Van Rompuy takes EU presidency
By George Parker, Tony Barber and Josh Chaffin in Brussels
Published: November 19 2009 17:32 | Last updated: November 20 2009 09:59
Herman Van Rompuy and Baroness Ashton were welcomed by world leaders as Europe’s first full-time president and foreign policy chief, even as a chorus of critics questioned their relatively low profiles on the world stage.
Meanwhile, the selection of Mr Van Rompuy, the Belgian prime minister, and Lady Ashton, the trade commissioner, on Thursday night intensified speculation about how a slew of other top European Commission jobs would be distributed.
Lady Ashton’s appointment – assuming she is confirmed by the European Parliament – means that the UK will not receive one of the Commission’s top financial posts. French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday night had already indicated that his country was angling for such a prize.
New supremo: part of the role for Belgian prime minister Herman Van Rompuy will be to represent the EU on the world stage
“France will have a European commissioner with important responsibilities,” Mr Sarkozy told reporters after the summit meeting in Brussels. “We’ll see if it’s internal markets or another one.”
In a statement on Thursday night, US President Barack Obama said that Mr Van Rompuy and Lady Ashton would “enable the EU to be an even stronger partner of the United States”.
But within Europe, critics complained that the selection of two little-known politicians demonstrated a lack of ambition, and would ensure that the EU would not fulfil its ambition of matching the US and China on the world stage.
“EU leaders have continued the job of weakening the EU institutions,” said Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the Green party co-president. “They have followed their weak choice of Commission president with a bland Council president and an unremarkable foreign affairs high representative. Europe is sinking to a low.”
Andrew Duff, a British Liberal Democrat MEP, called the choices “not very exciting” and predicted that it would “strengthen Commission President Barroso and put him at the top of the tree”.
In their first public comments after being selected, both appointees sought to address such concerns.
“There has been a great deal of talk and comment about the future profile and image of the president of the Council. But the key things are dialogue, unity and action: the image of the Council resides in strength through results,” Mr Van Rompuy said.
Lady Ashton said she was not “an ego on legs” and asked to be judged on what she accomplished. She described her style as “quiet diplomacy to get things done”.
Gordon Brown, UK prime minister, admitted disappointment that Tony Blair had failed to win the post of EU president, but claimed Lady Ashton would give Britain “a powerful voice” in EU foreign affairs and in her dual role as European Commission vice-president.
Lady Ashton, 53, only emerged to take the job at the last minute. European socialists agreed to back a British candidate, but Mr Brown also toyed with the idea of putting up Geoff Hoon, former defence secretary.
David Miliband, foreign secretary, had turned down the job and Mr Brown had made it plain to Lord Mandelson – whose name was mentioned again in Brussels on Thursday – that he wanted him to stay in London.
The decision over a short dinner healed internal disagreements within the EU but left a question mark over whether the best candidates were chosen for the posts, created after the adoption of the Lisbon treaty last month.
The appointments, designed to improve the EU’s decision-making, ended weeks of deadlock among the EU’s 27 national leaders and averted an acrimonious clash of the kind that marred previous summits handling the distribution of high-profile jobs.
Mr Brown said Lady Ashton’s appointment was in the UK’s “national interest” while he said Mr Van Rompuy had a reputation for “integrity and resolve”, demonstrated in holding his country’s fractious coalition together.
Part of Mr Van Rompuy’s role will be to represent the EU on the world stage. Lady Ashton will take charge of the bloc’s common foreign and security policy and run a new diplomatic service likely to employ several thousand staff.
Mr Van Rompuy will officially take office from January 1, while Lady Ashton is expected to be confirmed by the European parliament.
Mr Brown denied Tory claims that he should have held out for a top economic job in the European Commission to fend off protectionist forces. He insisted Lady Ashton could balance her foreign trips with a strong presence at the Commission table.
Swift rise of Lady Ashton
Lady Ashton has jumped to one of the most powerful jobs in Europe, as foreign affairs chief, a year after coming to Brussels as a little-known British politician.
Her rise has been marked by a mixture of steady competence, low-key charm and luck. A life peer since 1999, she worked on education and constitutional issues before becoming the Labour party’s leader in the House of Lords.
In Brussels, her crowning achievement was the initialling of a free-trade deal with South Korea amid opposition from powerful European carmakers.
Lady Ashton has little high-level experience of foreign affairs and took over as trade commissioner from Peter Mandelson, now UK business secretary, in 2008. “Am I an ego on legs? No, I’m not,” she said last night.
Mr Van Rompuy, 62, is a Flemish Christian Democrat virtually unknown outside Belgium, who only became prime minister last December.
He has impressed other EU leaders with his conciliatory and linguistic skills, however. They were also attracted by the fact that he comes from a small EU country that has long favoured European integration.
Mr Van Rompuy, who writes haiku, gave a press conference in fluent Dutch, French and English, promising to listen to all EU members.
Writing a pre-summit blog, Carl Bildt, Sweden’s foreign minister, warned that Europe would be making a “historic missed opportunity” if it went for a “minimalist” solution in its search for a president.
France concentrated its efforts on securing a top economic post in the next Commission while Germany is aiming to install its candidate as the next president of the European Central Bank in 2011. Mr Sarkozy originally supported Mr Blair but switched after talks with Ms Merkel, who said at an October 29-30 EU summit that the first full-time president should come from a small country.
Mr Brown was forced to abandon his support for Mr Blair after it became clear that there was not enough backing for the ex-premier. “What has been concluded is that the preferred candidate for the high representative role is going to be an existing commissioner and a woman, and that’s Cathy Ashton,” said Mr Brown’s spokesman.
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