Showing posts with label EU presidency. Show all posts
Showing posts with label EU presidency. Show all posts
Saturday, January 01, 2022
France Takes Over EU Presidency as National Election Looms • France 24 English
Sunday, November 22, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: Herman Van Rompuy, Europe's first president, is to join forces with the European Commission to push for sweeping new tax raising powers for Brussels.
Within days of taking office in January, the former Belgian prime minister will put his weight behind controversial proposals already floated by the commission's head, José Manuel Barroso, for a new "Euro tax".
He will add credence to Mr Barroso's plans, to be formally tabled in the New Year, by arguing for a Euro-version of a "Tobin Tax" – a levy on financial transactions already floated by Gordon Brown as a solution to the international banking crisis. It would result in a stream of income direct to Brussels coffers, funding budgets that critics say are already rife with waste and overspending.
Mr Van Rompuy, 62, who was appointed to the newly-created £320,000-a-year post at last week's special EU summit, set out his stall on direct Euro-taxes during a private speech at a recent meeting of the Bilderberg group of top politicians, bankers and businessmen. The group officially meets in secret, but when selected details of his remarks leaked out, his office was forced to issue a public statement on his behalf.
"The financing of the welfare state, irrespective of the social reform we implement, will require new resources," he said. "The possibility of financial levies at European level needs to be seriously reviewed."
Mr Barroso, whose commission acts as the European Union's executive arm and civil service, has set out alternative plans for a Euro tax that would involve Brussels taking directly a fixed percentage of VAT and fuel duties. While these taxes already help to fund EU spending – set at £121 billion next year – they are currently gathered by the treasuries of individual nation states, from which varying sums are paid into EU coffers.
A new Euro tax could appear on all shopping and petrol station receipts, showing the amount of VAT or fuel duty creamed off directly to Brussels. Supporters say it would take a fixed proportion of the existing tax revenue rather than increase it overall, and make the cost to taxpayers of running the EU more transparent. Critics argue this could backfire by increasing anti-Brussels sentiment. >>> Bruno Waterfield and Justin Stares in Brussels and Colin Freeman | Sunday, November 22, 2009
Herman Van Rompuy’s sister, a communist/extreme socialist, doesn’t agree with her brother’s politics:
Saturday, November 21, 2009
lePARISIEN.fr: Sa première conférence de presse bruxelloise a donné le ton. Avec ses airs de professeur Nimbus, Herman Van Rompuy, le tout nouveau président de l’Union européenne, choisi pour deux ans et demi, s’est présenté d’une voix timide devant les journalistes européens pour expliquer qu’il ne fallait pas compter sur lui pour s’exprimer beaucoup et que son avis sur certains sujets comme l’adhésion éventuelle de la Turquie ne comptait pas : « Mon rôle sera de trouver un consensus. « Choisi pour ne faire d’ombre à personne » >>> Frédéric Gerschel | Samedi 21 Novembre 2009
EUROPEAN VOICE: Van Rompuy says he will assume new job with conviction and enthusiasm.
Herman Van Rompuy, Belgium's reluctant prime minister, portrayed himself this evening as Europe's reluctant president. “I have not sought this post or worked for it, but I assume it with conviction and enthusiasm,” he said.
He stressed that he would continue with the consensual style that had been his hallmark in Belgian politics and which brought him to the prime minister's post at the end of last year.
“Every country should emerge victorious from negotiations,” he said. “A negotiation that ends with a defeated country is never a good negotiation.”
“We are living in a period of anguish and anxiety and lack of confidence,” he said, after highlighting the economic, environmental and security problems. He said that now that the Lisbon treaty was ratified, the issue of institutional reform was “closed for a long time”.
But Van Rompuy stressed that the presidents of the EU's three main institutions – the Council, the European Parliament and the European Commission – must work together, respectfully.
He said that he looked forward to the enlargement of the EU in the next two and a half years, to include “countries that of course meet conditions”. Asked his views on the admission of Turkey to the EU, he said that he would not be representing his own views but those of the 27 member states. “My personal opinion is totally subordinate to the views of the Council,” he said.
