Herman Van Rompuy head of the EU's economic & financial committee Odile Renaud-Basso, Luuk van Middelaar, his main speech writer, and Van Rompuy's long standing press officer Dirk De Backer. In 2013 Frans Van Daele retired both as a diplomat and as chief of Staff of Van Rompuy, and was appointed chief of staff to king Philippe. He was succeeded as chief of staff of Herman Van Rompuy by Didier Seeuws. Alongside with José Manuel Barroso Herman Van Rompuy Herman Achille, Count Van Rompuy (, ; born 31 October 1947) is a Belgian politician, who formerly served as Prime Minister of Belgium and
President of the European Council Lisbon Treaty came into force on 1 December 2009 with a term stretching until 31 May 2012. His term was later extended with a second period ending on 30 November 2014. The current president, for the term 1 June 2017 until 30 November 2019, is the former Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. He was reelected on 9 March 2017. The first meeting of all EU (then EC) heads of state or government was held in 1961 as an informal summit, but only became formalised in 1974, when it was baptised "European Council" by the then French president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.