Talk:President of the European Union

The First President Announced
Herman Van Rompuy became the president of the EU today, 19th November 2009. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.88.175.146 (talk) 20:51, 19 November 2009 (UTC)
 * he became President of the European Council not president of the European Union as that is still a throretical post (i.e. no plans to make a role a reality). Pro66 (talk) 20:59, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

President of the Commission
It has never been used, however informally, as an informal term for the post of President of the European Commission.


 * I'm pretty sure it has been informally used for the post of President of the European Commission. This is obviously informal, and probably incorrect, but it seems to be done on occasion. john k (talk) 20:29, 26 March 2009 (UTC)
 * You are quite right, it has been changed since I wrote this and I didn't keep an eye on it. The person who changed it has made a bit of a personal statement there that is far too broad.- J.Logan`t : 14:16, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Article reduced to a disambig. Wikipedia is not a crystal ball.
The article as it stood was misleading speculation on a possibility that will not happen in accordance with any existing treaty. There is no planned treaty in which it might exist. WP:Wikipedia is not a crystal ball.

Furthermore, in accordance with the disambiguation MOS, there should be no more text than is neccessary to help readers determine which of the possible interpretations is the one they want. Accordingly, I have deleted most of the article since it was either repetition or speculation. --Red King (talk) 18:04, 20 November 2009 (UTC) I should add that, as the subject is topical (and the incorrect term so often used - by the BBC just now, no less), that I decided that I needed to shoot first and ask questions aftwards. --Red King (talk) 18:24, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Colloquial use only for President of the European Council
Shouldn't this disambiguation page clarify that only for one of these options, news reports sometimes use the simpler (and incorrect) term President of the EU - and that is the President of the European Council. I think, it is good to have the other options as well, since obviously the multitude of organizations and presidents confuses our readers. But still, there is only this one misnomer that really occurs frequently in published writings. 09:22, 21 November 2009 (UTC)


 * I suppose we could recognise that the article is about the error, so it is not a true disambig. But it has to be much simpler than it was.  It certainly must not go into theoretical futures and technical possibilities that will never be realised. --Red King (talk) 12:30, 23 November 2009 (UTC)

"European President" Deserves its own page, not disambiguation
The phrase "European President" should have its own page instead of being relegated to a verbose disambiguation page.

Cambridge Journals, for example, cites the info below, from Article I-21 of the Draft European Constitution:

"Article I-21 of the Draft European Constitution states that the European President is to be elected by the European Council, by a qualified majority for a term of two and a half years, and cannot serve more than two terms..."

Since then, numerous other credible sources have also correctly used the phrase "European President" when discussing related matters.

So there is good reason to have a separate page for the phrase "European President", even if the existence and parameters of such a person are still, intentionally or not, fluid at the moment.

Source: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract;jsessionid=7ECCBA0B89DDA775ABE7FAE62E80194F.tomcat1?fromPage=online&aid=252077

174.21.11.65 (talk) 05:08, 24 November 2009 (UTC)


 * How do you come to the idea that John W. Sap (cited above) has used the term correctly?
 * The official title of the position is, as you know, different. And the meaning the proposed term President of the EU differs from what the post is. So, it is also an invalid shorthand, because Van Rompuy is not the President of the EU, but just of the Council - one of its institutions. T om ea s y T C 07:37, 24 November 2009 (UTC)
 * To emphasise, there is no such job title as 'European President', 'President of Europe' or even 'President of the European Union'. Nor is any such title envisaged meaninfully (meaning that it appears in no active draft treaty). Any use is fantasy, whether by Europhobes or Europhiles.  Wikipedia does not deal in fantasy, except overt fiction - see WP:Wikipedia is not a crystal ball. --Red King (talk) 18:59, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the. —Community Tech bot (talk) 14:52, 3 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Sassoliparamentoeuropeo.jpg

BRD: "and the EU does not have any executive president"
I boldly changed the opening sentence so that it would read The official title President of the European Union (or President of Europe) does not exist and the EU does not have any executive president, but there are a number of presidents of European Union institutions:

reverted (per WP:BRD, fair enough) but their explanation seems odd to me: "more misleading than saying nothing, as the President of the European Commission is the leader of the executive" as this overstates both status of Commission and in particular of its President. The Commission is the EU's civil service, not its government. Its role is to (a) ensure compliance with existing Union law and (b) propose new Union laws for consideration by the Parliament and the Council that give effect to the treaties. It is the executive arm of the Union only insofar as it is the means through which the policies of the Union (as determined by the Council and the Parliament, not by the Commission) are put into effect, operated, executed if you will. It is for this reason that I consider it important to say that - not only does the Union not have a President as a nation might have - but what's more the ones that it does have are not executives. (I am willing to accept as an alternative that the opening sentence should remain unchanged but that the list of presidents is followed by note that reads None of these is an executive president.)

