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
Eric Van Rompuy of his party. Since 1999, he has been MP in the Flemish Parliament. He is married to Viviane Geuffens. Eric Van Rompuy Eric Karel Paul Van Rompuy (born 23 November 1949 in Uccle) is a Flemish politician. He is the son of the later Prof. em. dr. Vic Van Rompuy and brother of Herman Van Rompuy and Christine Van Rompuy. After obtaining his licentiate degree in economics, he obtained a baccalaureate degree in philosophy (1971). In 1975, he obtained a PhD in economics at the KU Leuven. From 1976 till 1981, he worked at the Kredietbank as economist. In the