Reporting to Parliament by European Council Presidents following informal meetings

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.