New EU leaders, but has anyone heard of them?

The ongoing saga that is the Lisbon Treaty has finally come to an end with the announcement of the first ever EU President and foreign minister were named in Brussels.

Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy was the expected, although not entirely popular, choice for president but the big surprise was Baroness Ashton being named as the EU’s number two.

The relative unknown was criticised for have no foreign policy experience and for never running for elected office.

In recent days many people have commented on the lack of political heavyweights in the running for the two most powerful positions in Europe with Tony Blair and David Miliband unlikely to make any headway in the voting.

However many commentators have pointed out any politicians of note have too many enemies in Europe to get elected. Most notably Mr Blair, who had lost a lot of support in Europe due to the Iraq war, even struggled to drum up any support back home outside his own party faithful.

Most of the controversy however seems to be focused on the undemocratic election process and the choice of Baroness Ashton. Although having held quite high office including Leader of the House of Lords and EU Trade Commissioner many are questioning how these posts give her the knowledge of running foreign policy for Europe and its 500 million voters.

The voting, which did not involve any of the aforementioned 500 million people, has also meant that at no point has anybody ever cast a vote for Baroness Ashton.

Mr Rompuy, on paper at least, also seems to lack expertise having only been Belgian Premier for one year. Belgium itself is heavily divided along the ethnic lines of the Flemish speaking north, from where Rompuy hails, and the French speakers in Brussels and Wallonia in the South.

The argument is if he can emerge as a unifying Prime Minister following the Belgian political crisis of 2007-2008 then there is a chance he is the man to unite Europe for the next two and a half years.

It may also come as something of a relief for Euro-sceptics and anti-Lisbon Treatyites such as the Conservative party leader David Cameron and the Czech President Václav Klaus who could claim the choices show how toothless the roles actually are. Cameron especially may be tempted by this route as his party is going to be heavily divided over Europe come next years general election and he has already won enemies following the u-turn on the Lisbon Treaty referendum and criticism of a political ally in Europe Michal Kaminski.

Gordon Brown may also be having sleepless nights over the Europe problem as well. Many are critical of the Labour party for not holding a referendum on Lisbon in the first place and he cannot hide behind the toothless roles argument.

Although nobody would dare say it politically it could have been a huge boost to Brown if Blair held the high office in Brussels come next years general election

While Mr Rompuy may lack the diplomatic presence of Tony Blair there are few who are going to complain about the choice.

Time will tell if these new roles carry any actually political power and if either of the selected candidates have the nous for international politics. What was the point of all the pre-treaty sabre rattling if the people end up with two unelected leaders who do not have the strength on the world stage to represent us in an American and Chinese dominated 21^st century?

Colin Rowe

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Tags: Europe, Politics

This entry was posted on Friday, November 27th, 2009 at 3:59 pm and is filed under Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.