Parties in the European Council during 2002

This article describes the party affiliations of the leaders of each member-state represented in the European Council 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.

The member-states of the European Union by the European party affiliations of their leaders, as of 1 January 2002.

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 maintained that plurality until 11 January 2007, when the government change in Austria returned the plurality to PES.

Summary
Party 1 January 2002 6 April 2002 25 June 2002 22 July 2002
# QMV # QMV # QMV # QMV
Party of European Socialists 7 42 6 38 6 38 5 32
European People's Party 5 34 6 39 6 39 7 44
European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party 2 8 2 8 2 8 2 8
Independent 1 3 1 3 0 0 0 0
Alliance for Europe of the Nations — — — — 1 3 1 3

List of leaders (1 January 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 Lab PES
Italy 10 Silvio Berlusconi FI EPP
Spain 8 José María Aznar PP EPP
Netherlands 5 Wim Kok PvdA PES
Greece 5 Costas Simitis PA.SO.K. 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 V ELDR
Finland 3 Paavo Lipponen SDP PES
Ireland 3 Bertie Ahern FF Independent
Luxembourg 2 Jean-Claude Juncker CSV EPP

Changes

Affiliation
Date Member-state Leader National party European party
6 April Portugal José Manuel Barroso PPD/PSD EPP
25 June Ireland Bertie Ahern FF AEN
22 July Netherlands Jan Peter Balkenende CDA EPP

^ – The AEN is founded, with its membership including Ireland's Fianna Fáil, which held office under Bertie Ahern.

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.

See also
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