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
Luuk van Middelaar Luuk van Middelaar Luuk Johannes van Middelaar (born 9 May 1973 in Eindhoven) is a Dutch historian and political philosopher. From December 2009 to 2014 Van Middelaar was member of the cabinet of Herman Van Rompuy, the first President of the European Council. He is best known for his book "The Passage to Europe" (originally published in 2009; widely translated). Van Middelaar studied history and philosophy at the University of Groningen and the "Centre Raymond Aron" of the "École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales" in Paris. In 1999 his masters thesis ("doctoraalscriptie" in Dutch) "Politicide" was published and awarded