He said that, after consultation with Fredrik Reinfeldt, Sweden's prime minister, who currently holds the chair of the European Council, he would remain prime minister of Belgium until the end of the year and not take up his EU office until 1 January. Surprise >>> Tim King | Thursday, November 19, 2009
EUROPEAN VOICE: The Belgian who will lead the EU >>> Andrew Gardner | Thursday, November 19, 2009
L’EXPRESS.fr: L'Union européenne gagne un président, Herman Van Rompuy. Mais la Belgique devra renoncer à ce Premier ministre qui a su concilier les intérêts des Flamands et des Wallons, à défaut de les réconcilier durablement. La crise belge pourrait-elle ressurgir à cette occasion?
Ce vendredi matin, la Belgique est fière. Le tout premier président du Conseil européen a été choisi dans ce pays présent depuis le début dans l'aventure européenne: les Vingt-sept ont penché pour son Premier ministre chrétien-démocrate, Herman Van Rompuy. Consécration pour ce néerlandophone de 62 ans, considéré comme efficace et discret par ses compatriotes.
"Il joue un rôle important depuis près de 30 ans en Belgique, à la tête du parti démocrate-chrétien et flamand (CD&V) puis comme ministre du Budget et enfin comme Premier ministre. C'est normal que les Européens ne le connaissent pas encore, c'est un homme de l'ombre", explique Pierre Havaux, journaliste au Vif/L'Express.
A Bruxelles, Herman Van Rompuy est le "Sphinx". "Il ne se répand pas dans les médias, il y est allergique! Ne vous attendez pas à des déclarations flamboyantes... Mais ne vous y trompez pas, c'est un faux mou doté d'un humour cynique. Il a le sens du compromis, c'est dans ses gênes, il est Belge", ajoute le journaliste politique de l'hebdomadaire.
Ajoutez à cette savante alchimie une dose de lucidité: "Il sait parfaitement qu'on l'a choisi pour déminer le terrain et arrondir les angles, surtout pas pour faire de l'ombre à des figures comme Nicolas Sarkozy. Ca ne le dérange pas". Et vous obtiendrez le candidat idéal pour le poste européen dont les contours restent encore à définir. Bruxelles regrette déjà son "Sphinx" >>> Par Marie Simon | Vendredi 20 Novembre 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
THE GUARDIAN – Editorial: Who do you call when you want to call Europe? After five years of wrangling designed to deal with the Henry Kissinger question, the EU last night failed to provide a satisfactory answer. The first ever president of the European council is to be the haiku-writing Belgian prime minister, Herman Van Rompuy, who is still little known in his own country, let alone the wider world. And the continent's pioneering high-representative on foreign policy is the able but unknown Labour baroness, Catherine Ashton, who is as unelected as she is obscure. Neither will stop the traffic even in Brussels, never mind in Beijing. Talk of President Blair has bitten the dust, but so too has any hope of Europe forcing the planet to pay it fresh attention.
That ultimately disappointed hope is what sunk the EU into a prolonged bout of introspection from which it has only just emerged. The 2004 draft constitution was all about creating identifiable leadership, until the people of the Netherlands and France scuppered the plan. But the ambition of providing Europe's half-billion people with a new voice lived on through the Treaty of Lisbon, which limped through near-death in Ireland and eastern resentment to be signed and sealed this month.
At last, the European council could be galvanised by a dynamic leader instead of drifting with an endlessly-rotating chair; and at last Brussels would be able to enter discussion on the Middle East, Africa and the environment with a figure able to look Washington's secretary of state in the eye. Or, at least, that was the theory. But while Tony Blair's divisive and doomed candidacy for the first of these posts created a terrific distraction, Europe quietly returned to its old ways. A Franco-German stitch-up in favour of an obscure Belgian is exactly how things traditionally worked – it is as if the Swedes, the Poles and the rest had never joined the club. There was no puff of white smoke, but the secretive manner in which 27 proud democracies reached the decision made the Vatican look almost transparent. >>> Editorial | Friday, November 20, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: Herman Van Rompuy: the reluctant leader: Herman Van Rompuy, Belgium's reluctant Prime Minister, is an unexpected first President of the European Union. >>> Bruno Waterfield in Brussels | Thursday, November 19, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: What will Europe's foreign minister Baroness Ashton do? : Baroness Ashton of Upholland has been appointed high representative for foreign and security policy on Thursday. But what will she actually do? >>> | Friday, November 20, 2009
BBC: Newspapers unite against EU President van Rompuy: There is an unlikely alliance among Friday's papers, with both the Guardian and Daily Mail leading with the same headline, "The Great EU Stitch-Up". >>> | Friday, November 20, 2009
THE SUN: Rompuy romps it: EUROPE'S obscure new President Herman Van Rompuy was celebrating his £320,000-a-year job last night - together with Baroness Ashton, the equally little-known British peer named as EU foreign minister. >>> Graeme Wilson | Friday, November 20, 2009
THE SUN – OPINION: THEY just don't get it.
