A missed opportunity

A missed opportunity for Europe. That is the sad result of this special meeting. The Lisbon Treaty, with its position of an 'European Union President', had offered the possibility for the EU to present a more effective face to the world. By selecting Herman Van Rompuy they didn't use it.

What was crucial in the decision was not a consideration of what policies the EU might have hoped to achieve through the post; rather every possible balancing act: the political left and right, large and small countries, east and west, north and south, male and female. All that had to square in order to come up with candidates for the two positions. And if that's what Europe is after, then the result can only be the lowest common denominator. Van Rompuy became president not because anybody felt he was the best candidate, but because he had provoked the least opposition.

For a prominent post of this order, that's not enough. The EU president is meant to be the person to whom Barack Obama or Hu Jintao turns for Europe's position. Can anyone really imagine Van Rompuy filling that role? He may well prove himself an able coordinator and seeker of compromise, qualities that he should certainly also have. But envisioning him as Obama's most important point of contact in the EU is difficult.

Little better was the appointment of Catherine Ashton as High Representative for Foreign Policy, an especially influential position as Europe's "face to the world." Nothing against either of them, but they are hardly brimming with charisma.

With this decision Europe's governments have, intentionally or not, set a course for the future. The EU, a great political and economic power, will continue to punch below its weight on the world stage. Perhaps that is what a number of its members wanted: The weaker the personnel at the top of the EU are, the more the heads of individual nations can hold on to their own influence, play their own roles.

But Europe will only be able to defend its collective interests when it learns to present a strong and unified front, and that goes for the personalities within its leadership as well. The precise opposite happened.

One consolation remains, perhaps: this was the first time. By the second, hopefully, they'll have learned something.


Author: Christoph Hasselbach
Editor: Andreas Illmer