Who will be our pan-European president?

If you still think it will be Tony Blair, you should read Jean Quatremer’s latest blog entry.  It’s a nicely written summary of the quest for the president of the European Council up to this day.

It seems that the race, described two weeks ago by The Economist as “a contest between Tony Blair and everyone else”, is set to become a contest between everyone but Tony Blair… In fact, Nicolas Sarkozy, Blair’s most fervent supporter until now, recently admitted that the British opt-out from the Euro might be an obstacle on Blair’s way to EU presidency. More pronounced, however, is the criticism voiced by the Benelux countries and Germany’s CDU members… They don’t want Blair because the UK is not sufficiently anchored in European structures or/and because they didn’t like the way the British government acted in the past on certain EU initiatives and policies… Also, small member states would generally prefer a candidate from a small member state who would preserve the Commission’s pivotal role and prevent the big MS from devouring the rest in the intergovernmental institution the Council is.

So how to reconcile Europe’s willingness to be represented by a face recognizable in Beijing and Washington with the individual motivations of the member states?

The Economist  suggested that the competition is actually going on between Tony Blair and some “Euro-pygmies” (Mr. Juncker and Mr. Balkenende, for instance). We attempted a comparison between these three figures (see below). Feel free to add your own ++ and — below.

But as the NRC Handelsblad noted, as long as the EU decision making is comparable to a henhouse, it doesn’t matter that much what kind of country its president comes from…