António Costa as President of the European Council: The first 100 days

Written by Ralf Drachenberg.

On 1 December 2024, António Costa became the fourth full-time President of the European Council. He was a long-time prime minister of Portugal (2015-2024) and, previously, a Member of the European Parliament (2004-2005). With nearly a decade of experience as a member of the European Council, he hit the ground running at the start of his term, consolidating his acquaintance with EU leaders, adjusting the European Council’s working methods and improving EU interinstitutional relations. As the office of President is shaped to a large degree by the person holding the position, the briefing also indicates how Costa’s approach differs from that of previous Presidents.

1.      Role of the President of the European Council

The President’s role is set out in Article 15(6) of the Treaty on European Union (TEU), which specifies that the President of the European Council:

• chairs the European Council and drives forward its work;
• ensures the preparation and continuity of the work of the European Council in cooperation with the President of the Commission, and on the basis of the work of the General Affairs Council;
• endeavours to facilitate cohesion and consensus within the European Council;
• presents a report to the European Parliament after each formal meeting.

The President of the European Council also ensures the EU’s external representation on issues concerning its common foreign and security policy (CFSP), without affecting the powers of the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

2.      Working methods

Before taking over the European Council Presidency on 1 December 2024, António Costa announced his intention to introduce a number of changes to the European Council’s working methods, notably improving interinstitutional relations, shortening European Council meetings and closing the gap between Europe’s citizens and the EU institutions.

Invitation letters

It has become customary for European Council Presidents to send invitation letters to EU leaders ahead of European Council meetings. On this point, Costa has changed the approach compared with previous European Council Presidents. His invitation letters for the December 2024 European Council meeting and the informal retreat of 3 February 2025 were sent at least two weeks ahead of the meetings. This contrasts with the last-minute communication of his predecessors, who sometimes did not send out the letters until the previous day. Moreover, Costa uses the invitation letter both to list the topics due to be addressed and to outline them in a way that is designed to provide initial content input and to steer the discussion.

Leaders’ Agenda

By putting forward a new Leaders’ Agenda during his first meeting as European Council President, António Costa follows the trend of his two predecessors, who used this tool as a means of planning the topics for EU leaders’ discussions. The Leaders’ Agenda tool was launched in October 2017 during Donald Tusk’s second term as President of the European Council, introducing a new working method to EU Heads of State or Government. The aim was to allow consensus on sensitive political issues to develop gradually, in the course of one or more informal debate(s), leading eventually to the adoption of formal European Council conclusions at a subsequent meeting. The informal debates were stimulated by the use of ‘Leaders’ Notes’ outlining the main challenges and sticking-points of a specific topic. Additionally, the Leader’s Agenda sets out a work programme indicating the topics the European Council would discuss in the future. The first Leaders’ Agenda under Tusk covered a period of 21 months.

Costa’s predecessor, Charles Michel, did not use the Leaders’ Agenda immediately on taking office: instead, he issued the first edition eight months into his presidency. He also changed the Leaders’ Agenda methodology and reduced the scope. Over the course of Michel’s presidency, the period covered by the different agenda editions decreased gradually from nine to four months.

As with Michel, President Costa seems (at least up to now) to be using mainly the planning part of the Leaders’ Agenda methodology – although with the return to a longer planning period, the current edition again covers a whole year.

Using informal meetings to prepare formal European Council meetings also seems to be an important aspect of Costa’s working method. For him, informal debates, such as the retreat on 3 February 2025, provide an opportunity for EU leaders to brainstorm, put ideas forward and ‘discuss them openly without the pressure of reaching conclusions or to have to make a decision’. The retreat was a first step in a process designed to shape consensus gradually and move the European Council towards the adoption of formal decisions at a meeting later in the year. Considering the positive experience of the first retreat, Costa has signalled his intention of possibly holding further more informal meetings/retreats on issues of strategic importance.

Length of European Council meetings

In line with his own objective of having shorter European Council meetings, António Costa started his presidency of the European Council with a one-day meeting on 19 December 2024, which also finished comparatively early. This may, however, not be a permanent feature, as most European Council meetings currently scheduled for 2025 are envisaged as two-day events.

