Herman Van Rompuy does not have its own administration. The administrative support for both the European Council and its president is provided by the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union. The president does have, however, his own private office ("cabinet") of close advisers. Van Rompuy chose as his chief of staff ("chef de cabinet") Baron Frans van Daele, formerly Belgian ambassador to, variously, the USA, the UN, the EU and NATO and chief of staff of several Belgian foreign ministers. Also in his team are the former UK Labour MEP Richard Corbett, former Hungarian Ambassador to NATO Zoltan Martinusz, former
Herman Van Rompuy for said the government would pass a law to enforce the 500 million euro charge for this year, adding that this could also be contested by GDF Suez." On 19 November 2009, Van Rompuy was chosen unanimously by the European Council, at an informal meeting in Brussels, to be the first full-time President of the European Council; for the period of 1 December 2009 (the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon) until 31 May 2012. He took up his position officially on 1 January 2010. Gordon Brown also praised Van Rompuy as "a consensus-builder" who had "brought a