Margot Wallström rightfully regrets the absence of female names in the discussion about the top jobs. Frankfurter Rundschau writes that Wallström mentions a couple of (female) European politicians as potentials for the top jobs (without being explicit about the/which president position): Angela Merkel, Mary Robinson, Tarja Halonen, Emma Bonino and Anna Diamantopoulou.
Maybe even more relevant is her criticism of the backdoor wrangling about names – instead of a public contest.
The French Minister for European Affairs, Jean-Pierre Jouyet, answers questions in Le Monde yesterday about the nominations for the EU top positions. He underlines the need for renewal and calls for new personalities in the top positions at the same time as he says that he would like to see someone like Jacques Delors.
But, let’s face it, there is no one like Delors among the viable candidates. The focus should be on creating a clarity, authority and democratic accountability for the position rather than the personality that could possibly bring these things.
News of a strange candidacy has reached me via the handy route of Google Alerts and ‘Select Property‘, a website that gives some news about Bulgaria in English for property investors. Apparently Simeon Saxe-Coburg, formerly Prime Minister of Bulgaria (2001-2005) and formerly Tsar Simeon II of Bulgaria intends to put himself forward as a candidate to be President of the European Council. Anyone in favour of the first Tsar of the EU? Maybe he also needs a Prince of Darkness alongside him?
Update 3.4.08 – Leader of the ALDE Group in the EP Graham Watson has welcomed Saxe-Coburg’s candidacy in a rather guarded fashion.
(Please note: this entry was posted on 31st March, not 1st April)
I suppose it was naive to assume that only the English-speaking press would get its analysis of the new President of the European Council completely wrong – as we’ve been documenting on this blog. Sadly German weekly Die Zeit falls into the same trap in an article from 20.03.2008:
Das Präsidentenamt wird der mächtigste Job sein, den die EU je zu vergeben hatte.
This roughly translates as the president job is the most powerful ever awarded in the EU. No – absolutely not. The article makes one reference to the Commission President, the position which, as head of the EU’s executive, will remain stronger than the European Council President. There’s also not a single mention in Die Zeit of the lack of democratic accountability of the European Council position.
I know journalists always want to make a pleasant story of power and intrigue, but why on this issue are so many basic errors always made?
I think I’ve now read the first genuinely good analysis about future Presidents in a UK publication. Entitled “The Big Question: What is the role of the EU President, and who are the leading candidates?” it appeared in The Independent on Tuesday this week, written by John Lichfield. On particular paragraph is excellent – a succinct summary of the case for One President:
The obvious solution would be to appoint the same person as council President and EC President, with the High Representative as his or her sidekick and “foreign minister”. There is nothing in the EU treaties, as amended by the reform treaty, to prevent this from happening. You would then have a genuine “President for Europe” with real scope and power. For this reason alone, it will not happen.
Yes, the last line is our fear too – is any leader willing to be that radical? Citizens wanting a democratically legitimate EU should demand that sort of thinking. Lichfield also says that federalists hope the European Council position would develop into a directly elected President… I’m none too sure about that! Federalism is more often about parliamentary systems and not direct election. But some democratic legitimacy for the European Council President job is vital.
Charlemagne in The Economist last week was entitled “The parable of the Presidents” and looks at another facet of the European Council President job – how it keeps Heads of States away from chairing meetings while their ministerial colleagues will still chair formations of the Council of the EU. While my own reaction would be ‘tough’, there might well be something useful in this – if Heads of States themselves are none too pleased with the President of the European Council job that might mean they will not want a strong character to fill the position?
Richard Corbett MEP has written a blog entry speculating about the President of the European Council, and President of the European Commission positions. He raises the issue of One President (but doesn’t link to us – we’re probably a bit radical) and also has an amusing suggestion – make Anders Fogh Rasmussen President of the European Council, and Poul Nyrup Rasmussen President of the European Commission. So whatever President the press would refer to his name would be Rasmussen… Made me smile – not really viable though!
Corbett sadly does not allow comments on the posts on his blog so I can’t post a link to whodoicall.eu, but some enterprising people (eurosceptics I suspect) have setup a spoof Corbett blog where comments are allowed.
A poll for Financial Times shows that a majority of the people asked would like to see a high-profile person as EU-president.
It is an interesting poll, but it is not asking the right questions. The coming year’s debate cannot only be about what kind of candidates we want. Don’t we need to know what kind of position they are candidates for first?
The result gives strong support for a more clear EU-leadership. However would it not be more important to give the role in it self legitimacy and responsibilities rather than just appointing an influential person? And, do we really want a strong and leader of the Council, appointed by the Heads of States and Governments in diplomatic negotiations rather than democratic debates? Finally, what are the chances that the council will ever agree on a top-figure?
What do Bertie Ahern, Jean Claude Juncker, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, José Manuel Barroso and Tony Blair all have in common? Well, they are all likely to get more backing from the centre-right for any candidacies for top jobs in the EU next year… and they are all men.
Party political balance and geographical balance are always at the top of the agenda when it comes to the carve-up of candidates in the EU, but there are growing calls for gender balance to be taken into account as well. Margot Wallström was the first to cite the lack of women candidates at the end of last week. This was followed by an ALDE press conference (watch it on Europe By Satellite here – needs Real Player) in the European Parliament with Diana Wallis, Karin Riis-Jørgensen and Anneli Jäätteenmäki to call for at least one woman in the top three EU positions (Commission President, European Council President, EU Foreign Minister).
Neelie Kroes also puts in an appearance and she states that without efforts from the European Parliament, the Netherlands government, and from Commission President Barroso to get 1/3 of the Commissioners to be female she would not have managed to secure the nomination to be Commissioner for Competition. Considering she’s considered one of the more effective Commissioners that’s a significant statement.
So who are the women who could be considered for any of these positions? In no particular order: Margot Wallström, Neelie Kroes, Tarja Halonen, Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga, Angela Merkel, Ségolène Royal, Dora Bakoyannis, Ursula Plassnik…? I’m surely missing some as I don’t know all the top ministers in all Member States. Suggestions?
(Hat tip for the link to the press conference: Brussels Blogger)
whodoicall.eu has been online for a week or so, but from today we’re available by telephone too – so we can be that elusive number for Kissinger to call. Well, not quite yet, but we’ll be happy to redirect that number to the first President of the EU if our initiative is a success.
So give us a ring on:
+32 (0)2 888 7978
and leave us a message!
Adam Daniel Rotfeld, writing in the journal Europe’s World considers the issue of a ‘double-hat’, i.e. the same person as President of the European Commission and the European Council. This is the paragraph from the article (towards the end):
Looking ahead, governance issues are likely to be subject of review as the innovations of the Reform Treaty are tested in practice. The double-hatted high representative of the Union for foreign affairs and security policy could be a model for use elsewhere in the institutional architecture. A more ambitious double-hatting exercise would be one in which the president of the European Council serves at the same time as the president of the Commission. Interaction between the new permanent president of the Council and the member state presidencies is another area where improvements might be needed. The composition of the Commission, where traditionally there is a lot of creativity and fresh thinking, will attract attention. [my emphasis]
Are there other high level politicians that are backing the idea that have so far escaped out attention? (Hat tip: David Schoibl)