | Ireland | John Bruton | Dublin | |||
66 | 13–14 December | ― | Dublin | |||||
67 | 1997 | 23 May | Informal | Netherlands | Wim Kok | Noordwijk | ||
68 | 16–17 June | ― | Amsterdam | Signed Treaty of Amsterdam | ||||
69 | 20–21 November | Extraordinary | Luxembourg | Jean-Claude Juncker | Luxembourg | Extraordinary European Council on Employment | ||
70 | 12–13 December | ― | Luxembourg | |||||
71 | 1998 | 3 May | Extraordinary | UK | Tony Blair | Brussels | Special Council on the Euro decides the 11 states which would enter the third stage of EMU | |
72 | 15–16 June | ― | Cardiff | |||||
73 | 24–25 October | Informal | Austria | Viktor Klima | Pörtschach | |||
74 | 11–12 December | ― | Vienna | |||||
75 | 1999 | 26 February | Informal | Germany | Gerhard Schröder | Königswinter | ||
76 | 24–25 March | ― | Manuel Marin (Interim) | Berlin | ||||
77 | 14 April | Informal | Brussels | |||||
78 | 3–4 June | ― | Cologne | Details below table | ||||
79 | 15–16 October | Extraordinary | Finland | Paavo Lipponen | Romano Prodi | Tampere | Special meeting on justice and home affairs | |
80 | 10–11 December | ― | Helsinki |
Since 2010, all formal (scheduled or extraordinary) European Council meetings have taken place in Brussels and been chaired by a permanent President, as introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon. In February 2010 the exact location was the Solvay Library, subsequent meetings took place at the Justus Lipsius building and since March 2017 at the Europa Building.
# | Year | Date | Type | EU Council presidency [24] | Council President | Commission President | Agenda, Conclusions and Minutes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
200 | 2020 | 20–21 February | Extraordinary | Croatia | Charles Michel | Ursula von der Leyen | Website |
201 | 10 March | Extraordinary (Informal video conference) | Website | ||||
202 | 17 March | Extraordinary (Informal video conference) | Website | ||||
203 | 26 March | Informal (informal video conference - replacing scheduled meeting) | Website, Statement | ||||
204 | 23 April | Extraordinary (Informal video conference) | Website | ||||
205 | 19 June | Informal (informal video conference - replacing scheduled meeting) | Website | ||||
206 | 17–21 July | Extraordinary | Germany | Website, Conclusions | |||
207 | 19 August | Extraordinary (Informal video conference) | Website | ||||
208 | 1–2 October | Extraordinary | Website, Conclusions | ||||
209 | 15–16 October | Scheduled | Website, Conclusions | ||||
210 | 29 October | Extraordinary (Informal video conference) | Website | ||||
211 | 19 November | Extraordinary (Informal video conference) | Website | ||||
212 | 10–11 December | Scheduled | Website, Conclusions | ||||
― | 11 December | Euro summit | Website, Statement | ||||
213 | 2021 | 21 January | Extraordinary (Informal video conference) | Portugal | Website | ||
214 | 25–26 February | Extraordinary (Informal video conference) | Website, Statement | ||||
― | 25 March | Euro summit (Informal video conference) | Website, Statement | ||||
215 | 25–26 March | Informal (Informal video conference - replacing scheduled meeting) | Website, Statement | ||||
― | 7 May | Tripartite Social Summit | Website, Statement | ||||
216 | 7–8 May | Informal | Website, Declaration | ||||
217 | 24–25 May | Extraordinary | Website, Conclusions | ||||
218 | 24–25 June | Scheduled | Website, Conclusions | ||||
― | 25 June | Euro summit | Website | ||||
219 | 5 October | Informal | Slovenia | Website | |||
― | 20 October | Tripartite Social Summit | Website, Main Messages | ||||
220 | 21–22 October | Scheduled | Website, Conclusions | ||||
221 | 16 December | Scheduled | Website, Conclusions | ||||
― | 16 December | Euro summit | Website, Statement | ||||
222 | 2022 | 17 February | Informal | France | Website | ||
223 | 24 February | Extraordinary | Website, Conclusions | ||||
224 | 10–11 March | Informal | Website, Declaration | ||||
― | 23 March | Tripartite Social Summit | Website, Main messages | ||||
225 | 24–25 March | Scheduled | Website, Conclusions | ||||
226 | 30–31 May | Extraordinary | Website, Conclusions | ||||
227 | 23–24 June | Scheduled | Website, Conclusions | ||||
― | 24 June | Euro summit | Website, Statement | ||||
228 | 7 October | Informal | Czech Republic | Website, Remarks | |||
― | 19 October | Tripartite Social Summit | Website, Main messages | ||||
229 | 20–21 October | Scheduled | Website, Conclusions | ||||
230 | 15 December | Scheduled | Website, Conclusions | ||||
231 | 2023 | 9 February | Extraordinary | Sweden | Website, Conclusions | ||