Number and type of EU leaders’ meetings

In his first 100 days in office, President Costa has had to chair four European Council meetings: the regular December 2024 meeting, the informal retreat on 3 February 2025, the video-conference on 26 February, and the special meeting on 6 March. In doing so, he has already held nearly all forms of EU leaders’ gatherings (formal, special, informal in Brussels and video-conference). The other type of meeting still outstanding is an informal meeting in the country of the rotating Council presidency. Additionally, Costa has attended various meetings involving groups of European Council members, such as that in Paris at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron.

European Council conclusions

Like other European Council Presidents before him, Costa has set himself the objective of reducing the time EU leaders spend on the wording of the European Council conclusions. ‘It’s unanimous, this vision: nobody wants to spend time on drafting’, Costa told the Financial Times. ‘What we want is to have shorter [written] conclusions because we don’t need every [European] Council to discuss once again all the problems of the world. We need to focus each [European] Council on a political message.’ President Costa also believes that the European Council should focus on strategic and forward-looking discussions. To achieve this, and enable conclusions to be – if possible – discussed and agreed in advance, the approach chosen is a more structured involvement of Coreper [II] and of leaders’ sherpas in the preparation process. For the December 2024 European Council meeting, the conclusions were even finalised ahead of time, with EU leaders simply adopting them officially.

Overcoming limited unity

European Council conclusions need to adopted by consensus between EU leaders. While such consensus can be found in most cases, there have been occasions in the past when this has not been possible. In these situations, previous European Council Presidents have sometimes used what is known as ‘conclusions by the President of the European Council‘. For the outcome of the special meeting of the European Council of 6 March 2025, Costa used a different format, to overcome a lack of complete consensus. As part of the package of documents adopted at the meeting, one on Ukraine is referenced as EUCO 10/25 and ‘firmly supported by 26 Heads of State or Government’ – but not by Hungary’s Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán.

Closing the gap between Europe’s citizens and the EU institutions

At the start of his mandate, President Costa committed to make efforts towards closing the gap between Europe’s citizens and the EU institutions. For that purpose, he intends to pay a visit to the capital of each EU Member State once a year, and beyond that, to visit other regions of EU Member States to understand regions’ and citizens’ priorities and to exchange views at a local level.

3.     Interaction

Meetings and interactions

In his first 100 days in office, António Costa has held 200 meetings. Among these, two types of meetings dominated the agenda (Figure 2): (i) meetings with EU Member State representatives, primarily members of the European Council; (ii) meetings with representatives of third countries. While the focus on the first type of meeting highlights his efforts to deepen a common understanding among the European Council members, the second type is linked to the fulfilment of his role as the EU’s external representative.

European Council Presidents have traditionally consulted EU Heads of State or Government ahead of meetings, either by phone or in person, to get a first impression of their views on the topics featuring on the agenda. Costa spoke bilaterally with 22 EU leaders before the December 2024 European Council meeting, and with several others after that. In addition to bilateral discussions with EU leaders, Costa’s direct predecessor used what is known as the ‘Michel method‘, which consisted of holding meetings with small groups of (four to six) EU Heads of State or Government to prepare forthcoming European Council meetings (either physically or by video-conference).

So far, Costa has relied on traditional forms of preparatory meetings, mainly through bilateral phone calls and in-person meetings. As his predecessor did, Costa set up several visits to EU Heads of State or Government before taking office, to get acquainted with their views on the work of the European Council, succeeding in meeting with nearly all of them ahead of his mandate.

The third biggest share of meetings and interactions includes meetings with representatives of other EU institutions and agencies. This reflects the European Council President’s role as a representative of the European Council vis-à-vis other EU institutions, as well as Costa’s aim of developing good interinstitutional relations.

Interinstitutional relations

Regarding the development of good working relations with other EU institutions, António Costa got off to a promising start. Immediately after taking office, on 2 December 2024, he had a first meeting with the Presidents of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, and the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, (see photo).

So far, relations with the European Commission seem to have improved significantly compared with the situation under Costa’s predecessor. Costa has committed to ensuring a constructive working relationship with the Commission President, while von der Leyen publicly thanked Costa for the ‘excellent cooperation’ in the first weeks of their respective mandates. This effort towards increased coordination has been highlighted, for instance, by the alignment of Costa’s and von der Leyen’s communications in the context of US President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Demonstrating again their efforts to work collaboratively and emphasising EU unity, Costa and von der Leyen walked into the European Council meeting on 6 March together with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy – the three leaders giving their doorstep interview jointly.

