President of the European Council also led to their rejection. On 19 November 2009, Herman Van Rompuy, at that time Prime Minister of Belgium, was appointed the first full-time President of the European Council. The formal decision on the appointment was made after the Treaty of Lisbon came into force on 1 December 2009. The British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, said that he had unanimous backing from the 27 EU leaders at the summit in Brussels on the evening of 19 November 2009. Brown praised Van Rompuy as "a consensus builder" who had "brought a period of political stability to his country after months of
Herman Van Rompuy After this second mandate he could not have been re-elected because the European Council President's term of office can only be extended once. Herman Van Rompuy was also appointed as the first President of the Euro Summit, and this for the same term of office as his Presidency of the European Council. The Euro Summit meetings are to take place at least twice a year. In 2014, Van Rompuy was awarded the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen for his EU role. Although the European Council is, under the terms of the Lisbon treaty, a separate institution of the EU, it