Herman Van Rompuy head of the EU's economic & financial committee Odile Renaud-Basso, Luuk van Middelaar, his main speech writer, and Van Rompuy's long standing press officer Dirk De Backer. In 2013 Frans Van Daele retired both as a diplomat and as chief of Staff of Van Rompuy, and was appointed chief of staff to king Philippe. He was succeeded as chief of staff of Herman Van Rompuy by Didier Seeuws. Alongside with José Manuel Barroso 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
President of the European Council mandate, this would strengthen the post within the European Council allowing for stronger leadership in addition to addressing the question of democratic legitimacy in the EU. However, this might cause conflict with Parliament's democratic mandate or a potential mandate for the Commission (see section below). To give a mandate to the European Council's president would signify a development of the Union's governance towards a presidential system, rather than a parliamentary system. There had been disagreement and concern over competition between the former President of the European Council Van Rompuy and the former Commission President Barroso due to the vague language