Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the context of "President of the European Council"

The General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union (GSC), also known as Council Secretariat, assists the Council of the European Union, the presidency of the Council of the European Union, the European Council and the president of the European Council. The General Secretariat is headed by the secretary-general of the Council of the European Union. The Secretariat is divided into eight directorates-general, each administered by a director-general. Other two departments are administered by deputy directors-general.

The Secretariat is based in Brussels, in the Europa building and the Justus Lipsius building. The respective secretariats of the Schengen Agreement and of now-defunct Western European Union and European Political Cooperation have along the years been integrated with the Council Secretariat.

The State of the Union address, also known as the State of the European Union or SOTEU, is the annual speech addressed by the President of the European Commission to the European Parliament plenary session in September. The State of the Union address of the European Union was instituted by the Lisbon Treaty (with the 2010 Framework Agreement on relations between the European Parliament and the European Commission - Annex IV(5)), in order to make political life of the Union more democratic and transparent than it previously had been.

The Framework Agreement thus also foresees that the President of the European Commission sends a letter of intent to the President of the European Parliament and the Presidency of the Council of the European Union that sets out in detail the actions the European Commission intends to take by means of legislation and other initiatives until the end of the following year. The address is then followed by a plenary debate on the political situation of the Union, the so-called State of the Union debate.

The Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) is a configuration of the Council of the European Union that convenes once a month. Meetings bring together the foreign ministers of the member states. Ministers responsible for European affairs, defence, development, or trade also participate depending on the items on the agenda. The configuration is unique in that it is chaired by the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (HR/VP) rather than the member state holding the presidency of the Council of the European Union. One exception is when the FAC meets in the configuration of ministers responsible for trade (FAC/Trade), with the presiding member state's minister chairing the meeting.

At its sessions, the FAC deals with the EU's external action, including Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), foreign trade, and development cooperation. In recent years, in cooperation with the European Commission, the FAC has prioritized ensuring coherence in the EU's external action across the range of instruments at the EU's disposal.

There is no official title of President of the European Union (or President of Europe), but there are a number of presidents of European Union institutions, including:

• the President of the European Council (since 1 December 2024, António Costa)
• the President of the European Commission (since 1 December 2019, Ursula von der Leyen)
• the President of the European Parliament (since 11 January 2022, Roberta Metsola)

Alongside these the Council of the European Union (also known as the Council of Ministers or simply "the Council") containing 27 national ministers, one of each nation, rotates its presidency by country. This presidency is held by a country, not a person; meetings are chaired by the minister from the country holding the presidency (depending on the topic, or "configuration"), except for the Foreign Affairs Council (one so-called "configuration" of the Council of the EU), which is usually chaired by the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. The Presidency of the Council of the European Union has been held by Denmark since 1 July 2025.

This is a list of meetings of the European Council (informally referred to as EU summits); the meetings of the European Council, an institution of the European Union (EU) comprising heads of state or government of EU member states. They started in 1975 as tri-annual meetings. The number of meetings grew to minimum four per year between 1996 and 2007, and minimum six per year since 2008. From 2008 to 2019, an average of seven council meetings per year took place. A record number of meetings (13) were held during 2020 - although mostly as informal video conferences; as the meeting frequency and format was changed this specific year by the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 2021, an average of eight council meetings per year took place (see list below).

Since 2008, an annual average of two special Euro summits were also organized in addition – and often in parallel – to the EU summits. As the agenda of Euro summits is restricted solely to discuss issues for the eurozone and only invite political leaders of the eurozone member states, such meetings are not counted as European Councils. Neither are any of the Tripartite Social Summits, that were held bi-annually since May 2021 between the EU Council presidency, Council President, Commission President and the European social partners at top management level (BusinessEurope, European Trade Union Confederation, SGI Europe, SMEunited and CEC European Managers).