Parties in the European Council during 1999
# Parties in the European Council during 1999

This article describes the party affiliations of the leaders of each member-state represented in the European Council during the year 1999. 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.

## Summary

| Party | January 1, 1999 | January 1, 1999 | 12 July 1999 | 12 July 1999 |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| Party | # | QMV | # | QMV |
| Party of European Socialists | 10 | 59 | 10 | 59 |
| European People's Party | 3 | 15 | 2 | 10 |
| Independent | 2 | 13 | 2 | 13 |
| European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 |

## List of leaders (1 January 1999)

| Member-state | Votes | Leader | National party | European party |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| Germany | 10 | Gerhard Schröder | SPD | PES |
| France | 10 | Jacques Chirac | RPR | Independent |
| United Kingdom | 10 | Tony Blair | Lab | PES |
| Italy | 10 | Massimo D'Alema | DS | PES |
| Spain | 8 | José María Aznar | PP | EPP |
| Netherlands | 5 | Wim Kok | PvdA | PES |
| Greece | 5 | Costas Simitis | PA.SO.K. | PES |
| Belgium | 5 | Jean-Luc Dehaene | CD&V | EPP |
| Portugal | 5 | António Guterres | PS | PES |
| Sweden | 4 | Göran Persson | SAP | PES |
| Austria | 4 | Viktor Klima | SPÖ | PES |
| Denmark | 3 | Poul Nyrup Rasmussen | A | PES |
| 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 |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 12 July | Belgium | Guy Verhofstadt | VLD | ELDR |
