Angela Merkel was sworn in as Chancellor on November 22, 2005. She is the first woman and the first East German to hold this office. From 2002-2005, Chancellor Merkel was the Chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) parliamentary group in the German Bundestag. She has been the Chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union since 2000, and served as the General Secretary of the CDU from 1998 to 2000. In 2007, Merkel was the President of the European Council and chaired the G8, participating in the negotiation of the Treaty of Lisbon and the Berlin Declaration. In 2008, Nicolas Sarkozy presented Merkel the Charlemagne Prize for her work to reform the European Union.