Comments on: EU appointments: visionaries need not apply

By: Michael Berendt

Michael Berendt — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:08:26 +0000

Many thanks for your comments. Let me make two points; First, the job descriptions I suggested were the Council’s, not mine! If the EU had been able to appoint visionaries who also had the political skills and staying power to create the effective institutions we need, then it would have been great news. The greater danger would be to appoint higher profile people who started their job with a bang, lost the confidence of member states and ended with a disillusioned whimper.

Second, we are in a long game. I am more optimistic than you that Van Rompuy and Ashton have the capabilities to build a strong foreign policy for Europe. That seems to me the key objective of the whole exercise.

By: “EU institutions on Twitter « Erkan's Field Diary

“EU institutions on Twitter « Erkan's Field Diary — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:40:11 +0000

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By: Julien Frisch

Julien Frisch — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:21:32 +0000

I look at this from a pro-European citizen’s perspective, and I say you’re rather wrong:

The EU needs visionaries, not because I want them to look brilliant on the international stage but because we need persons who stand for a common European Union and a common European democracy where we all live and work together.

I want to have somebody who does brilliant things I can applaud and somebody who provokes because s/he is pushing for issues I don’t agree with – this is called democracy. What you are looking for is technocracy.

And on another level, there are more good arguments for stronger persons: Member states will only come to more positive, more forward-looking consensus if their politicians think that the consensus in the interest of their people – and for that we need European figures who can explain to citizens and to convince citizens that overcoming the nationalistic thinking of the past is in all our interest.

The decision made now says: Every member state has the right to be egoistic, and we will try to find the lowest common denominator that will always be against the interest of all EU citizens but always in favour of individual member states’ politicians and bureaucrats preferences.