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It's surprised me for a while that there's been so much speculation about the idea of Blair becoming president of the EU, but it seems that, at last, reality is starting to dawn.
Surely, only in the UK can anyone have believed that the other countries of the EU would really want as their leader a person who has both consistently tried to keep his own member-state closer to the US than to our European partners and at the same time worked to keep his own member-state out of two of the most important projects for the EU, namely the Euro and the Schengen agreement.
It seemed pretty self-evident to me that the major players would want someone who had demonstrated a degree of commitment to their objectives, rather than someone who would be likely to use the position to undermine those objectives. Diplomatic niceties prevented them from making other than generally complimentary comments, but their comments weren't meant to be taken seriously.
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1 comment:
Pul-eeze! The post is President of the EU Council of Ministers, not the whole Union. The presidents of Parliament and the Commission will remain. The former will have enhanced powers when the Lisbon Treaty is implemented. That's good.
And of course, the post of President of the Council already exists. At present it is held on a six-month rotating basis by each member state. Remember the Cardiff 'Summit'? The new arrangement is for a thirty month term of office (renewable once) by someone who does not have a member state role. Unlike the present arrangement, the new post will be full time but not, as the mainstream media says, permanent.
What's the big deal?
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