President of the European Council also led to their rejection. On 19 November 2009, Herman Van Rompuy, at that time Prime Minister of Belgium, was appointed the first full-time President of the European Council. The formal decision on the appointment was made after the Treaty of Lisbon came into force on 1 December 2009. The British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, said that he had unanimous backing from the 27 EU leaders at the summit in Brussels on the evening of 19 November 2009. Brown praised Van Rompuy as "a consensus builder" who had "brought a period of political stability to his country after months of
India–European Union relations through European skies that was opposed by many other countries, including India, China, the US and Russia, the European Union and India held their twelfth annual summit in New Delhi on 10 February 2012. Various EU representatives were present such as President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President José Manuel Barroso. The EU Trade commissioner, Karel De Gucht also attended the summit. The Republic of India was represented by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna, Trade Minister A. Sharma and National Security Adviser, S.S. Menon. The summit agenda covered bilateral, regional and global issues. The Leaders emphasised