euro|topics - New EU leadership awakens expectations

Main focus of Monday, November 23, 2009

New EU leadership awakens expectations

Although the duo at the head of the European Union has not yet started work, in part because the EU Parliament is blocking the new "Foreign Minister", the European press is already detailing the challenges facing the new leadership.

Berlingske Tidende - Denmark

The new EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy and the new EU foreign minister Catherine Ashton will above all have to be able to negotiate compromises, writes the daily Berlingske Tidende: "The task facing Rompuy and Ashton will be to work in good faith with the resolutions passed by the heads of state and government. Once the heads of state and government of 27 countries have reached agreement, the ability to reach compromises is called for. And the EU leaders clearly believe that the two possess this quality. When you think of the major tasks facing the EU, there should be no doubt that it needs people who can instil a positive climate and a constructive approach to cooperation. This is crucial. If this generation of European leaders is unable to reform and modernise the continent, it will no longer be able to keep up with the US, Japan and the new giants China, India and Brazil." (21/11/2009)

Süddeutsche Zeitung - Germany

No sooner has Catherine Ashton been elected as the European Union's foreign minister than the EU Parliament has started blocking her assumption of office. Brussels is on the brink of making a fool of itself yet again, the left-liberal daily Süddeutsche Zeitung writes: "Will the current Trade Commissioner [Ashton] assume her new post on December 1, when the Lisbon Treaty comes into effect? That's what the European Council is pushing for at any rate. Or will she have to wait until the new European Commission has been formed and confirmed, which won't be before the end of next February, as the Parliament demands? Brussels threatens to plunge into a petty squabble about competences. The embarrassing thing about all this is that it is because of the Lisbon Treaty, hailed as a reform, that Ashton is stuck with this hybrid role. The Treaty stipulates that the High Representative is a member of both the Council and the Commission because he or she is also the latter's vice-president. And the Parliament has the last say on the Commission. The EU would be well advised to resolve the conflict quickly and quietly. Otherwise not only the foreign minister's international reputation will be tarnished even before she takes office, but also the longed-for Lisbon Treaty." (23/11/2009)

El País - Spain

For the witticism attributed to former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger to become true the EU's foreign policy decisions must now be made in Brussels, the left-liberal daily El País notes: "According to Kissinger, he never made that famous remark: 'Who do I call if I want to call Europe,' but it seems appropriate to him. Last week Europe completed the election of its trio: [Herman] Van Rompuy on the Council, [José Manuel] Barroso in the Commission and [Catherine] Ashton as a go-between for the two of them on foreign policy. But as things stand now, the telephone numbers for Europe start with +33 (París), +49 (Berlín) y +44 (London). Ashton's job is to make that number starts with +32 (for Brussels)." (23/11/2009)

Vest - Slovenia

The election of Herman Van Rompuy as EU president and Catherine Ashton as EU foreign minister is in keeping with the consensus-based spirit of European politics, the website Vest.si writes: "The consensus reached among the European heads of government was to select weak and barely known figures for the two new posts in the EU. This is a sign of continuation in the spirit of European policy, which must always be based on consensus. Consensus is the EU's most important concept. And if it means that its leaders have to be weak and rather non-descript personalities then that's the price that has to be paid for things to continue moving forward without too much of a commotion. What this will mean for Europe's long-term development is hard to tell. But experience has shown that this is the way to move ahead slowly, to expand while at the same time maintaining a stable community of peoples and be successful economically. On the other hand the problem of Europe increasingly being governed by technocrats grows worse." (23/11/2009)

» To the complete press review of Monday, November 23, 2009

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