Evolution of the role of the European Council

The role of the European Council, as defined in Article 15(1) TEU, is to ‘provide the Union with the necessary impetus for its development’ and to define its ‘general political directions and priorities’. Although EU leaders have been meeting routinely in the European Council since 1975, that title did not appear in the Treaties until 1987. At that point, the President of the European Commission also officially became a member of the European Council.
It was only with the adoption of the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 that the European Council and its role were, for the first time, broadly defined. The office of full-time President was created in 2009 by the Lisbon Treaty, which made the European Council a formal EU institution. The Lisbon Treaty also ended the routine attendance of foreign affairs ministers at European Council meetings; until then, they had taken part in meetings to assist their corresponding Head of State or Government.
The graphic below shows how both the membership and organisation of the European Council have developed through successive Treaty changes, and how the institution’s role and areas of responsibility have expanded.