EU On Speed-Dial

(c) rockcohen

“Who do I call if I want to speak to Europe?”  Ever since Henry Kissinger – I must add allegedly- famously quipped this whilst Secretary of State for the US, the EU has been searching for somebody to pick up that phone. Mr. Kissinger’s answer comes generations late but now a flick through the Yellow Pages will suggest that you call Mr. Herman Van Rompuy.

Van Rompuy’s appointment as President of the European Council, the appeasing synonym for President of EU, is met with more stories in the press about him fascinatingly not being Anthony Blair rather than who he is and what on earth his job is. Blair’s failure to secure the role has been assessed from different angles, some saying rather flatteringly that he is ‘too big’ for the role while others cite more viciously the blood still dripping from his hands from the war in Iraq. Ultimately though it appears that it was the age-old ‘left-right’ power battles that struck the fatal blow to his glamorous candidacy. It was as simple as Angela Merkel and her centre-right buddies, dominating both European governments and the European Parliament, refusing to let a ‘left-leaner’ lead a right-leaning Europe.

So who is this Herman Van Rompuy? The very fact that majority of readers will be asking this question is a key component to the success of his job application. Van Rompuy is the incumbent Belgian Prime Minister, a centre-right politician with an internationally recognisable CV fitting on the bottom-end of a post-it note, having only taken over as Prime Minister less than a year ago. Despite his short time in office he is credited with lasting longer than his last two predecessors as the country experienced a traumatic 2008, where many speculated an end to Belgian history with the country on the verge of splitting up into pieces. Perhaps the most significant information we have on ‘our’ new leader, and soon to be most quoted fact about the EU president, is that he is absolutely opposed to a Turkish accession to the EU, alluding to it not being in Europe and not being grounded on Christianity.

His job as President is notoriously ill-defined as the Lisbon Treaty set out the need for the role but left the specifics and direction of it extremely and deliberately vague. The boring bits are that his role is contracted to 30 months renewable only once, he sits as Chair of EU Summits that will be held quarterly and ‘represents’ the EU abroad. What this entails and what specific powers ensued were intended to be moulded by whoever is appointed. Of course the occupant will have the power of speaking on behalf of a grouping of 27 hugely significant nation-states, but how much this power means anything depends on how it is used. It was argued that with Blair’s international fame and storage-capacity-busting contact list the EU would be able to much more effectively assert an international identity and wield the sort of power that would see the EU sitting comfortably at the multi-polar world table. Van Rompuy’s appointment however suggests the EU is looking for a much more low-key figure, more adept at concentrating on being the ‘driving force’ behind the EU’s agenda than stealing the front pages of the International red-tops.

The significance of the President not being Blair and not being drawn from one of the ‘big-power’ states meant that the other leading vacancy created by the Lisbon Treaty, High Representative of Foreign Affairs (or the EU’s Foreign Secretary to  everybody else), had to compensate for that. Lady Ashton of Upholland, the British successor to the multi-titled Peter Mandelson as EU Commissioner for Trade may also be little known to the rest of the world but her appointment is the sum of a political calculation. As mentioned, it has become clear that the member-states did not desire a headline grabbing leadership team but the roles would have been severely politically handicapped if at least one of them had not originated from one of the big-powers. After David Miliband ruled himself out of selection there were no immediately obvious British candidates that could step forward. However, in a masterstroke by Gordon Brown, in light of the imminent demise of Blair’s candidacy, he (shock-horror) moved quickly and shrewdly in putting forward Lady Ashton for the Foreign Policy position, encouraging hopes of pushing Britain into the centre of EU politics; although this has been excruciatingly long-delayed by a supposedly pro-European government. It will also not go unnoticed that Lady Ashton is in fact a woman, balancing out the male-dominated top table of the EU.

Many will bemoan the addition of another undemocratic layer to the ever-complex federalising Union. This is a contradictory sentiment from the Euro-sceptics if examined closely. Imagine if these positions were elected by the 500million people of Europe, the legitimacy these people would hold would be of incredible levels, superceding those of national heads of state by great lengths and representing the largest step towards a federal United States of Europe there’s ever been. The EU is sui generis by nature and its messy structure is the end product of a compromise that works to the greatest extent the collective nation states can agree to.

Who knows how much political clout these new leaders will actually exert? Only time and circumstances will determine their significance. One thing is for sure though; two new numbers have just been added to the speed-dial of Hilary Clinton’s telephone.