THE EUROPEAN Council in Brussels today and tomorrow can deal only indirectly with the important business arising from the Lisbon Treaty, since the Czech supreme court will not rule on a legal challenge to the treaty until next week. But its members will informally discuss the appointment of an EU president, foreign policy representative and the composition of the next European Commission, now near the final stages of being decided. This fresh leadership is badly needed on climate change and the international economic crisis which will also be under consideration.
In deciding who to appoint as a president for up to five years the council is also choosing what kind of role it wants this office to play. A high profile candidate from a large member state, such as Tony Blair, would have definite international recognition, helping raise the EU’s rather weak image elsewhere in the world. But is this desired by most EU member states? The larger ones do not want their own leaders obscured or constrained, while smaller ones fear such power projection would gradually create an effective directoire of large states.
Any new president must represent the EU’s central achievements and policies effectively. Since the UK is not in the euro, Schengen or the Social Charter – all this at Mr Blair’s own behest as prime minister – and since the likely next Conservative government cordially dislikes his candidature, support for his appointment is slipping. The preferred compromise should be someone from a smaller member state capable of being an effective behind the scenes chairman rather than an interventionist chief.
That would allow for a stronger and more prominent person to be appointed as the EU’s foreign policy representative, who will be a member of the commission and have a key co-ordinating role in its new external service. This is where former taoiseach and EU ambassador to Washington, John Bruton, enters the fray. The Government’s delay in nominating the Irish commissioner meanwhile makes it more difficult to lobby for a good job there.
With the Copenhagen summit to agree a new global warming treaty only six weeks away, the EU must urgently decide its negotiating position on which it aspires to offer world leadership. As expected, funding is the most difficult question outstanding, both internally and externally. It is depressing to find such sharp disagreements at this late stage between those who want to adopt a generous forward position, and more cautious states and poorer ones unwilling to share the costly burden of change. Unless these divisions are resolved now the EU will lose credibility at this crucial stage in a climate change negotiation which mirrors them externally.
The summit is also expected to offer opt-outs to the Czech Republic and Slovakia from the Charter of Fundamental Rights to protect them from legal challenges to the post-war Benes decrees which confiscated German-owned properties within their borders. This would be the last move in the messy endgame of the Lisbon Treaty, allowing it to be signed next month.