This article describes the party affiliations of the leaders of each member-state represented in the European Council during the year 2006. The list below gives the political party that each head of government, or head of state, belongs to at the national level, as well as the European political alliance to which that national party belongs. 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.

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Summary Party1 January 200617 May 20064 July 20064 September 20066 October 2006#QMV#QMV#QMV#QMV#QMVEuropean People's Party11144101159108910810118Party of European Socialists610261027109697587Alliance for Europe of the Nations234234234234234European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party430430430430430Independent211211211211211European Democratic Party00129129129129Movement for European Reform000000112112

List of leaders (1 January 2006) Member-stateVotesLeaderNational partyEuropean partyGermany29Angela MerkelCDUEPPUnited Kingdom29Tony BlairLabPESFrance29Jacques ChiracUMPEPPItaly29Silvio BerlusconiFIEPPSpain27José Luis Rodríguez ZapateroPSOEPESPoland27Kazimierz MarcinkiewiczPiSAENNetherlands13Jan Peter BalkenendeCDAEPPGreece12Kostas KaramanlisNDEPPCzech Republic12Jiří ParoubekČSSDPESBelgium12Guy VerhofstadtVLDELDRHungary12Ferenc GyurcsányMSZPPESPortugal12José SócratesPSPESSweden10Göran PerssonSAPPESAustria10Wolfgang SchüsselÖVPEPPSlovakia7Mikuláš DzurindaSDKÚEPPDenmark7Anders Fogh RasmussenVELDRFinland7Matti VanhanenKesk.ELDRIreland7Bertie AhernFFAENLithuania7Valdas AdamkusIndependentLatvia4Aigars KalvītisTPEPPSlovenia4Janez JanšaSDSEPPEstonia4Andrus AnsipREELDRCyprus4Tassos PapadopoulosDIKOIndependent Luxembourg4Jean-Claude JunckerCSVEPPMalta3Lawrence GonziPNEPP

DIKO's MEP is a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe group in the European Parliament, but the party is not formally attached to any pan-European organization.

Changes during the year

Affiliation

DateMember-stateLeaderNational partyEuropean party17 MayItalyRomano ProdiIndependent EDP4 JulySlovakiaRobert FicoSMER-SDPES4 SeptemberCzech RepublicMirek TopolánekODSMER6 OctoberSwedenFredrik ReinfeldtMEPP

Prodi officially aligns himself only with his The Olive Tree coalition rather than any member-party, but he was previously a member of Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy's ancestor-party and is honorary president of its European parent, the EDP.

Office-holder only

DateMember-stateLeaderNational partyEuropean party14 JulyPolandJarosław KaczyńskiPiSAEN

See also Presidency of the Council of the European Union

External links Council of the European Union (official website)