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
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