Belgian PM is first 'president of Europe'

[The Minx]

Link

Brussels, Belgium (CNN) -- Belgium's prime minister, Herman Van Rompuy, has been appointed the first "president of Europe," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Thursday.

Catherine Ashton of the United Kingdom is to become the EU's foreign minister, Brown said.

The leaders of the 27 member states of the European Union made the decision behind closed doors in Brussels Thursday.

Van Rompuy, a soft-spoken fan of Japanese poetry, beat out contenders including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair for a post whose duties are not yet clear.

The Belgian is "well known as a consensus builder," said Brown, who added the selection was unanimous.

Brown had realized earlier that Blair did not have enough support among key decision-makers to snag the new post, a Brown representative told CNN earlier.

The post was created by the European Union's Lisbon Treaty -- which came into force this month, after years of torturous negotiations, as a replacement for the rotating six-month presidency of the bloc.

Although the EU prides itself on being a club of democracies, the process of choosing its new leader was far from transparent or open.

The people of Europe had no say, not even through their parliamentarians.

Blair started as the favorite. He was, according his backers (who at first included President Nicolas Sarkozy of France) just the sort of glamorous figure, recognized the world over, who would win attention for the EU and enable it to exercise its weight in world affairs.

As one Indian official said before the announcement: "If the EU chooses as its worldwide representative the prime minister of Belgium or Luxembourg I am not sure our leaders will have the time to meet him."

But others were soon arguing that, as former U.S. President George W. Bush's leading ally over Iraq, Blair is a divisive figure in Europe. The one man who might have been able to take Britain into the European single currency, he had not even attempted to do so while he was Britain's prime minister.

Public backing from Italy's Silvio Berlusconi, a joke figure to much of Europe and another Bush ally, did not help.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see how this post works out.

[frigidmagi]

I would have preferred if the President of Europe had been chosen by the people rather then some bureaucrats huddled in their office. Yes, I know he's mostly just a figurehead but so what? He's still their representative to the world is he not? Giving the people of Europe a chance to speak on the issue would have been a powerful moment for the EU and given it a chance to weld the population firmer to the idea. But that's just me really and honestly it's the Europeans business how they handle such things.

[rhoenix]

I would have preferred if the President of Europe had been chosen by the people rather then some bureaucrats huddled in their office. Yes, I know he's mostly just a figurehead but so what? He's still their representative to the world is he not? Giving the people of Europe a chance to speak on the issue would have been a powerful moment for the EU and given it a chance to weld the population firmer to the idea. But that's just me really and honestly it's the Europeans business how they handle such things.

No Frigid, this isn't just you. I agree that had the people of all Europe been given the choice of presidents to vote on, it not only would have made all people who live in Europe more confident on their politics (merely by virtue of having taken part in it), but it would have also given the winner of such an office further legitimacy and "political capital," as it were, to spend.

On the plus side, at least all the peoples of Europe have a president they can collectively call "theirs," so I suppose that's a start.

[The Cleric]

Wouldn't the problem in a direct EU population vote be that the country with the most eligible voters win almost be default? I doubt any noticeable fraction of a country would vote for someone who isn't one of their natives.

[rhoenix]

Wouldn't the problem in a direct EU population vote be that the country with the most eligible voters win almost be default? I doubt any noticeable fraction of a country would vote for someone who isn't one of their natives.

Not necessarily; it could simply be tallied by population per country per candidate as percentages.

[The Cleric]

Wouldn't the problem in a direct EU population vote be that the country with the most eligible voters win almost be default? I doubt any noticeable fraction of a country would vote for someone who isn't one of their natives.

Not necessarily; it could simply be tallied by population per country per candidate as percentages.

Then you'd have the larger countries bitching about it, and anything else would have the smaller ones doing the same. The US system works because although each state does have a personal identity, there is a overreaching sense of national unity. I doubt many Europeans feel more connected to the EU than they do to their own country, with uniform language, customs, history, etc.

[frigidmagi]

This is a good point, but I doubt every nation would run a candidate (for example from what I understand none of the Eastern European nations ran one, nor did Italy or Spain). So it would go to the man or women who was able to appeal to the most people outside of his nation. You could also set up a post system of sorts, where the winner must have a certain percentage of the vote, not just the most votes (Let's say you must have over 50% of the vote to get the victory, otherwise we have a run off).

It is a problem to consider but not unsolvable I think. Especially since the post doesn't have any real power (most European Presidents, France being the most glaring exception, don't have much in the way of power).