Parties in the European Council during 2002
# 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.

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 | 1 January 2002 | 6 April 2002 | 6 April 2002 | 25 June 2002 | 25 June 2002 | 22 July 2002 | 22 July 2002 |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Party | # | 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.
