Blair out of race for EU presidency

Nov 19 2009

The European Union's 27 leaders have begun lengthy discussions before selecting the bloc's first full-time president and new foreign policy chief.

Ex-UK premier Tony Blair was ruled out as Europe's new president as PM Gordon Brown backed Britain's EU Trade Commissioner Baroness Cathy Ashton for the role of EU "foreign minister".

Belgium's little-known Premier Herman Van Rompuy leads the pack of a half-dozen politicians said to be interested in the presidential post, which is being created under the new EU charter.

Sweden's Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, chair of the EU summit, said despite his best efforts at mediation, the EU leaders remained deadlocked over who will represent the European Union to the world.

Reinfeldt told reporters in Stockholm that "it might take all night" to get all the leaders to agree on two names, and added that the list of candidates he has drafted is far too long. "We are not of the same opinion," said Reinfeldt. "I need of course the collaboration of all my colleagues to get this through."

The new posts must be filled before the EU's new reform treaty comes into force in less than two weeks, on December 1. The two posts aim to bolster the bloc's influence amid the rise of China, Brazil and India and handle global issues like climate change, terrorism and trade.

The leaders are trying to strike the right balance between big countries and small, rich and poor, east and west, socialists and conservatives, male and female. Lawmakers and protesters have already questioned why only one woman - former Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga - is being considered so far.

Vike-Freiberga said that the way leaders dole out key jobs behind closed doors has to change.

"In my country, people found it strange, they said how does this work? Is it true that the prime minister alone is responsible, what about the rest of us, don't we have a say?" asked Vike-Freiberga.