For those of you subjected to the unfortunate idea of having Tony Blair as first president of the EU you’ll pleased to know the war criminal never came close.
The European Union has its first permanent council president — and its not Tony Blair. Instead, EU leaders have chosen Belgian Prime Minister Herman van Rompuy for the top job. His chief virtues? He’s from a small state actually committed to the European project (unlike the UK), and he’s a consensus politician, rather than a divisive autocrat (unlike Blair). Plus of course he’s not a war criminal — always a bonus when you’re trying to run a state committed to peace and international law.
Comments
Fair enough Rompuy is a compromising man, which is why he was picked. But with Rompuy and Ashton we have gotten a very inexperienced duo, with little electoral mandate (Ashton was never elected, and the general public have hardly heard of Rompuy).
At the end of the day Rompuy will not be an asset to the EU, he will be an asset to the leaders of other nations i.e. he will provide little vision or ideas. He will simply chair meetings, ensure everyone is heard and then suggest a compromise.
The Lisbon Treaty was said to be an answer to Kissinger’s question “If I want to call Europe who do I call?” These people do not answer this call. In fact if they walked into a room with Hu Jintao and Barrack Obama I think few people would know who they were. The press would certainly pay them little attenion. In sum, they provide no strength to Europe on the global level, and little vision inside Europe.