THE GUARDIAN: A sizeable salary, a generous housing allowance, renovated offices in an art deco pile, cars, chauffeurs, a security retinue and a hand-picked staff await Mr or Ms Europe.
The fine print of the lavish package that goes with the job is still being written. But according to proposals drafted last week by EU bureaucrats, the post of European Council president will cost more than €1.5m in his or her first year.
The president of the European Council will be remunerated in a manner commensurate with the pay and perks enjoyed by José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission.
The salary for the post is expected to be between €300,000 and €350,000 a year, subject, it is said, to a tax rate of 25%. This comfortably exceeds the US president's salary of $400,000 (€270,000).
Then there are the perks. There is to be no official residence for the president. Barroso rents a Brussels villa and the council president will be expected to do the same, with a housing allowance of around €40,000 a year, plus perhaps half of that again for accommodating and entertaining guests. >>> Ian Traynor | Thursday, November 19, 2009
THE GUARDIAN: Bolstered by her confirmation as a second-term German chancellor and fresh from dinner and deal-making with president Nicolas Sarkozy of France, Angela Merkel went into theEuropean summit as the key swing voter, making or breaking Tony Blair's chances of becoming the first European president.
Despite Sarkozy being the first European leader to suggest Blair for the job two years ago, Merkel appeared to have talked the French president into changing his mind in Paris on Wednesday night.
Merkel is said not to be particularly opposed to Blair. But the realities of power in the EU, with centre right governments outweighing those of the centre left three to one, appeared to be clinching the job for a European Christian democrat, Merkel's political tribe.
Senior German sources said that at the crucial dinner on Wednesday evening, the two leaders did not discuss names for the two plum new posts of Europe president and foreign minister. They did, however, discuss the mandate for the presidential post. The Germans made clear that Merkel had no problem recommending a contender from a small EU member state.
In the British campaign for President Blair, the contest has been presented as a choice between a weak figure pouring cups of coffee for leaders at EU summits, or a strong leader who can open doors in Washington, Moscow, and Beijing. >>> Ian Traynor in Brussels | Thursday, October 29, 2009