Europe's two most powerful jobs were handed out yesterday.
But the 500million people who live in the EU were given no say in who got them.
Instead, Europe's elite chose the winners of this shabby lottery.
First in secretive meetings, then over a lavish feast, they thrashed out their sickening stitch-up. It was like the worst days of Soviet Russia.
And it exposed once again how this discredited European empire is rotten to the core. [Source: The Sun] Graeme Wilson | Friday, November 20, 2009
BBC: Baroness Ashton has hit back at claims she does not have enough experience for the post of EU high representative for Foreign Affairs and security.
The Labour peer was the surprise choice of Europe's leaders for the role - dubbed the first EU foreign minister.
Lady Ashton told the BBC that EU leaders were "comfortable" with her appointment - and that she will show she is "the best person for the job". >>> | Friday, November 20, 2009
LE FIGARO: À 62 ans, le premier ministre belge, qui prendra ses fonctions à la tête de l'Union le 1er janvier, est un homme discret, rompu à l'art du consensus.
Les Vingt-Sept ont préféré le consensus au panache. À l'issue d'un sommet rondement mené, le Belge Herman Van Rompuy a été désigné jeudi premier président du Conseil européen, et la Britannique Catherine Ashton devient quasi-ministre des Affaires étrangères au poste de haut représentant.
Déjouant les pronostics de négociations à rallonges, les chefs d'État et de gouvernement ont prouvé leur capacité à s'entendre sur le visage de la future Europe. Il n'est pas sûr pourtant que leur double choix fasse rêver. Les deux lauréats sont des figures nouvelles sur la scène internationale et ont pleinement bénéficié des tractations entre grandes capitales qui peinaient à trouver un dénominateur commun.
Van Rompuy a réuni le soutien annoncé de Paris et Berlin. De son côté, le premier ministre Gordon Brown «a joué un jeu superbement machiavélique», soulignait-on de source diplomatique. Les Britanniques, qui soutenaient vent debout la candidature de Tony Blair pour la présidence, ont accepté de le lâcher en échange du poste de haut représentant. David Miliband, candidat idéal, n'a finalement pas sauté le pas. C'est donc Catherine Ashton, commissaire européenne au Commerce mais novice en politique internationale, qui s'est retrouvée, à 53 ans, propulsée au premier plan, dans un contexte porteur pour les femmes. Il ne lui manque à présent que la confirmation du Parlement.
L'hypothèse Blair étant levée, la voie était aussi ouverte pour Van Rompuy, qui représente l'antithèse du flamboyant Britannique. À 62 ans, le premier ministre belge a su s'imposer par sa maîtrise des dossiers et son art du consensus dans le sac de nœud de la politique belge. Des talents qu'il compte transposer au niveau européen lorsqu'il prendra ses fonctions, le 1er janvier : «Une négociation avec des vaincus est toujours une mauvaise négociation», a-t-il affirmé jeudi. Originaire d'un pays fondateur de l'Europe, conservateur comme la majorité des pays au Conseil, il parle français et cultive la discrétion - un avantage pour les grands pays qui craignaient d'envoyer à Bruxelles une diva leur faisant de l'ombre. «Celui qui sera appelé, c'est celui qui parle pour l'Europe» >>> Claire Gallen, à Bruxelles | Vendredi 20 Novembre 2009
ZEIT ONLINE: Geschmeidig, effizient, möglichst lautlos: Die Berufung von Ashton und Van Rompuy zeigt, wie sich die EU ihr Spitzenpersonal vorstellt. Eine wichtige Chance wurde vertan.
Man reibt sich verwundert die Augen. Der Belgier Herman Van Rompuy und die Britin Catherine Ashton – sie bilden Europas neues Spitzenduo. Es gibt wahrscheinlich außerhalb der kundigen Brüsseler Zirkel nur wenige, die mit den beiden Namen etwas anfangen können. Es hat schon eine besondere Ironie: Ausgerechnet zwei Politiker, die dem Publikum weitgehend unbekannt sind, sollen der Europäischen Union nun ein Gesicht verleihen.
