European Council

Not to be confused with Council of the European Union or Council of Europe.

European Council (in other official languages) Bulgarian Европейски съвет Czech Evropská rada Danish Det Europæiske Råd German Der Europäische Rat Greek Ευρωπαϊκό Συμβούλιο Spanish Consejo Europeo Estonian Euroopa Ülemkogu Finnish Eurooppa-neuvosto French Conseil européen Irish An Chomhairle Eorpach Croatian Europsko vijeće Hungarian Európai Tanács Italian Consiglio europeo Lithuanian Europos Vadovų Taryba Latvian Eiropadome Maltese Kunsill Ewropew Dutch Europese Raad Polish Rada Europejska Portuguese Conselho Europeu Romanian Consiliul European Slovak Európska rada Slovene Evropski svet Swedish Europeiska rådet
Type
Type	Institution of the European Union
History
Founded	1961 (1961) (informal) 2009 (2009) (formal)
Leadership
President	António Costa, S&D since 1 December 2024
Structure
Seats	27
Political groups	EPP (12)   Renew (4)   Una. (4)   ECR (3)   S&D (3)   PfE (1)
Meeting place
Europa building, Brussels
Website
consilium.europa.eu

The European Council (informally EUCO) is a collegiate body (directorial system) and a symbolic collective head of state, that defines the overall political direction and general priorities of the European Union (EU). It is composed of the heads of state or of government of the EU member states, the president of the European Council, and the president of the European Commission. The high representative of the union for foreign affairs and security policy also takes part in its meetings.

Established as an informal summit in 1975, the European Council was formalised as an institution in 2009 upon the commencement of the Treaty of Lisbon. Its current president is António Costa, former prime minister of Portugal.