BRUSSELS — Leaders of the 27 countries of the
European Union on Thursday night chose
Herman Van Rompuy, the Belgian prime minister, as the European Union’s first president, and
Catherine Ashton of Britain, currently the bloc’s trade commissioner, as its high representative for foreign policy. The vote was unanimous.
Both officials are highly respected but little known outside their own countries. After the European Union’s eight-year battle to rewrite its internal rules and to pass the
Lisbon Treaty that created these two new jobs, the selection of such low-profile figures seemed to highlight Europe’s problems instead of its readiness to take a more united and forceful place in world affairs.
In a sense, Europe seemed to be living down to expectations. Earlier, the foreign minister of Sweden,
Carl Bildt, warned against a “minimalist solution” that would reduce the union’s “opportunity to have a clear voice in the world.”
“It is quite astounding,” said Olivier Ferrand, president of Terra Nova, a center-left research institute in France. “It is jaw-dropping. It is the end of ambition for the E.U. — really disappointing.”
The deal that produced the two choices emerged as a result of backroom negotiations among leaders jockeying for future and more important economic portfolios that could be more powerful in the enlarged European Union, which is still more of an economic union than a political one and looks to remain so.
Mr. Van Rompuy (pronounced ROM-pow), 62, an economist, has been Belgium’s prime minister for less than a year. Ms. Ashton, 53, has next to no foreign policy experience and has never been elected to anything.
They are expected to take up their jobs on Jan. 1. Ms. Ashton still needs the endorsement of the
European Parliament.
Both emerged when Britain’s choice for president,
Tony Blair, met with overwhelming opposition, stemming from his past pro-American policies, support for the Iraq war and star qualities.
The British prime minister,
Gordon Brown, finally bowed to the inevitable late Thursday afternoon and dropped his backing for his predecessor. By supporting Mr. Van Rompuy — a Roman Catholic and a Christian Democrat from the center-right, who supported the positioning of American nuclear weapons in Belgium — Mr. Brown opened up the foreign policy job to the center-left. With support from fellow center-left leaders, he pitched Ms. Ashton for the job.
A fresh opportunity for European leadership appeared to be the great promise of the Lisbon Treaty, which created the jobs of president and foreign policy chief and
was approved earlier this month after years of political struggle. The idea had been to simplify the management of an enlarged European Union and to appoint senior European figures who could speak for the group.
But the leaders of Europe’s most powerful countries, France and Germany, did not want to be overshadowed. Nor apparently did their foreign ministers.
Thursday night, Mr. Van Rompuy told reporters, mixing English, French and Dutch, that “I did not seek this job.”
“But from tonight,” he added, “I will do it with conviction and enthusiasm.”
He said that he was reluctant to abandon the stewardship of Belgium, but that “Europe is a union of values and has the responsibility of playing an important role in the world.”
The selection of Ms. Ashton — formally Baroness Ashton of Upholland — was particularly striking given the deep foreign policy experience of both officials whom she will succeed in the European Union:
Javier Solana, who had been Spain’s foreign minister and then secretary general of
NATO, and Benita Ferrero-Waldner, who had been Austria’s foreign minister.
By contrast, Ms. Ashton has had jobs in domestic policy and was appointed to the House of Lords in 1999. She was named leader of the House of Lords, in charge of steering government legislation through the chamber, in 2007. She was then appointed to the
European Commission in October 2008. As European commissioner for trade, she has negotiated with foreigners and impressed her colleagues.
Ms. Ashton told reporters that “it is a measure of my surprise that I have not prepared a speech.” She said that she was Britain’s first female European Union commissioner and the first woman to be trade commissioner, and was proud to be the first high representative. “Am I an ego on legs? I am not,” she said. “Judge me on what I do, and I think you will be proud of me.”
If the point of the Lisbon Treaty was to create a more prominent face for Europe, the result on Thursday was the opposite. It appeared to be a political deal that would do little to reduce the power, stature and influence of big nations or their foreign ministers.
“It’s going to be difficult to explain to the public why there was so much fuss about the Lisbon Treaty if all we get is someone no one has heard of,” said one European Union official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Mr. Van Rompuy, who likes bowling duckpins and writing haiku, has earned respect for calming ethnic tensions in Belgium in his 11 months as prime minister. Someone who met him recently described him as intelligent and humorous, but “timid.” He only reluctantly took on the job of prime minister, and did not push himself forward for this one.
One recent Van Rompuy haiku went this way: “A fly zooms, buzzes; Spins and is lost in the room; He does no one harm.”
In a sign of how little respect the foreign policy job appeared to attract, the most prominent person mentioned previously to fill it, David Miliband, the British foreign secretary, chose instead to work domestically to revive the fortunes of the Labour Party, widely expected to lose the next election to the Conservatives. His decision not to pursue a lucrative job in Brussels has only helped him in Britain.
Stephen Castle reported from Brussels, and Steven Erlanger from Paris.
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The good news is that progress is being made. It is my hope, and the hope of many other Internationalists, that this progress picks up speed and momentum.
Faithfully,
Douglas Castle
