Herman Van Rompuy 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 then as the first President of the European Council. A politician from Belgium's Christian Democratic and Flemish party, Van Rompuy served as the 49th prime minister of Belgium from 30 December 2008 until Yves Leterme (who was also his predecessor) succeeded him on 25 November 2009. On 19 November 2009 Van Rompuy was selected by the members of the European Council, which is the institution of the European Union (EU) comprising the heads
Luuk van Middelaar Luuk van Middelaar Luuk Johannes van Middelaar (born 9 May 1973 in Eindhoven) is a Dutch historian and political philosopher. From December 2009 to 2014 Van Middelaar was member of the cabinet of Herman Van Rompuy, the first President of the European Council. He is best known for his book "The Passage to Europe" (originally published in 2009; widely translated). Van Middelaar studied history and philosophy at the University of Groningen and the "Centre Raymond Aron" of the "École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales" in Paris. In 1999 his masters thesis ("doctoraalscriptie" in Dutch) "Politicide" was published and awarded