Parties in the European Council during 1998

This article describes the party affiliations of the leaders of each member-state represented in the European Council during the year 1998. 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, 1998 21 October 1998 27 October 1998
# QMV # QMV # QMV
Party of European Socialists 8 39 9 49 10 59
European People's Party 4 25 4 25 3 15
Independent 3 23 2 13 2 13

List of leaders (1 January 1998)

Member-state Votes Leader National party European party
Germany 10 Helmut Kohl CDU EPP
France 10 Jacques Chirac RPR Independent
United Kingdom 10 Tony Blair Lab PES
Italy 10 Romano Prodi Independent
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
21 October Italy Massimo D'Alema DS PES
27 October Germany Gerhard Schröder SPD PES

See also