At Large
European Union Wants a President
It's a very big deal, not that anyone knows why the EU might need one.
The European Union wants to have a president. It doesn't matter that it already has a president of the European Commission. The EU believes it needs a bona fide "president." Toward what end is not clear.
At this moment European power brokers are negotiating among themselves as to what kind of president they want -- an international superstar like Tony Blair or perhaps some supporting actor such as a current or former head of a modest-sized government like Belgium, Luxembourg, or the Netherlands. It doesn't really matter except to the very parochial European politicians responding to the protestations of partisan local press.
They also want a foreign minister, or at least someone who can run EU foreign affairs. What that might be is certainly up for definition as each of the 27 member countries has its own foreign minister and, presumably, its own foreign policy. But then each also has its own head of government or state depending on whether it has a parliamentary or presidential system.
This is all very confusing to the American mind that thinks a president is a president, is a president. Obviously the job of EU president is supposed to bring some order to a bureaucracy at EU headquarters in Brussels that has mutated and proliferated like a bad case of hives. All governments seem to suffer from a form of protozoan self-division and multiplication, so a government of governments obviously could not be expected to be dissimilar. But the EU has exceeded the norm.
To be fair -- and one wants to be fair to our older cousins -- now that Europe has decided to solve all its past tendencies toward self-destruction by unifying itself, perhaps it is only logical that it has created a post to oversee the running of the union of European governments. But of course these players don't want any single individual actually to do that. They also don't want that person to be just a figurehead. They want a real president, they say. They do, but they don't, but they do. Hmmm.
Looking on the bright side one could hope that the new EU president would use his/her powers (whatever they might be) for good: sort of like Superman, Batman, Spiderman and all those other super heroes. To start with the EU president could take firm steps to aid in preventing Iran from producing a nuclear weapon. Oh, sorry, that one is not really what they have in mind.
Perhaps the EU president could act to deter the tendencies of Putin-Medvedev -- or is that Medvedev-Putin -- from expanding Russia's power once again to encompass, or at least exercise control over, the republics of the former Soviet Union. Well, no, that's also not really what is wanted. At least that's what EU diplomatic sources say.
It seems that all parties agree that the EU headquarters in Brussels needs some serious shaking up and shaking out. That's certainly not the sort of job on which superstars like Blair desire to spend their time. Actually even the several small nation candidates would not be happy at having that as their principal role.
The real problem no one wants to talk about is that the "king" making is being skewed by the angelic Angela Merkel, Germany's newly reelected Chancellor and the prototypical German school teacher/hausfrau/pleasant political shark. Without her, and Germany's, approval, the entire European president sweepstakes goes nowhere. By the way, this is true in the choosing of the right candidate and also that individual's eventual success in the job.
Of course, France and little Nicolas Sarkozy would like to be considered of the same weight in the EU president stakes, but it's just not true. Germany is the big dog; France is of more modest size in comparison, though together they can swing crucial decisions of the EU.
Nothing is more striking in the division of American and European perception than the near total lack of interest that exists in the U.S. -- including even the more sophisticated centers of Washington -- over who will be the president of the European Union. While the European media are consumed with every little crumb of information and gossip on this issue, there is virtually no coverage in the American press. And why should it be any different?
The ultimate aim of the EU is to act as a balance and/or an alternative to the economic and political power of the U.S., China, and, increasingly, Russia. Lip service is paid by EU members to peace and prosperity of the various regions of the developing world, but that ultimately is aimed toward the economic benefit of Europe. The 19th century rides again in a different form -- at least that's the unstated European hope -- minus wars, of course!
About the Author
George H. Wittman writes a weekly column on international affairs for The American Spectator online. He was the founding chairman of the National Institute for Public Policy.
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Pingback| 11.13.09 @ 8:50AM
Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : European Union Wants a President [sp links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
DD| 11.13.09 @ 10:08AM
"The European Union wants to have a president."
"They also want a foreign minister, .."
And they will get both.
This president will accrete power and control to himself, will propose a universal currency when the US Dollar collapses when chaos abruptly occurs, propose a bio-metric based implantation device that allows for almost absolute identification (read: overcome identiy theft), will negotiate a truce between Israel and arabs by a) allowing the Israelis to rebuild their temple AND b) keep the Mosque of Omar by building a wall between them on the Temple Mount.
erp| 11.13.09 @ 10:25AM
"Toward what end is not clear."
It's clear as a bell. They want to be like us. Yet our dim bulbs us to be like them.
Erika Salzeck| 11.13.09 @ 10:43AM
Goodness, how patronising some of you Americans are! Just as you in the US are very little interested in what happens in Europe - so we Europeans consider the USA as a rather supersized anachronism.
Dai Alanye| 11.13.09 @ 2:03PM
It's true, we don't take Europe seriously.
And why should we? You continually talk about making the world a better place, yet inevitably demand that the US do something to make your dream come true.
Talk is cheap, Europeans. It is actions that are dear.
Aris Katsaris| 11.16.09 @ 7:34AM
We continuously are making the world a better place -- seen in the constantly improving quality of life in the countries that participate in the European Union. Seen in how the European Union brought down the border across a continent allowing workers to move freely and build their lives wherever they choose.
