President of the European Council extended his influence into financial policy, the most important area left to the rotating Council presidency, with the rotating presidency seeing a greater decrease in power than previously planned. Many of the changes introduced with the Lisbon Treaty need concretion through practical implementation by the current actors. The Spanish presidency unsuccessfully tried to challenge the European Council president's prominent post during the first rotating presidency of 2010, while the second half of the year saw a Belgian rotating presidency marked by a weakened caretaker government which did not challenge Herman van Rompuy, himself a Belgian politician. The Belgian rotating presidency
Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania July 2018. During Lithuania's presidency of the Council of the European Union, the palace was used as one of the main venues for the meetings of heads of European countries. On 28 November 2013, during the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius, a dinner was held in the palace with many guests, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel; British Prime Minister David Cameron; French President François Hollande; Polish President Bronisław Komorowski; European Union President Herman Van Rompuy; European Commission President José Manuel Barroso; European Parliament President Martin Schulz; European Commission Vice-President and High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security