Der neue EU-Ratspräsident Van Rompuy und die künftige "EU-Außenministerin" Catherine Ashton haben den Segen der europäischen Staats- und Regierungschefs bekommen. Die Autorität, die sich mit ihren Ämtern verbindet, werden sie sich allerdings erst noch erarbeiten müssen. Denn sie treten ihre Posten unter einem schlechten Vorzeichen an: Sie sind der kleinste gemeinsame Nenner im europäischen Posten-Poker.
Es ist kein Zufall, dass sich der EU-Gipfel bei der Besetzung der neuen europäischen Spitzenämter ausgerechnet auf zwei Politiker geeinigt hat, die in der Europapolitik noch wenig von sich reden machten. Gefangen im Parteien- und Geschlechterproporz, bemüht um den Ausgleich zwischen großen und kleinen EU-Staaten, fanden Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy, Gordon Brown und die übrigen europäischen Staatenlenker eine Lösung, die niemandem weh tut, vor allem ihnen selbst nicht. Sie sind die wahren Entscheider in der EU – und wollen es auch bleiben. >>> Zeit Online, Tagesspiegel | Freitag, 20. November 2009
Thursday, November 19, 2009
THE TEEGRAPH: Herman Van Rompuy and Baroness Ashton have been named the European Union's new president and foreign minister.
The little-known Belgian federalist and the Labour peer who has never held elected office were selected at a meeting in Brussels.
EU leaders chose the Belgian prime minister as the first President of the European Council. Britain's European Trade Commissioner was made the High Representative for Foreign Affairs.
The surprise combination emerged after Gordon Brown ended Tony Blair's hopes of becoming president, abandoning his support for his successor and proposing Baroness Ashton for the foreign job instead.
The Prime Minister's switch surprised European leaders, not least because of Baroness Ashton's lack of diplomatic experience.
A former health authority chairwoman made a peer in 1999, she held a string of low-key ministerial posts until last year when she was sent to Brussels as an interim replacement for Lord Mandelson on his return to the Cabinet.
Mr Van Rompuy is a poetry-writing economist almost entirely unknown outside Belgium until he emerged as EU leaders' choice for a president who could not possibly overshadow national leaders.
A staunch advocate of European integration, he has backed policies including a European-wide tax on all financial transactions to fund EU work. >>> James Kirkup and Bruno Waterfield in Brussels | Thursday, November 19, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: The EU appointed Herman Van Rompuy, the Belgian Prime Minister, and the British Trade Commissioner, Baroness Ashton of Upholland, to the two newly created posts of President and High Representative tonight, hours after Downing Street confirmed it had abandoned its support for Tony Blair.
Gordon Brown joined the seven other European socialist group leaders in backing Mr Van Rompuy and Lady Ashton after accepting that there was too little support for Mr Blair to be president.
Downing Street's U-turn was a humiliating snub to Mr Blair, Mr Brown's predecessor, who had hoped to take the plum role, but was opposed by key EU leaders who feared he would be too presidential. >>> Jenny Mills, Philip Webster and David Charter | Thursday, November 19, 2009
NZZ ONLINE: EU-Spitzenposten für Van Rompuy und Ashton: Staatschefs der Europäischen Union einig >>> sda | Donnerstag, 19. November 2009
NZZ ONLINE: Porträt von Herman Van Rompuy – Bekannt im eigenen Land als Streitschlichter: Herman Van Rompuy wird erster EU-Ratspräsident >>> sda/afp/dpa/apa | Donnerstag, 19. November 2009
NZZ ONLINE: Biographie von Catherine Ashton – Geschickte Verhandlungsführerin: Britische Ökonomin Ashton wird neue EU-«Aussenministerin» >>> sda/afp/apa | Donnerstag, 19. November 2009
LE FIGARO: Les Vingt-Sept donnent un président à l'Europe >>> Claire Gallen, Bruxelles | Jeudi 19 Novembre 2009
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
THE TELEGRAPH: EU president: Tony Blair out of the running: Tony Blair was out of the running as Europe's first president on Thursday after Gordon Brown dropped the former Prime Minister as his candidate. >>> | Thursday, November 19, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: Germany wants the central bank presidency: Conspicuously absent in the debate over the two big EU posts up for grabs on Thursday, Germany has aroused suspicions that it wants a different job entirely. >>> Isabelle Le Page, in Frankfurt | Thursday, November 19, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: EU presidential selection process condemned as secretive: Picking the first European Union president has had much in common with naming a pope. All that is missing is the black smoke. >>> Yacine Le Forestier, in Brussels | Thursday, November 19, 2009
Monday, November 09, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: Tony Blair has made a belated effort to revive his attempt to be president of Europe with a flurry of personal telephone calls to continental leaders, The Times has learnt.
