The Council held its first meeting in January 1958, as the Council of the European Economic Community, with Belgium’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Victor Larock, in the chair. This graphic illustrates the Council presidencies held by EU Member States over the subsequent 60 years. It distinguishes between presidencies in the first and second half of any given year, as the annual working schedules of the EU institutions have a bearing on the workload of a presidency’s time in charge. For instance, the presidency in the second half of a given year generally deals with the entire process of adopting the following year’s EU budget. Meetings during those presidencies tend to be concentrated in the four months from September to December, rather than spread across all six months, as is the case for first-half presidencies.
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