Costa has only had a limited number of formal bilateral meetings with the Commission President so far, indicating that he will not hold weekly meetings with von der Leyen, as Herman Van Rompuy did with his Commission counterpart, José Manuel Barroso. However, Costa and von der Leyen have had many joint meetings with representatives of third countries, notably multiple ones with President Zelenskyy.

4.      Interaction with the European Parliament

All European Council Presidents have, at the start of their mandate, expressed their wish to build good working relations with the other EU institutions, in particular with the European Parliament. However, the incumbents did not specify what this relationship should look like in practice.

Herman Van Rompuy indicated at his first intervention in Parliament as European Council President that, in addition to reporting after formal European Council meetings (see next section), he would ‘multiply other useful contacts with MEPs such as the meetings I have begun with leaders of Groups and the monthly meeting I have with your President’. At the outset of his mandate, Donald Tusk stayed on a general level, not referring specifically to cooperation with the European Parliament; the first time he reported to Parliament on a European Council meeting, he merely said that ‘all European institutions must work together for the common good, while respecting the role each is here to play’. Charles Michel tried to show engagement with Parliament; during his first meeting in plenary as European Council President, Michel said he extended his hand to the European Parliament, hoping that ‘together, we can play a useful role in the future of the European project’, without, however, specifying how he intended to do that.

António Costa, a former MEP himself, provided more detail when outlining his interaction with the European Parliament. In his first speech to Parliament after becoming European Council President, he stated that he was ‘looking forward to our close cooperation, to the debates and to the exchanges with you’. Moreover, he acknowledged the different forms of interaction between the European Council President and the European Parliament: (i) the plenary debates after European Councils; (ii) exchanges with the European Parliament President, who he intends to meet regularly, in particular ahead of each European Council meeting; and (iii) exchanges with the political group leaders in the Conference of Presidents.

Reporting to the European Parliament

According to Article 15(6)(d) TEU, the European Council President is required to report to Parliament after each formal meeting of the European Council.

While it is customary to report orally in plenary, European Council Presidents have sometimes only sent written reports. While Van Rompuy attended Parliament debates systematically, Donald Tusk tended to use the written report option more often. During the final months of his mandate, Charles Michel sent only a written report to the European Parliament on several occasions, refraining from coming to the plenary in person. This fact was heavily criticised in the Parliament’s plenary session when Michel cancelled his exchange of views with MEPs in November 2024, and was recalled even after he had left office.

While reporting after formal European Council meetings is the European Council President’s Treaty-based responsibility (Figure 3), reporting after informal European Council meetings is a personal choice of the President in office. Figure 4 shows that the various Presidents have handled this differently. Van Rompuy initially argued that he could not report on the outcome of an informal meeting. He nonetheless ended up reporting on more than 50 % of informal meetings during his mandate. Conversely, Tusk refrained from any reporting going beyond his Treaty-based obligations towards Parliament. The start of Michel’s term was promising with respect to reporting to Parliament on informal European Council meetings; however, his approach was not consistent throughout and shifted in 2024.

Conference of Presidents (CoP) and political groups

All European Council Presidents have held meetings with the Parliament’s CoP at some stage of their mandate, albeit some more often than others. Van Rompuy, for instance, met with the CoP multiple times; not least because he generally delivered his reports on informal European Council meetings at specifically arranged CoP meetings, as soon as possible after the end of the European Council meeting itself. Costa attended the COP meeting on 11 December 2024, during which he committed to meeting ‘with Parliament’s President before each European Council meeting’ and expressed ‘his availability to report more frequently to the Conference of Presidents’. He notably committed to an exchange of views with the Conference of Presidents after each European Council meeting – in addition to his Treaty-based obligation of reporting back to the plenary.

It has also been customary, in particular at the start of the institutional cycle, for the European Council President to have individual (or sometimes multilateral) meetings with the chairs of Parliament’s political groups. So far, Costa has had bilateral meetings with the chairs of the EPP (Manfred Weber), S&D (Iratxe García Pérez) and Renew (Valérie Hayer). His intention is to continue meeting group leaders/political groups in other formats than in the Conference of Presidents

Read this briefing on ‘António Costa as President of the European Council: The first 100 days‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.