There is much speculation about Tony Blair's chances of getting the EU presidency, though the tide seems to have turned against him in the last 24 hours.
Timothy Garton Ash doesn't think Blair would be right for the job either. At the moment, he argues, the role is without form and void:
The job description for the president of the European Council is vague, but it is certainly more like a consensus building chairman than anything we would seriously call a president in English, let alone in American.
Moreover, this chair, be it he or she, would have the tricky task of presenting a European foreign policy that does not yet exist.
To give Europe a stronger voice in the world also requires a machinery that does not yet exist.
So the new EU president will need to be a figurehead and cheerleader for something that is vague and without substance. Tony Blair did that for thirteen years as leader of New Labour. Surely that makes him the ideal candidate.
Blair's gig as 'Middle East Peace Envoy' has been such a success hasn't it ?
With that on his cv I'm sure he'll prove Garton-Ash wrong. He's clearly the man of the moment, who'll bring clout, gravitas, and the virtues of Ernest Bevinesque plain-speaking to the role of 'EU President'. Why else would Berlusconi be supporting him ?
Posted by: Mark | 30 October 2009 at 02:58 PM