Now that the Czech president looks set to sign the Lisbon treaty and create a new-look EU, the great Brussels jobs steeplechase gets underway in earnest this week.
Barring another twist in the saga should the Czech constitutional court rule otherwise tomorrow, the leaders of the bloc’s 27 countries will enter full horse-trading flight at a two-day summit starting on Thursday.
With what could be termed the “Ditch Blair Project” having kicked into a gallop, thanks mainly to French President Nicolas Sarkozy pulling in the reins from past public backing, the race is also wide open.
PHOTO: EPA
Former British premier Tony Blair as the global face of Brussels? It had its attractions for some, although not, of course, Britain’s Conservative opposition, expected to form a new government in London next year. But revulsion for others — with Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Poland all making their resistance clear — looks to have proved just too widespread.
Sarkozy crystallized the line peddled by the likes of Luxembourg when he cited a “problem” if the new, 30-month appointed post of EU president went to a country that doesn’t use the euro currency.
Other suggested conditions include being a member of the borderless Schengen zone and not having negotiated an opt-out from the EU’s charter of fundamental rights — which also, incidentally, rules out Poles, Irishmen and women and the Czechs.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Practical obstacles, though, center instead on Blair’s role as former US president George W. Bush’s faithful sidekick on Iraq — and a feeling that Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel might prefer a lesser name who could be easier to control.
Increasingly aggressive opposition from Luxembourg is explained by diplomats as proof its prime minister — the man with his hands on the money as head of the 16-nation Eurogroup — would rather like the job himself.
Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker could imbibe the role with his experience as Europe’s longest-serving head of government, while Jan Peter Balkenende of the Netherlands is the other name most frequently mentioned by diplomats alongside ex-Finnish president Paavo Lipponen.
Blair has never officially declared himself a candidate, but Sarkozy was reportedly one of the first EU leaders to put the former British premier forward in 2007.
Recently, though, that tack has changed — reportedly after talks with Merkel.
Sarkozy said in an interview that “it is too early to say” whether Blair would win the backing of national leaders, who control the appointment. They will formally debate the issue over dinner on Thursday.
“Personally I believe in a Europe that is politically strong and has a figurehead,” Sarkozy told France’s Le Figaro daily. “But the fact that Britain is not in the euro remains a problem.”
Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann has also said he is “skeptical about Mr Blair.”
Balkenende may have the edge, said senior political analyst Antonio Missiroli of the European Policy Center in Brussels.
At 53, the Dutchman is a relatively new face and he hails from the center-right ground occupied by the majority of European leaders.
He is also successfully leading a broad coalition, a prerequisite for relations with center-left figures whose numbers have recently been boosted by Greek and Portuguese elections.
Either way, Brussels wants the choices for the two new jobs of president and foreign affairs supremo named by the end of the year. In principle this can be done via a qualified majority of EU nations, but the tradition is for such high-profile decisions to be made through consensus, which suggests lengthy talks over digestifs deep into Thursday night.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
DEFENSE UPHEAVAL: Trump was also to remove the first woman to lead a military service, as well as the judge advocates general for the army, navy and air force US President Donald Trump on Friday fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, and pushed out five other admirals and generals in an unprecedented shake-up of US military leadership. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that he would nominate former lieutenant general Dan “Razin” Caine to succeed Brown, breaking with tradition by pulling someone out of retirement for the first time to become the top military officer. The president would also replace the head of the US Navy, a position held by Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead a military service,
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