The Financial Times writes yesterday that the personnel portfolio including ideas for the president of the European Council will be on the agenda of the European summit 19-20 June.
President to be discussed at June European summit
May 8th, 2008Jerzy Buzek next EP president
April 22nd, 2008According to Handelsblatt there is a(nother) power-sharing deal between the two big groups EPP and PSE on the next EP president. Jerzy Busek is supposed to be in the front seat from autumn 2009 and then in early 2012 a Socialist (Martin Schulz) will take over.
This deal with a balance between the two big groups will therefore not give any indication the top posts for next year. You could only rule out Schulz and Buzek for Commission or European Council president but it is not that they were really in the game for that anyways.
One President would save at least €270000
April 14th, 2008EUObserver has a report about some of the first discussions about the practical arrangements for the President of the European Council role. The job would, they estimate, command a salary of €270000, a chauffeur driven car, housing allowance, and around 20 staff – probably something similar to the Commission President’s cabinet. I don’t in any way deny that a top position needs a suitable salary and staff support, but do we need to create another top position? While the political argument for One President is most important, the practical argument with regard to staffing is nevertheless significant.
Venerable elder statesmen
April 9th, 2008
The European Union needs individuals with standing, credibility, and an understanding of history. States(wo)men that citizens can warm to and respect. But there’s a problem – there are not too many characters like that around in Europe at the moment. J Clive Matthews speculates that Václav Havel would be a good candidate for ‘EU president’ (I assume he means President of the European Council), while Publius and a number of other French bloggers have cited Bronisław Geremek as their favoured candidate.
First of all the problem with both of these campaigners for freedom is their age – Geremek is 76 and Havel 72, the latter having also been very ill. Everyday political work, late night negotiations in European Council meetings, is surely not something they would want to do? Furthermore would the political parties even want characters like these to play leading roles? After all they got to the top in large part through bravery and rebellion, not by slavish loyalty to a party machine.
So as far as I’m concerned, while talking about Geremek and Havel might shed light on the sorts of skills a European leader should have, I don’t think either is a serious candidate.
Jean Quatremer on the Barroso rumours
April 5th, 2008
Libération blogging journalist has some interesting analysis (in French) about the idea that José Manuel Barroso might be a candidate for European Council President, moving across the road from the Commission. He further suggests that Jean Claude Juncker might be an ideal Commission President. How the timing of the appointments would work is not covered in the article.
The interesting line from Quatremer is: “Beaucoup d’États membres ne veulent pas d’une personnalité qui ferait de l’ombre au président de la Commission européenne” – precisely. That’s the core of our argument at whodoicall.
Quatremer is also known as a defender of the French language – we do have a French version of this website under construction! 
EU Referendum thinks we’re experts – we take it as a compliment
April 4th, 2008The big, bad British eurosceptic blog EU Referendum has picked up on whodoicall.eu, thanks to today’s IHT article in which our initiative is mentioned. To be quite frank I think the reason we were quoted is that we have used the Kissinger quote to our advantage, the IHT found us via Google, and our website at least looked interesting.
IHT calls Jan and I ‘political bloggers’ – very true – while EU Referendum refers to us as experts that are quoted. We’ll take that as a compliment. Further I really hope that IHT did take what I said as objective analysis – they would have been foolish to do so. I gave my opinion as frankly as I could, but we’re running a campaign after all.
We’re in the International Herald Tribune
April 4th, 2008
When Jan Seifert and I first discussed the idea of One President and launching this website, we had one primary aim in mind: to change the debate about the EU’s top jobs in some small way. Today the first mainstream media – International Herald Tribune – has covered our campaign with quotes and a link to whodoicall.eu in an article entitled ‘The leader of Europe? Answers an ocean apart‘. I’m not entirely convinced that the argument for One President is clear in what is written, but today marks an important step forward for our initiative.
Oh Bertie
April 3rd, 2008
Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern is to step down on 6th May, citing the investigations in the Mahon Tribunal and the need to clear his name as the reason for his resignation. Ahern has been PM since June 1997, winning a third term of office in 2007. Finance Minister Brian Cowen is thought to be the favourite to take over.
But aside from that, what are the challenges for the EU?
First of all as far as this website has been concerned, Bertie has been one of the favourites to take the job as President of the European Council from 2009. While the tribunal might taint his reputation to a certain extent, if he’s cleared then the way is open for a job in Brussels. I can’t work out the timetable for the work of the tribunal though – if investigations drag on then Bertie might lose his chance as the main negotiations for the top positions will take place in the second half of this year.
There’s also the rather large cloud on the horizon, namely the referendum in Ireland on the Treaty of Lisbon. Without a positive vote in Ireland then there won’t even be a position for Ahern to contest. My initial reaction was ‘oh, no, politicians will have their eye off the referendum’ but Fine Gael MEP Jim Higgins reckons the opposite – quoted in theparliament.com he reckons the prospects for ratification are significantly enhanced. But Fine Gael is the main opposition to Ahern’s Fianna Fáil in Irish politics, so surely Higgins would say that, as Fine Gael has been calling for Ahern to go for a long time.
Therein is also a potential issue for Ahern and his candidacy - Fianna Fáil is part of the UEN group in the European Parliament, also containing parties such as Law and Justice of the Kaczyński brothers. Would Ahern be sure to get EPP backing if he were to run?
Bertelsmann’s Presidential Poker
April 3rd, 2008The Bertelsmann Stiftung has produced a paper in its ‘Spotlight’ series about how the President of the European Council should be selected, and the factors that need to be taken into account with the appointment. The paper is available for download in English and German. The main page of their EU-Spotlight project is here. I’m not sure I agree with the analysis, but it’s worth a read.
Fogh Rasmussen out of the running?
April 3rd, 2008
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has been mentioned as one of the possible candidates for the position as President of the European Council. Bloomberg now reports that in a TV interview in Denmark he has declared that he is out of the running.
First of all, is Rasmussen doing this in order to keep his focus on the forthcoming EU referendum(s) in Denmark?
Secondly does this leave the field open for the other Rasmussen (Poul Nyrup) to put himself forward for one of the top positions, with PES backing?