― | 22 March | Tripartite Social Summit | Website, Main Messages | ||||
232 | 23 March | Scheduled | Website, Conclusions | ||||
― | 24 March | Euro summit | Website, Statement | ||||
233 | 29–30 June | Scheduled | Website, Conclusions | ||||
234 | 6 October | Informal | Spain | Website, Declaration | |||
235 | 17 October | Extraordinary (video conference) | Website, Statement | ||||
― | 25 October | Tripartite Social Summit | Website, Main Messages | ||||
236 | 26–27 October | Scheduled | Website, Conclusions | ||||
― | 27 October | Euro summit | Website, Statement | ||||
237 | 14–15 December | Scheduled | Website, Conclusions | ||||
238 | 2024 | 1 February | Extraordinary [25] [26] | Belgium | Website, Conclusions | ||
― | 20 March | Tripartite Social Summit | Website | ||||
239 | 21–22 March | Scheduled [27] [28] | Website | ||||
― | 22 March | Euro summit | Website | ||||
240 | 17–18 April | Extraordinary | Website | ||||
241 | 17 June | Informal | Website | ||||
242 | 27–28 June | Scheduled [27] [28] | Website | ||||
The European Council met in Cologne, Germany, on 3–4 June 1999 to consider issues after the Treaty of Amsterdam came into force. Romano Prodi presented his plan for the future Commission's work and reform program. The Council called for an EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
The Council designated Javier Solana for the post of Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union (with Pierre de Boissieu as his deputy) and High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). It decided on a common policy on Russia (first use of the CFSP). Adopted the declaration on Kosovo. In relation to the European Security and Defence Policy, a major element of the CFSP, the council declared that the EU "must have the capacity for autonomous action, backed up by credible military forces, the means to decide to use them, and a readiness to do so, in order to respond to international crises without prejudice to actions by NATO".
The 2001 meeting of the European Council was held in the Swedish city of Gothenburg, from 14 to 16 June.
The EU Summit focused upon EU enlargement, sustainable development, economic growth and structural reform issues. The EU–US summit included a visit by U.S. president George W. Bush on 14 June. It was the first U.S. presidential visit to Sweden, and was intended as an opportunity to discuss differences on climate negotiations, WTO and Middle East issues with the EU leaders. It was marred by extensive demonstrations.
The main protests were organised by three broad coalitions, a local coalition Bush Go home that opposed U.S. foreign policy, a Sweden-based coalition Network Gothenburg 2001 which opposed Swedish membership in the EU and EMU and an international coalition Gothenburg Action 2001, a proponent of "another Europe", opponent of EU militarisation, the Schengen Agreement, and defending the public sector and the environment from becoming trade commodities and EMU. There was also a broad Iranian and a smaller anti-capitalist coalition as well as non-violent networks and Reclaim the Streets organising demonstrations and a street party.
According to the police, more than 50,000 demonstrators gathered in Gothenburg during the three days of the summit, [29] among them a smaller number with foreign nationality. The demonstrating organisations arranged many conferences, the biggest conference (besides, of course, the EU summit itself) being Fritt forum (Free Forum) which hosted 50 lectures and seminars and was funded by the city of Gothenburg, the Swedish justice department and Sweden's foreign ministry department among others. [29] The summit was guarded by approximately 2500 police officers. [30]
Besides a number of encounters and skirmishes there were a number of riots. The first one occurred on 14 June after the police had surrounded and enclosed the Hvitfeldtska gymnasiet where demonstrators had been invited by the city to stay during the summit. The second occurred in the morning of 15 June in conjunction with a demonstration of 2000 participants organised by the anti-capitalist organisation, and it resulted in violent clashes with the police and damage of Gothenburg's main street Kungsportsavenyn. Later in the evening during the Reclaim the City demonstration, a police unit came under attack by demonstrators throwing projectiles. The police subsequently fired shots at the demonstrators. Three persons were injured by gunshots, one of whom was seriously injured. [31] This was the first use of firearms against Swedish demonstrators since the Ådalen shootings in 1931.
