Brussels, 29/10/2009 (Agence Europe) - The list on leaders whose names have been put forward - and certainly discussed on Thursday and Friday in the background to the summit - for the posts of permanent president of the European Council and High Representative (HR) for foreign affairs has continued over the past few hours. After Latvia announced, on 28 October, the candidacy of its former president, Vaira Vike-Freiberga, (EUROPE 10008) for the highest post of the EU, we learned on Thursday that the representative of the Commission in Washington, the former Irish prime minister, John Bruton, had sent in his candidacy to the representatives of the EU 27 member states in the US capital, announcing his “interest” in becoming the first full-time president of the European Council and calling on the support of the governments. Mr Bruton appealed in his letter for a low profile president whose main responsibility would be to prepare and chair the European Council in close cooperation with all member states, “regardless of the size of their country”. The former Finnish prime minister, Social Democrat Paavo Lipponen, also joined the race but has not, nonetheless, officially announced his candidacy. His column published in the Financial Times on 29 October on the institutional future of the EU, however, very closely resembles a declaration of interest in the post of president of the European Council. Similarly to Mr Bruton and Jean-Claude Juncker, Mr Lipponen considers that the most important role of the president should, above all, “be internal” and one of working with all member states to prepare European summits and push forward European integration. In this function of “coordinator”, the president should, “have the time to listen to governments of member states and deal with possible problems as a trouble shooter”. On the other hand, nothing on the “jobs” was leaked out from the dinner between Mr Sarkozy and Ms Merkel on Wednesday evening in Paris. While President Sarkozy still appears to support Tony Blair, the German Chancellor has been in no hurry to reveal her cards and observers noted that her position could prove decisive. Although the two “extreme” candidacies of Mr Blair and Mr Juncker appear to mutually rule each other out, the “compromise candidacies” could make a break through, perhaps at the European Council (even if the formal decisions will only be made later on, undoubtedly at the special summit around mid-November). Other names notably mentioned for this role are those of the Dutch prime minister, Jan-Peter Balkenende (although on Wednesday he said he was not a candidate), the Swedish prime minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt (who, since the beginning of the Swedish presidency has made a very good impression), the former Austrian Chancellor, Wolfgang Schüssel, the Finnish president, Tarja Halonen, and even the former Irish president, Mary Robinson, and more rarely, the former Belgian prime minister, Guy Verhofstadt. As for the role of High Representative, the names receiving the most mention are those of David Miliband (his chances are good if Mr Blair is thrown off course for the presidency of the European Council), Carl Bildt, Olli Rehn, Paavo Lipponen or even Sweden's minister for European affairs, Ursula Plassnik.
On Thursday, at the beginning of the summit, European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek called for the first permanent president of the European Council to be a woman.
José Luis Zapatero, Herman van Rompuy and Gordon Bajani want a strong president
who takes European integration forward
During the press conference of the Spain-Belgium-Hungary presidential trio (see related article), José Luis Zapatero said the Socialist family had a preference for the EU High Representative but did not wish to cite any names for the posts to be filled, as the debate was first of all to be on criteria. “What I want is a European president with a European vocation (…) who wants to strengthen the European Union, and who is able to launch new processes”, said the president of the Spanish government. While acknowledging that “we need time to find consensus”, the Hungarian prime minister, Gordon Bajnai, took a stance in favour of a “president who can represent the EU in a strong way outside the EU” while being “someone who is ready to listen to everyone and who knows how to find a good compromise (…), someone who also knows how the mechanisms and institutions work”. “The future of Europe is not just a matter of people”, said Belgian Prime Minister Hermann van Rompuy who also added that “the new president should be a convinced European” who knows how to “seek agreement and respect the fragile balance between the institutions”.
European Socialists want to negotiate with EPP to obtain “one of the two posts”
with a preference for that of HR
The heads of government and party leaders belonging to the Party of European Socialists (PES) meeting in pre-summit on Thursday afternoon in Brussels, entrusted a “trio” composed of José Luis Zapatero (Spanish Prime Minister), Werner Faymann (Austrian Chancellor) and Poul Nyrup Rasmussen (PES President) with the task of negotiating with the European People's Party (EPP) and the centre right government on giving
one of the two posts created by the Lisbon Treaty to a personality belonging to the Socialist family. This was announced by Mr Rasmussen on Thursday just a few hours before the beginning of the European Council in Brussels. Martin Schulz, who heads the EP Socialist Group, nonetheless underlined when addressing journalists that the PES has a very clear preference for the post of High Representative for foreign affairs. At this stage, the PES is still divided not only on Tony Blair's possible candidature to the permanent presidency of the European Council (the British Labour member apparently has only Gordon Brown's support) as well as on the question of knowing which of the two posts the Socialist family should ask for (here too, Mr Brown seemed to be isolated at the PES, preferring Tony Blair at the head of the European Council). There are two weeks to go before the probable extraordinary European Council mid-November to find a “common position” by European Socialists on the question of the appointments, Mr Rasmussen told the press. Thanks to consultation conducted by the “trio”, the PES president said, they are confident they will get there, refusing, however, to give the names of the possible Socialist candidates. “It is too soon to give names”, Mr Rasmussen said. David Miliband (Labour), who is currently British foreign minister, seems to have a real chance of becoming the High Representative, if, as seems increasingly likely, Mr Blair is refused the presidency of the European Council.
Liberals have not given up hope of obtaining one of the posts
Drawing the profile of the future president of the European Council and stating that one of their own should hold the post or that of High Representative, the European Liberal Democrats are stating their ambitions without, however, showing their hand. “We believe the future president of the European Council should be the chair of the meeting, the coordinator of those meetings, and that he should have the ability to convene extra meetings of the European Council in exceptional circumstances), said Annemie Neyts-Uyttebroeck on Thursday 29 October after the traditional pre-summit meeting of the ELDR - an approach that is practically tantamount to closing the door on Tony Blair. Focused on the internal organisation of EU activities, such a description is remote from that given by those who support the candidature of the former British prime minster, and who mainly highlight Blair's qualities of international representation.
Nonetheless, although the Liberal Democrats do not wish to give any names at this stage, they are asking for one of the posts to be attributed to them if the Lisbon Treaty takes effect. “The Liberal family should be represented among the four top jobs in the EU”, said Ms Neyts-Uyttebroeck. In the knowledge that the European Commission presidency and that of the European parliament have already been attributed to members of the EPP, the Liberal Democrats want to inherit the post of president of the European Council or that of High Representative. “Our aid was decisive in the election of the president of the European Commission”, their leader states. (H.B./A.B./O.J./transl.rh.jl)