Herman Van Rompuy Rompuy was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Budget from September 1993 to July 1999 in the two governments led by Jean-Luc Dehaene. As budget minister, together with finance minister Philippe Maystadt, he helped drive down Belgium's debt from a peak of 135% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 1993. It fell to below 100% of GDP in 2003. He was elected to the Belgian Chamber of Representatives in the 1995 general election, but as he remained a minister, he was barred from taking the seat while holding that office. After his party's defeat in the 1999 Belgian general election,
Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union, 2009 Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union, 2009 Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union (short:Czech Presidency of EU) occurred in the first half of 2009. On 1 January 2009, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek became the President of the Council of the European Union. When Topolánek's cabinet lost a vote of no-confidence, he was replaced by Jan Fischer on 8 May 2009. Presidency went over to Sweden on 1 July 2009. Priorities had been formulated since 2007. It included Energetics, countries of Easter Europe and elections of European offices. Important priorities were three Big E