The riots were followed by prison sentences for 64 persons convicted of criminal behaviour. In total demonstrators were sent to prison for almost 50 years. As of 2006, no police officer has been convicted of wrongdoing during the summit. One officer was tried and convicted for committing perjury during a trial against a Gothenburg demonstrator.[ citation needed ]
The riots left large areas of central Gothenburg demolished due to the violent protests of the demonstrators, as well as leaving many stores looted. [31] [32]
The summit meeting of the European Union was notable because heads of states from the EU gathered in Gothenburg, and also because the American President George W. Bush visited Sweden for the first time on the day before the summit meeting. As a reaction to this, protesters from all over the world planned to gather in Gothenburg to demonstrate under different banners. The City of Gothenburg assisted the out-of-town protesters by providing living quarters in different schools around Gothenburg and a convergence center, first at Hvitfeldtska gymnasiet and later moved to Schillerska Gymnasiet.
The political background to the protests was a conjuncture of three forces. EU-criticism and opposition to membership in the EU was stronger in Sweden than anywhere else in the union. Secondly a wave of globalisation protests against neoliberalism had gained momentum after the protests during the EU Summit in Amsterdam 1997 and the WTO meeting in Seattle 1999. Anti-war and environmental concerns against the U.S. was a third factor.
The police planned and gathered their forces in anticipation of the meeting. Never before had this many heads of state met in Sweden, and thousands of police were to stand guard in Gothenburg to keep order during these three days of June 2001. The police had long prepared for disturbances and also had many different intelligence services directed at the groups participating in the planning of demonstrations. There were differing opinions amongst the police forces involved. The security police did not want the Hvitfeldtska gymnasiet to be used as they felt it was too close to the EU Summit while the Gothenburg police insisted on having the demonstrators there. American police tactics against protesters were in use such as a psycho-tactic unit that was supposed to have a dialogue with demonstrating organisations.
The police, the local authority and the different demonstration coalitions had arranged a dialogue group where they planned and discussed the demonstrations to ensure they would be as peaceful as possible.
The officers in command of the action stated that they were very pleased with how the police had served during the summit (an opinion which at the time was shared by the government). It was claimed that the police successfully had used advance information about demonstrators and undercover police officers among the demonstrators to among other things find out about the "secret" information central.
According to the police, they acted completely in accordance with the Police Law.
The Swedish Police Union strongly criticised the way the police actions had been led and managed. [33] In its report "Chaos" – regarding the Command in Gothenburg in June 2001 it is stated that a majority of the police who were on duty during the time felt they did not have enough resources to carry out their duties in a proper manner and that orders were confusing. [33]
Statistics:
The total sum of the sentences following the riots during the EU summit was roughly 50 years in prison, which according to the journalist Erik Wijk is 12 times more than earlier riots. [35] No police were convicted despite a large number of complaints.[ citation needed ]
One of the most noticed cases is the so-called information central, which was stormed by Nationella insatsstyrkan during the first day of the summit. A total of eight persons (five men, three women) were sentenced to long prison sentences after having sent out text messages urging people to go to Hvitfeldtska gymnasiet in connection with the police shutdown of the school.[ citation needed ]
The police officer in charge for the EU summit, Håkan Jaldung , was accused in a trial of preventing about 100 people at the Schillerska from leaving the place for several hours, but was found innocent. [36]
Göteborgsaktionen ("The Gothenburg Action") involved 87 organisations out of whom 33 were Swedish, 22 Danish, 9 Finnish, 5 Norwegian, 4 European and some other mainly from different Eastern European countries. Nätverket Göteborg ("The Gothenburg Network") involved over 20 organisations.
The Laeken European Council was held at the royal palace at Laeken, Belgium, on 14–15 December 2001.
The Laeken European Council dealt with:
The Laeken Declaration on the Future of Europe established the European Convention, presided over with former President of France, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, as President of the convention, and former Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato and former Belgian Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene as Vice-Presidents. The convention was tasked with drafting the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, and would have about 60 members, drawn from national governments, national parliamentarians, the European Parliament, and the European Commission, and include representatives from the candidate countries. The declaration reviews the progress of European integration over the last fifty years, tracing it back to its origins in the horrors of World War II, and poses a number of questions to be answered by the convention. [37] [38]
The European Council is where EU leaders meet to set EU's political agenda, but they do not pass laws.
Gothenburg is the capital of Västra Götaland County in Sweden. It is the second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. It is situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, with a population of approximately 600,000 in the city proper and about 1.1 million inhabitants in the metropolitan area.
Europol, officially the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, is the law enforcement agency of the European Union (EU). Established in 1998, it is based in The Hague, Netherlands, and serves as the central hub for coordinating criminal intelligence and supporting the EU's member states in their efforts to combat various forms of serious and organized crime, as well as terrorism.
The Group of Seven (G7) is an intergovernmental political and economic forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States; additionally, the European Union (EU) is a "non-enumerated member". It is organized around shared values of pluralism, liberal democracy, and representative government. G7 members are the major IMF advanced economies.
