Prior to 1 May 2004 the European Union had fifteen members. On that date ten new member states were admitted. This article describes the party affiliations of the leaders of each member-state represented in the European Council from the beginning of 2004 until 1 May. 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 only two changes of government occurred: in Greece and Spain, and taken together these left the overall balance of party affiliations in the Council unchanged.
Summary Party1 January 200410 March 200427 April 2004#QMV#QMV#QMVEuropean People's Party744849741Party of European Socialists429324432European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party311311311Alliance for Europe of the Nations131313
List of leaders (1 January 2004) Member-stateVotesLeaderNational partyEuropean partyGermany10Gerhard SchröderSPDPESFrance10Jacques ChiracUMPEPPUnited Kingdom10Tony BlairLabPESItaly10Silvio BerlusconiFIEPPSpain8José María AznarPPEPPNetherlands5Jan Peter BalkenendeCDAEPPGreece5Costas SimitisPA.SO.K.PESBelgium5Guy VerhofstadtVLDELDRPortugal5José Manuel BarrosoPPD/PSDEPPSweden4Göran PerssonSAPPESAustria4Wolfgang SchüsselÖVPEPPDenmark3Anders Fogh RasmussenVELDRFinland3Matti VanhanenKesk.ELDRIreland3Bertie AhernFFAENLuxembourg2Jean-Claude JunckerCSVEPP
Changes
Affiliation DateMember-stateLeaderNational partyEuropean group10 MarchGreeceKostas KaramanlisNDEPP27 AprilSpainJosé Luis Rodríguez ZapateroPSOEPES
See also Presidency of the Council of the European Union
External links Council of the European Union (official website)