From Open Europe’s daily update, here’s an amusing note on the
“President of Europe” a) somewhat disputing the Obama
administration’s credit-taking on Libya (an operation both might
soon nonetheless declare an orphan), then b) doing his best Obama
administration impersonation:
Herman Van Rompuy claims credit for Libyan
operation
In a surprising
declaration yesterday, EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy said:
“From the beginning of the crisis, the European Union was at the
forefront: the first to impose tough sanctions; the first to impose
a travel ban on leading figures in the regime; the first to freeze
Libyan assets; the first to recognise the Interim Transitional
National Council as a valid interlocutor…Without European
leadership there would have been massacres…We acted in time and
without Europe nothing would have been done at the global level or
at the UN level.”
Meanwhile, speaking in the European Parliament, UKIP leader
Nigel Farage noted that “hardman” Van Rompuy had “made it clear”
that the aim of the Lybian [sic] military intervention was “regime
change”, or the removal of Gaddafi, while EU Foreign Minister
Baroness Catherine Ashton, he said, had “contradicted” this point
in later statements. “Here we have two big EU chiefs who, when it
comes to the policy on Libya and Gaddafi, are in direct
contradiction with each other,” he argued.
The Parliament Magazine EUobserver
FT