Turkey is negotiating its accession to the European Union (EU) as a member state, following its application to become a full member of the European Economic Community (EEC), the predecessor of the EU, on 14 April 1987.
Anna Hedh is a Swedish politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2004 until 2019. She is a member of the Swedish Social Democratic Party, part of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats.
Hvitfeldtska gymnasiet, the "Hvitfeldtska High School" (gymnasium), is in central Gothenburg, Sweden. The school was founded in 1647 by Queen Christina and is the largest in Gothenburg. It was originally called "Göteborgs gymnasium" and later known as "Göteborgs högre latinläroverk" before being named after its benefactress, the Norwegian-Swedish noblewoman Margareta Hvitfeldt (1608–1683), who left the larger part of her estate to the school. Hvitfeldtska has a sister school in Nairobi, Kenya: Our Lady Of Fatima Secondary School.
Presidential elections were held in Belarus on 19 March 2006. The result was a victory for incumbent, President Alexander Lukashenko, who received 84.4% of the vote. However, Western observers deemed the elections rigged. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) declared that the election "failed to meet OSCE commitments for democratic elections". In contrast, election observers from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) described the vote as open and transparent.
International relations between the European Union (EU) and Ukraine are shaped through the Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement and the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA). Ukraine is a priority partner within the Eastern Partnership and the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). The EU and Ukraine have been seeking an increasingly close relationship, going beyond co-operation, to gradual economic integration and deepening of political co-operation. On 23 June 2022, the European Council granted Ukraine the status of a candidate for accession to the European Union.
The accession of Kosovo to the European Union (EU) is on the current agenda for future enlargement of the EU. Kosovo is currently recognized by the EU as a potential candidate for accession.
The Eastern Partnership (EaP) is a joint initiative of the European Union, together with its member states, and six Eastern European countries. The EaP framework governs the EU's relationship with the post-Soviet states of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. The EaP is intended to provide a forum for discussions regarding trade, economic strategy, travel agreements, and other issues between the EU and its Eastern European neighbours. It also aims at building a common area of shared values of democracy, prosperity, stability, and increased cooperation. The project was initiated by Poland and a subsequent proposal was prepared in co-operation with Sweden. It was presented by the foreign ministers of Poland and Sweden at the EU's General Affairs and External Relations Council in Brussels on 26 May 2008. The Eastern Partnership was inaugurated by the EU in Prague, Czech Republic on 7 May 2009.
The Union for the Mediterranean is an intergovernmental organization of 43 member states from Europe and the Mediterranean Basin: the 27 EU member states and 16 Mediterranean partner countries from North Africa, Western Asia and Southern Europe. It was founded on 13 July 2008 at the Paris Summit for the Mediterranean, with an aim of reinforcing the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (Euromed) that was set up in 1995 as the Barcelona Process. Its general secretariat is located in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
The Euro summit is the meeting of the heads of state or government of the member states of the eurozone. It is distinct from the EU summit held regularly by the European Council, the meeting of all EU leaders.
The European Union–Ukraine Association Agreement is a European Union Association Agreement between the European Union (EU), the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), Ukraine and the EU's 28 member states at the time. It establishes a political and economic association between the parties. The agreement entered into force on 1 September 2017; previously parts had been provisionally applied. The parties committed to co-operate and converge economic policy, legislation, as well as regulation across a broad range of areas, including equal rights for workers, steps towards visa-free movement of people, the exchange of information and staff in the area of justice, the modernisation of Ukraine's energy infrastructure and access to the European Investment Bank (EIB). The parties committed to regular summit meetings and meetings among ministers, other officials and experts. The agreement furthermore establishes a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area between the parties.
Events in the year 2015 in the European Union.
Events in the year 2014 in the European Union.
The 2016 Warsaw Summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was the 27th formal meeting of the heads of state and heads of government of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, held at the National Stadium in Warsaw, Poland, on 8 and 9 July 2016.
Relations between the European Union (EU) and Turkey were established in 1959, and the institutional framework was formalized with the 1963 Ankara Agreement. Albeit not officially part of the European Union, Turkey is one of the EU's main partners and both are members of the European Union–Turkey Customs Union. Turkey borders two EU member states: Bulgaria and Greece.
Events in the year 2017 in the European Union.
The European Political Community (EPC) is an intergovernmental forum for political and strategic discussions about the future of Europe, established in 2022 after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The group first met in October 2022 in Prague, with participants from 44 European countries, as well as the Presidents of the European Council and the European Commission. It is distinct from both the European Union and the Council of Europe.
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: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) (Swedish) Retrieved 20 November 2006.