The former Prime Minister’s 11th-hour intervention comes after criticism from Left and Right that he has not done enough to earn their support. The flickering flame of Mr Blair’s candidacy could be extinguished tonight when European Union heads of government, including some of his rivals, gather in Germany for the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Mr Blair, who has always insisted that he is not campaigning for the post, will be far away in the Middle East, where he is a peace envoy.
Attention has instead focused on an alternative line-up by which David Miliband secures the foreign affairs post of Europe’s High Representative.
Although Mr Miliband has repeatedly stated that he does want not the job, there are fears within the Government that he could be persuaded. Labour figures are said to be beseeching him to stay, with one saying that his departure now would be a “pre-election betrayal of the party”. >>> Tom Baldwin, David Charter and Philip Webster | Monday, November 09, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
Will Tony Blair become the first President of Europe? : Discussions over exactly what it is that the EU wants from its first President of Europe will begin in earnest in Brussels on Thursday. >>> Andrew Pierce and Bruno Waterfield | Monday, October 26, 2009
THE GUARDIAN: Blair … … is reluctant to campaign openly because he fears experiencing the same fate as Guy Verhofstadt, the former prime minister of Belgium, who was humiliated when Blair vetoed him for the post of president of the European commission in 2004. "Tony will not put himself into a position where he is humiliated like Guy Verhofstadt," one friend said. >>> Nicholas Watt, chief political correspondent | Monday, October 26, 2009
MAIL ONLINE: EU backlash as David Miliband pushes President Boney Blair: A foreign backlash is growing against Tony Blair becoming Europe's first president.
Despite a brazen attempt by David Miliband to drum up support, leading political figures in France, Germany, Austria and Poland warned yesterday that the former prime minister was an unsuitable candidate. >>> Kirsty Walker | Tuesday, October 27, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: Tony Blair should be made head of a stronger European Union that would be able to compete with China and the United States on the world stage, the Foreign Secretary said yesterday.
David Miliband said that the new EU president needed to be someone who “stopped the traffic” in Washington and Beijing and was guaranteed the highest access to world leaders.
With EU leaders preparing to start talking about Mr Blair’s prospects this week, his supporters have begun a sustained campaign to showcase the advantages he would bring to the role. The behind the scenes battle is becoming increasingly fraught, with some of the smaller EU countries combining in a “Stop Blair” effort. So far he is the only politician to be backed publicly for the role. >>> Philip Webster, Political Editor and David Charter in Brussels | Monday, October 26, 2009
Stop Blair! Petition against the nomination of Tony Blair as "President of the European Union" >>>
Saturday, October 24, 2009
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: BRUSSELS -- The odds against former British Prime Minister Tony Blair becoming the first president of the European Union appear to have lengthened.
Mr. Blair is the most prominent figure linked by diplomats to the post which, together with the job of a new EU foreign policy chief, will be created by the so-called Lisbon Treaty. The pact is designed to increase the 27-nation grouping's influence in world affairs.
Formal negotiations on who should fill the top job are unlikely to begin until at least next month, European officials say, because the treaty has been held up awaiting ratification by the Czech Republic.
Leaders of the European Parliament decided Thursday to hold a debate on Nov. 11 over whether the president should be a bureaucrat or a figurehead. The eventual candidate will be chosen by national leaders and must be confirmed by Parliament.
Mr. Blair's spokesman denied he is campaigning for the job. "As we have said time and again on this, there is nothing to be a candidate for, since the job doesn't actually exist," he said.
The winds have been blowing against Mr. Blair in recent weeks. When asked last week whether Mr. Blair would be a good candidate, French President Nicolas Sarkozy -- hitherto an apparent strong supporter -- said it was too early to say. >>> Stephen Fidler | Friday, October 2009
Thursday, October 22, 2009
MAIL ONLINE: Tony Blair could be crowned first President of Europe at a special summit of EU leaders next month.
Diplomatic sources say French President Nicolas Sarkozy is pushing for an extraordinary meeting in Brussels to install the former prime minister in the new £275,000-a-year post.
Supporters of Mr Blair's candidacy are racing to get a deal stitched up as doubts grow about whether the forthcoming inquiry into the Iraq war could prove a major stumbling block.
