President of the European Council the member state holding the semiannually rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union at any given time. However, since the 2007 Treaty of Lisbon, article 15 of Treaty on European Union states that the European Council appoints a full-time president for a two-and-a-half-year term, with the possibility of renewal once. Appointments, as well as the removal of incumbents, require a double majority support in the European Council. On 19 November 2009, the European Council agreed that its first president under the Lisbon Treaty would be Herman Van Rompuy (European People's Party, Belgium). Van Rompuy took office when the
Herman Van Rompuy of state or government of the EU member states, as the first full-time President of that Council under the Treaty of Lisbon. He was appointed for the period from 1 December 2009 until 31 May 2012, though he only took up his position officially on 1 January 2010. On 1 March 2012 he was re-elected for a second (and last) term, to last from 1 June 2012 until 30 November 2014. Born in Etterbeek, Brussels, to Dr., later Professor of Economics, Victor Lodewijk Maurits "Vic" van Rompuy (Begijnendijk, 27 February 1923 – Begijnendijk, 14 November 2004) and wife Germaine Geens