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,
European Union and the United Nations the right to speak among representatives of major groups on 3 May 2011. These include: the right to speak in debates among representatives of major groups, before individual states, to submit proposals and amendments, the right of reply, to raise points of order and to circulate documents. However, the EU does not have voting rights nor the right to sit on the Security Council. The EU is represented by the President of the European Council, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the European Commission and the EU delegations. European Council President Herman Van Rompuy