On 1 May 2004 ten new member states joined the European Union. This article describes the party affiliations of the leaders of each member-state represented in the European Council from 1 May until the end of 2004. 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.
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Summary Party1 May 200412 July 20041 November 20042 December 20043 December 2004#QMVa#QMVa#QMVb#QMVb#QMVbParty of European Socialists750750714671467146European People's Party10491049101231112712131European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party517414430430326Alliance for Europe of the Nations1313171717European Green Party1313140000Independent1225211211211
a – Transitional QMV system with 124 total votes and a qualified majority of 88 (70.97%), in use until 1 November 2004. b – Final EU-25 QMV system with 321 total votes and a qualified majority of 232 (72.27%).
List of leaders (1 May 2004) Member-stateVotesLeaderNational partyEuropean partyabGermany1029Gerhard SchröderSPDPESUnited Kingdom1029Tony BlairLabPESFrance1029Jacques ChiracUMPEPPItaly1029Silvio BerlusconiFIEPPSpain827José Luis Rodríguez ZapateroPSOEPESPoland827Leszek MillerSLDPESNetherlands513Jan Peter BalkenendeCDAEPPGreece512Kostas KaramanlisNDEPPCzech Republic512Vladimír ŠpidlaČSSDPESBelgium512Guy VerhofstadtVLDELDRHungary512Péter MedgyessyMSZPPESPortugal512José Manuel BarrosoPPD/PSDEPPSweden410Göran PerssonSAPPESAustria410Wolfgang SchüsselÖVPEPPSlovakia37Mikuláš DzurindaSDKÚEPPDenmark37Anders Fogh RasmussenVELDRFinland37Matti VanhanenKesk.ELDRIreland37Bertie AhernFFAENLithuania37Artūras PaulauskasNSELDRLatvia34Indulis EmsisLZPEGPSlovenia34Anton RopLDSELDREstonia34Juhan PartsRPEPPCyprus24Tassos PapadopoulosDIKOIndependentLuxembourg24Jean-Claude JunckerCSVEPPMalta23Lawrence GonziPNEPP
DIKO's MEP joined the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe group in the European Parliament, but the party is not formally attached to any pan-European organization.
Changes
Affiliation DateMember-stateLeaderNational partyEuropean party12 JulyLithuaniaValdas AdamkusIndependent2 DecemberLatviaAigars KalvītisTPEPP3 DecemberSloveniaJanez JanšaSDSEPP
Office-holder only DateMember-stateLeaderNational partyEuropean party2 MayPolandMarek BelkaSLDPES17 JulyPortugalPedro Santana LopesPPD/PSDEPP4 AugustCzech RepublicStanislav GrossČSSDPES29 SeptemberHungaryFerenc GyurcsányMSZPPES
See also Presidency of the Council of the European Union
External links Council of the European Union (official website)