The Conservatives have told the French that making him EU president would be viewed by an incoming Tory government as a 'declaration of war'.
They are warning other European leaders that if appointed, Mr Blair could find himself almost immediately at the centre of massive controversy as the formal inquiry into the Iraq war gets under way. >>> James Chapman | Thursday, October 22, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: The Reform Act of 1832 swept away dozens of Britain’s “rotten boroughs”, where comfortable sinecures were left in the hands of a tiny number of voters. The 2009 Lisbon treaty will give an electorate of 27 the power to choose the president of Europe.
In one of the European Union’s greatest missed opportunities — in a long list — the European elite shunned calls to add the spice of democracy to their bureaucracy by making their first president directly elected by its 500 million citizens.
This is the job created under the EU’s Lisbon treaty that has been linked to Tony Blair, who has declined to confirm his candidacy before the the treaty is ratified by the Czech Republic — the final EU country yet to complete this process.
Almost nothing about the method of choosing a suitable candidate is written down, meaning that, in time-honoured fashion, the EU will revert to the cosy back-room stitch-up. >>> David Charter, Europe Correspondent | Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Thursday, October 01, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: France and Germany are planning a new treaty of friendship and an array of other joint schemes that could push Britain to the sidelines in Europe, according to sources close to President Sarkozy.
The plan to put Paris and Berlin back at the heart of the stalled European Union covers defence, immigration, a new industrial policy and a drive to loosen what the pair see as Britain’s grip on the European Commission.
The revamped Franco-German axis may include the permanent assignment of ministers in each other’s Cabinets. The initiative would exploit Britain’s situation, with Gordon Brown weakened and distracted by next year’s general election and the decision by the Conservatives to quit Europe’s main centre-right grouping, the European People’s Party.
Paris and Berlin, reverting to the old idea of a two-speed Europe, aim to push ahead with a separate headquarters for European defence and the promotion of industrial champions. Britain wants none of that. The scheme, already far advanced, will follow this week’s repeat referendum in the Irish Republic on the Lisbon treaty, whether the vote is “yes” or “no”.
A casualty of the deal, hammered out in secret and involving all main ministries since last spring, is likely to be Franco-German backing for Tony Blair as the first president of the EU, diplomats said. The post opens if the Lisbon treaty is ratified.
Among alternatives being considered are Felipe González, the former Socialist Prime Minister of Spain, and Jean-Claude Juncker, the long-serving Prime Minister of Luxembourg.
“Tony Blair is a man of the past and the United Kingdom is no longer any model,” said a French diplomat. >>> Charles Bremner in Paris | Thursday, October 01, 2009
TIMES ONLINE – Analysis: For the past few days Berlin’s politicians, journalists and wonks have been puzzling over why Guido Westerwelle, the man tipped to become Foreign Minister and Vice-Chancellor to Angela Merkel, was so rude to a British reporter at an inaugural news conference. “This is Germany,” he snapped. “And so we speak German.”
A fellow member of the Free Democrats — new members of the German Government — attributed this brusque put-down to nerves. But something deeper is at work. The tone towards the British has become rougher; Britain has become marginal.
Germany’s Social Democrats have just been trounced; the Germans expect new Labour to go the same way. The talk today is of the Government embracing a German version of “progressive conservatism” that provides for a vigorous European Union led from the centre and not the fringes of the Continent.
Anyone who wants to share in the EU’s leadership has to play by the rules set by the French and the Germans. Officials in Germany say that this is an “inclusive” deal, by which they mean the following: the Lisbon treaty is the basis for the future of the EU. Oppose it and you are going to be left behind. >>> Roger Boyes | Thursday, October 01, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: One by one, the field of names to become the first president of the EU is slowly clearing, leaving a certain Middle East envoy as favourite for the job.
Should the Irish vote “yes” to the Lisbon treaty at the second time of asking, thus creating the new presidential role, Tony Blair is well placed to benefit. He still enjoys powerful support among the 27 EU leaders and is said by those around him to be interested in a return to European politics as their convener and global representative.
There would appear to be two obstacles: the Irish and Angela Merkel.
Mr Blair has become the top candidate while diplomatically showing little interest in the post. Behind the scenes, however, he has kept in touch with his main sponsors around the EU table: Nicolas Sarkozy, Silvio Berlusconi, Gordon Brown and the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, with whom he dines regularly. >>> David Charter, Brussels | Friday, May 22, 2009
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