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
Tine Van Rompuy Transport Service at the University Hospital of Leuven. In 2009, Van Rompuy helped to design an election campaign poster showing her brother, Prime minister Herman Van Rompuy, dressed as a circus clown. This attracted some attention, and according to some media reports, they have not spoken since. However, Van Rompuy said on her personal weblog that she is "happy that [her] brother will be president of Europe", and that she would give him a "little box" with a message that "the 2 % who are the richest, pay a tax of 2% on their wealth". She is married to John