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.
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 Party1 January 20026 April 200225 June 200222 July 2002#QMV#QMV#QMV#QMVParty of European Socialists742638638532European People's Party534639639744European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party28282828Independent13130000Alliance for Europe of the Nations————1313
List of leaders (1 January 2002) Member-stateVotesLeaderNational partyEuropean partyGermany10Gerhard SchröderSPDPESFrance10Jacques ChiracRPREPPUnited Kingdom10Tony BlairLabPESItaly10Silvio BerlusconiFIEPPSpain8José María AznarPPEPPNetherlands5Wim KokPvdAPESGreece5Costas SimitisPA.SO.K.PESBelgium5Guy VerhofstadtVLDELDRPortugal5António GuterresPSPESSweden4Göran PerssonSAPPESAustria4Wolfgang SchüsselÖVPEPPDenmark3Anders Fogh RasmussenVELDRFinland3Paavo LipponenSDPPESIreland3Bertie AhernFFIndependentLuxembourg2Jean-Claude JunckerCSVEPP
Changes
Affiliation DateMember-stateLeaderNational partyEuropean party6 AprilPortugalJosé Manuel BarrosoPPD/PSDEPP25 JuneIrelandBertie AhernFFAEN22 JulyNetherlandsJan Peter BalkenendeCDAEPP
– 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 Presidency of the Council of the European Union
External links Council of the European Union (official website)