One of the reasons for Brexit was the continuing and deliberate practice of the UK press to shoe-horn the President of the Commission into the White House model and to cast Brussels as the "Washington swamp". It was always a myth but it sold tabloids like it does in the US.

So if my words are to remain reverted, let's have a reason based on fact, not fantasy. --John Maynard Friedman (talk) 13:56, 20 April 2021 (UTC)


 * JMF, I understand your desire to distinguish the EU from the US but this is not the way to do it, nor is this the place to refight the 2016 referendum. The US President has become not merely an executive and commander-in-chief, but also a leader on policy and legislation, the locus of great power and a symbol of the nation whose office demands massive respect and pomp. That's not the only way to be an executive president. You write that the EU Commission is the means through which the policies of the Union (as determined by the Council and the Parliament, not by the Commission) are put into effect, operated, executed if you will. That the Commission and its president work to implement policy is the very nub of executive. As for your denial that the President of the Commission is an executive at all, I can only imagine you don't think, say, charity CEOs are executives either.
 * If you were to persist with this, then consistency would require you also change the openings of President of the European Commission, The President of the European Commission is the head of the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union and of European Commission, The European Commission (EC) is the executive branch of the European Union. I suggest you establish consensus here first, which might be better done by bringing citations rather than your own constructions (and certainly without throwing aspersions of "fantasy" in your opening salvo), then prepare yourself to establish it again on those talk pages in the face of more robust responses. NebY (talk) 15:28, 20 April 2021 (UTC)
 * No, I did not say that the President of the Commission is not an executive at all, nor do the words that I think are needed in this article conflict with the other articles. If the EU were a business, the President of the Commission would be Chief Operating Officer, not Chief Executive Officer (or at least not not a CEO except in a company that had a very hands-on board because the role is highly circumscribed). The Presidency of the US is admittedly at the other extreme: he is an elected king but his powers are somewhat limited. The President of Russia is an absolute monarch. In most countries that have a President as head of state, the President is very powerful. None of the EU presidents have anything like that much power or freedom of action. The Commission is the Union's executive branch in the sense of executing the policies set by the Council and as limited by the treaties. The President of the Commission cannot issue executive orders.
 * In your snide comment about refighting the UK's referendum, you ignore my point which is that it is evident that the nature of the EU's presidencies is misunderstood and the article should meet that challenge. Half a dozen words don't add up to a campaign to wp:right great wrongs. Wikipedia's role is to inform, educate and dispel myth.--John Maynard Friedman (talk) 15:57, 20 April 2021 (UTC)


 * "No, I did not say that the President of the Commission is not an executive at all"? the ones that it does have are not executives.
 * "If the EU were a business..." I gave you the example of a charity CEO because remunerated CEOs of UK charities were until recently prohibited by law from being trustees/board-members/directors of their charities and you'll struggle to find any that have taken advantage of the change in law; in other words, the separation between board and executive is the norm.
 * You're trying to establish a definition of executive president that justifies your insertion, but it's too much hard work; you'd need a massive clarification footnote to explain "When we say they're not executive presidents, we mean presidents that can issue executive orders and by executive orders we don't mean commission regulations or commission implementing regulations or decisions or the rest of it of course, and we fully accept that one president is the president of an executive, but we still want to say it because tabloids".
 * You insist it's necessary to insert it to counter a myth that you say sold tabloids and led to Brexit. You call for facts. Wikipedia does too; verifiability is one of the 5 pillars. You provide no evidence that it's a common myth that needs dispelling. You provide no citation for your proposed insertion.
 * Lastly, so that others can join the discussion, this insertion is not necessary. The point you're trying to make – that there's no US-style president – is already being made in the first words and is re-emphasised in the "In Media" section. We don't need this uncited inaccurate tendentious denial. NebY (talk) 18:29, 20 April 2021 (UTC)


 * The European Commission is the government of the European Union in all but name. It is the executive body. It proposes legislation. It represents the Union externally and negotiates agreements in the field of external relations. Furthermore, the powers of the President of the European Commission have been strengthened over time and it is now the most powerful post in the EU institutions. I do not know the definition of "executive president", if there really is one, so for my part I would refrain from claiming that there is an executive president of the EU. But we should definitely not state the opposite either as this is a controversial statement, which absolutely can be questioned. It is better to just leave out the phrase "executive president" altogether. --Glentamara (talk) 18:41, 20 April 2021 (UTC)

The predecessors of the Commission were called the European Executives. – Kaihsu (talk) 05:08, 26 May 2021 (UTC)