After the ratification of the Lisbon treaty by the Czech Republic Europe has taken another step towards a United States of Europe by adopting the first EU constitution.
The upshot of this is it’s time for the first so called “European President” to be appointed as the EU becomes greater than the sum of its parts.
I find it rather ironic that it’s the Czechs that were holding up the ratification of the treaty that gives more power to central government, after all it all worked so well when Chamberlin secured peace in our time in 1938 by giving precisely the same country to Germany to stop any further aggression.
The Czech president was looking for guarantees from the rest of the EU that there would be no flood of claims on Czech property from ethnic Germans who were expelled from the former Czech Republic in the aftermath of the Second World War
But I digress, the front runner to become president of this collection of squabbling states with little more than geography and a couple of world wars in common is Tony Blair.
After such impressive performances in his last two jobs as Prime Minister and then as Middle East peace envoy (who visited the Middle East once in two years) his Tonyness seems an interesting choice. The endorsement of a potential President Blair by Gordon Brown (just an incompetent PM or the most incompetent PM?) and Silvio Berlusconi (a man who has also endorsed fraud, immunity from prosecution and heavy hints at tax evasion) really only adds to the growing farce around Blair’s candidacy.
Tony promised the electorate in the UK votes on the Euro and integration, neither of which he delivered.
My favorite quote is from David Miliband who said the EU president needs “Star power” and a “candidate who can stop the traffic in Beijing and Moscow”. No, Europe needs a political leader with ethics, respect and an ability to bring people together. Star power and ego have nothing to do with it.
The Tories have of course been scoring political points like it’s going out of style, but that’s not been difficult recently with Gordon Brown unable to keep his party in line. European spokesman Paul Francois said “The British people do not like the Lisbon treaty and if it was used to impose Tony Blair as European president without the British people having a say, it would only underline the treaty’s complete lack of democratic legitimacy,”
After the Tory government of the late 80’s and most of the 90’s it would be difficult for the UK to become less pro-European. After all Labour were pro-EU (at least compared to Thatcher), but somehow Blair and Brown have managed it through ignoring both the electorate and the rest of Europe.