Van Rompuy set to be consensus-driven president

HERMAN VAN Rompuy is a low-key intellectual, a Christian Democrat with a penchant for writing haiku poems and a conciliatory …

HERMAN VAN Rompuy is a low-key intellectual, a Christian Democrat with a penchant for writing haiku poems and a conciliatory political style.

As president of the European Council, his task will be to bring unity to the EU’s often-divided leaders and project their work on the global stage.

As the first holder of the office, it will be for him to set the tone and traditions of this symbolically important post.

Although his supporters in Belgian politics say he is well up to this task, the choice of a figure from a small country who had virtually no international profile up to a couple of weeks ago suggests that most EU leaders have only modest ambitions for the job.

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His consensus-driven approach and lack of baggage among his fellow EU leaders are likely to be an advantage. What is less clear is whether he has the political personality to make a big impact outside the private corridors of European politics.

The evidence suggests this may well prove a challenge.

Van Rompuy’s extraordinary ascent to the presidency of the assembly of EU heads of state and government – the post has wrongly been described as the presidency of Europe – shares much with his unexpected rise to the pinnacle of Belgian politics late last year.

His reputation made in the 1990s as the finance minister who secured Belgium’s entry into the euro zone, he led a tranquil life as president of the country’s lower house of parliament and showed no apparent ambition for anything higher until late last year.

Still, it was to him that King Albert turned when Yves Leterme resigned as prime minister following political interference in court proceedings over the bailout of Fortis bank.

The king asked Van Rompuy to form a government from the embers of Leterme’s administration and he duly obliged, becoming Belgium’s third premier in a year.

That he would keep Leterme’s five-party coalition intact was part of the deal – it had taken the parties nine months to come together after inconclusive elections in 2007.

Since taking office Van Rompuy has won plaudits for easing tension between Dutch- and French-speaking factions which had led to fears the Belgian state would disintegrate.

He is multilingual and comes from Belgium’s Dutch-speaking majority, which wants more power for the Flanders region over the labour market and justice.

Yet his concentration on economic issues as premier found favour on the French-speaking side of the linguistic divide, where there are fears that further devolution would damage the economy in the Wallonia region and risk breaking Belgium in two.

Although the wider Belgian economy was already under acute strain when he came to power, it is now projected to be on a path to gradual recovery.

Van Rompuy’s task now is to carve out a distinctive role for himself in his new post. Whether he becomes anything more than a chairman of EU leaders remains to be seen.

He was appointed in the face of a rival campaign by former British prime minister Tony Blair, who remains something of a political colossus.

His appointment is open to the interpretation that he was handpicked because he is unlikely to outshine the biggest beasts in European politics.