That's making the world a better place IN PRACTICE.
I can't expect you to understand that - for you only toppling dictators counts as "making the world a better place" -- no matter how many hundreds of thousands of people will die in the process of that toppling.
Bydand76| 11.15.09 @ 9:39PM
Yeah, right,
Oh, we are Europeans. Oh I say, what a bunch of unruly little children those silly Americans are.
It is about time the electd someone like Mr Obama. Right?
Just remember this Erika.
Europe would not exist the way it currently is without us pesky patronizing Americans.
WWI & WWII, Stopping the Communist threat which would have placed the whole of Europe under the yoke of Soviet tyranny. Bosnia Herzogovina, Yugoslavia, Kosovo, and the list goes on and on!
I think its hilarious how Europeans continually adopt this holier than thou attitude towards the only nation that bends over backwards to appease you.
Take your socialism and your 12.00 Euro a litre petrol and stick it in the proverbial wine bottle ma'am.
You will be screaming for American assistance when your Islamic immigration problem becomes an open war on your doorsteps AGAIN!
France will go first followed closely by England, Spain and then Scandinavia. Spreading to the rest of Europe.
Then the Turks will come screaming out and it will be total chaos for Europeans once more.
To Hades with Europe!
Except for Ireland and Scotland. Only because I am biased though and I freely admit that! So what?!
Aris Katsaris| 11.16.09 @ 7:44AM
"Europe would not exist the way it currently is without us pesky patronizing Americans."
I hardly think that America would exist the way it currently does without the European colonization of that continent either.
"Take your socialism and your 12.00 Euro a litre petrol and stick it in the proverbial wine bottle ma'am."
Well, that's true -- America keeps sacrificing thousands of human lives in Middle-east wars so that it can have cheaper petrol. We sacrifice fewer lives, our quality of life and life expectancies are much higher -- but we have more expensive petrol.
It all depends on which you prefer, higher life expectancies or cheaper petrol.
"You will be screaming for American assistance when your Islamic immigration problem becomes an open war on your doorsteps AGAIN! "
Muslim Albania is preparing to legalize same-sex marriage, and the main bringers of war in the last twenty years in Europe were Christians (Serb and Russians separatists).
Your stereotypes are born of sheer ignorance.
Tim| 11.13.09 @ 12:43PM
Erika, the way I figure it, our granddaughters could be anything, yours will be wearing bhurka. Contemplate this on the tree of woe...
Bede| 11.13.09 @ 4:06PM
American liberals have long identified Europe as a sort of left-wing utopia. More so than the United States, European countries have experimented with various forms of socialism, but these implementations were largely in small, homogenous countries – the only environment where socialism has ever “worked.” As Christopher Caldwell has pointed out:
"Alberto Alesina and Edward Glaeser, the Harvard economists, have shown that roughly half of Americans’ antipathy towards European-style socialism can be accounted for by the ethnic diversity of the United States. This view is given support by the recent work of Robert Putnam, the sociologist, who finds that people living under conditions of diversity “hunker down”. They trust their neighbours less – even neighbours of their own kind. They are less philanthropic, less social and less inclined to pay taxes."
Thus, when liberals look at Europe close up, past the thin veneer of socialist programs, their enthusiasm wanes. Liberal blogger Matthew Yglesias, having just returned from Europe, today writes:
"And I think there’s also often a kind of image of Europe as a place where more of the progressive agenda has been achieved than in the USA. But I think that you’ll find if you look at Europe through the eyes of the liberal agenda that while the German left has certainly been more successful than the American left at securing universal health care, it’s been much less successful at promoting a tolerant, integrated, multicultural society. And allowing for the errors implicit in making any kind of sweeping generalization, I’d say that’s pretty generally the case across Europe. This Swiss People’s Party campaign poster would, I think, make Jesse Helms blush. And I’m not even sure which of the Northern League posters from Italy is the most egregious."
Europeans have deeper blood and soil roots than most Americans. They have real nations, in the sense of the Latin natio, implying link by blood. I predict that in the near future we shall witness more promising right-wing movements in Europe than in the U.S. And it’s going to be real shocker for American liberals.
http://conservativetimes.org/?p=3833
Inge| 11.14.09 @ 12:29AM
Being german, and knowing its history in and out, I have to say that the new emire (European Union) will once again cause lots of mischief, and horror.
Sure, they don't have a Hitler this time, but whoever emerges as the so-called president, will smoothen his or her words. Nothing good will come of it!
Jim O'Brien| 11.14.09 @ 8:11PM
If they want a Socialist Nobel Prize winner with Ivy League degrees, a man who is truly international, one who would be a big hit with all the Muslims in Europe, and also despises American history and culture, I have a recommendation for them.
AC is coming...| 11.15.09 @ 1:46AM
DD, you hit it on the head. That is EXACTLY what will happen. I read exactly what you said in a Book before. The name escapes me.....
JW| 11.15.09 @ 4:13PM
As a note to the author of this article: If you're writing a commentary such as this, the presumptive goal of which is to persuade, belittling a subject of your writing on the basis of their height doesn't help to convince the reader, especially if said reader is of comparable height. Or do you not care about influencing anyone under 5'8"?
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