Parties in the European Council during 2017

This article describes the party affiliations of leaders of each member state represented in the European Council during the year 2017. 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 qualified majority system.

Summary

Party		1 January 2017		27 January		4 May		14 May		13 December		18 December
		#	Pop.%	#	Pop.%	#	Pop.%	#	Pop.%	#	Pop.%	#	Pop.%
	European People's Party	10	35.78%	9	34.97%	10	35.78%	10	35.78%	10	35.78%	11	37.49%
	Party of European Socialists	8	33.83%	8	33.83%	8	33.83%	7	20.73%	6	18.66%	5	16.95%
	Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party	6	7.46%	6	7.46%	6	7.46%	6	7.46%	7	9.53%	7	9.53%
	Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists	2	20.28%	2	20.28%	2	20.28%	2	20.28%	2	20.28%	2	20.28%
	Party of the European Left	1	2.10%	1	2.10%	1	2.10%	1	2.10%	1	2.10%	1	2.10%
	Independent	1	0.56%	2	1.37%	1	0.56%	2	13.66%	2	13.66%	2	13.66%

List of leaders (1 January 2017)

Member state	Pop.%	Leader	Party
Germany	16.18%	Angela Merkel		CDU-EPP
France	13.10%	François Hollande		PS-PES
United Kingdom	12.86%	Theresa May		Con-AECR
Italy	11.84%	Paolo Gentiloni		PD-PES
Spain	9.09%	Mariano Rajoy		PP-EPP
Poland	7.42%	Beata Szydło		PiS-EACR
Romania	3.84%	Klaus Iohannis		Ind.-EPP
Netherlands	3.34%	Mark Rutte		VVD-ALDE
Belgium	2.22%	Charles Michel		MR-ALDE
Greece	2.10%	Alexis Tsipras		SYRIZA-PEL
Czech Republic	2.07%	Bohuslav Sobotka		ČSSD-PES
Portugal	2.01%	António Costa		PS-PES
Sweden	1.95%	Stefan Löfven		S-PES
Hungary	1.91%	Viktor Orbán		Fidesz-EPP
Austria	1.71%	Christian Kern		SPÖ-PES
Bulgaria	1.39%	Boyko Borisov		GERB-EPP
Denmark	1.12%	Lars Løkke Rasmussen		V-ALDE
Finland	1.08%	Alexander Stubb		Kok.-EPP
Slovakia	1.06%	Robert Fico		SMER-SD-PES
Ireland	0.93%	Enda Kenny		FG-EPP
Croatia	0.81%	Andrej Plenković		HDZ-EPP
Lithuania	0.56%	Dalia Grybauskaitė		Ind.
Slovenia	0.40%	Miro Cerar		SMC-ALDE
Latvia	0.38%	Māris Kučinskis		V-EPP
Estonia	0.26%	Jüri Ratas		K-ALDE
Cyprus	0.17%	Nicos Anastasiades		DISY-EPP
Luxembourg	0.12%	Xavier Bettel		DP-ALDE
Malta	0.09%	Joseph Muscat		PL-EPP

Changes

Date	State	Former			Newer
		Leader	Party		Leader	Party
27 January	Bulgaria	Boyko Borisov		GERB-EPP	Ognyan Gerdzhikov		Ind.
4 May	Bulgaria	Ognyan Gerdzhikov		Ind.	Boyko Borisov		GERB-EPP
14 May	France	François Hollande		PS-PES	Emmanuel Macron		LREM-NI
14 June	Ireland	Enda Kenny		FG-EPP	Leo Varadkar		FG-EPP
11 December	Poland	Beata Szydło		PiS-EACR	Mateusz Morawiecki		PiS-EACR
13 December	Czech Republic	Bohuslav Sobotka		ČSSD-PES	Andrej Babiš		ANO-ALDE
18 December	Austria	Christian Kern		SPÖ-PES	Sebastian Kurz		ÖVP-EPP

See also

• Presidency of the Council of the European Union

External links

• Council of the European Union (official website)