Mr and Mrs Europe

The European Union has chosen the prime minister of Belgium, Herman Van Rompuy, as its first permanent president and Britain’s Catherine Ashton as its first foreign-policy chief. Few people had ever heard of either of them. We look at press comment on their selection.

Uniting Europe

Van Rompuy and Lady Ashton have both been unifying forces in their careers. This is a good thing for Europe, writes The Christian Science Monitor.

... If these two new figures on the European stage can bring their bridge-building skills up to the next level, and help create a more transparent and effective EU, that will go a long way toward increasing its clout and influence at home and abroad. ...

The small and the meek    

Van Rompuy and Lady Ashton are unlikely to have much of an influence on a national or international level, according to The Wall Street Journal.

... The statement Brussels meant to send with Mr. Van Rompuy's and Lady Ashton's appointments was clearly that theirs is a Europe for all, including the small, the meek, and the female. But the real win for Brussels is that neither of these picks is likely to overpower Paris, Berlin, or the European Commission, nor to receive enough attention either in Europe or abroad to cause much upset. ...

Opposite agendas

Neither Lady Ashton nor Van Romney has any special qualities, but they both follow agendas that are opposite to Britain’s, writes The Telegraph.

... [S]he may be a decent and capable individual, but it is hard to imagine Lady Ashton, ...stopping the traffic in St Albans, let alone Washington. Until her appointment as Trade Commissioner she had no background in foreign policy. No wonder she was not the first choice to fill this post... She was not even the second. Or the third. ...

Mr Van Rompuy, coming from a country with an exceedingly fragile concept of national identity, is a convinced federalist: he is a Eurofanatic even by the standards of Brussels. Beneath his modest exterior lurk some utterly crazy ideas, such as the Europe-wide tax on businesses to fund green initiatives that he proposed this week. One has to wonder: what nonsense will he dream up when he is in office? …

… [W]e have the prospect of two little-known politicians taking up offices that move the EU in the direction of federalism – the opposite direction to that favoured by the British electorate, who have been given no say in the matter. ...