<P> The role as President - in - Office was merely a primus inter pares role among other European heads of state or government . Being primarily responsible for preparing and chairing the meetings of the European Council, the role had no executive powers and was in no sense equivalent to that of a head of state . However, the President - in - Office represented the European Council externally and reported to the European Parliament after its meetings as well as at the beginning and at the end of the presidency . </P> <P> The president's role is largely political, preparing the work of the European Council, organising and chairing its meetings, seeking to find consensus among its members and reporting to the European Parliament after each meeting; the president will also "at his level and in that capacity, ensure the external representation of the Union on issues concerning its common foreign and security policy, without prejudice to the powers of the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security". Some overlap between the roles of the President of the European Council, the President of the Commission, and the High Representative--notably in foreign policy--leaves uncertainty about how much influence the President of the European Council will acquire . There is further concern over whether the President will have sufficient personnel and resources to fulfil the duties of the post effectively and that, in lacking a ministry, the President might become a "play ball" between EU leaders . </P> <P> With the reorganisation of leading EU posts under the Lisbon Treaty, there was some criticism of each posts vague responsibilities . Ukrainian ambassador to the EU Andriy Veselovsky praised the framework and clarified it in his own terms: The President of the European Commission speaks as the EU's "government" while the new President of the European Council is a "strategist". The High Representative specialises in "bilateral relations" while the European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy deals in technical matters such as the free trade agreement with Ukraine . The President of the European Parliament meanwhile articulates the EU's values . </P> <P> The European Council president also extended his influence into financial policy, the most important area left to the rotating Council presidency, with the rotating presidency seeing a greater decrease in power than previously planned . Many of the changes introduced with the Lisbon Treaty need concretion through practical implementation by the current actors . The Spanish presidency unsuccessfully tried to challenge the European Council president's prominent post during the first rotating presidency of 2010, while the second half of the year saw a Belgian rotating presidency marked by a weakened caretaker government which did not challenge Herman van Rompuy, himself a Belgian politician . The Belgian rotating presidency announced it was taking a "backrow seat" with regards to both the European Council president as well as the High Representative, thus fuelling hopes for a more comunitarian character in both the council and foreign policy . </P>

Who elects the president of the european council