Remember His Party Background

Convention backs Blair's plan for EU presidency

TONY BLAIR’s plans for a powerful new full-time president of Europe look set to become reality after the man charged with drafting a European Union constitution backed the project yesterday.
Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, the former French President who chairs the convention on Europe’s future, supported the EU’s biggest member states who argue that the Union needs a president if it is to punch its weight on the international stage.

However, well-organised opposition from the EU’s small states, which have joined forces with the ten new entrants from Central and Eastern Europe, means that weeks of horsetrading lie ahead.

The smaller countries want to stick with the system under which each member state has six months as EU president.

But M Giscard made his views clear after protracted talks with leaders gathered in Athens to sign the treaty ushering in the ten new members. Asked how many countries opposed the idea of a president, he said: “When you assess these positions, one thing to take into account is the number of states. But we also have to take into account their populations, because we operate in a democratic way here. And the majority of the population is in favour of a somewhat more stable president.”

He also noted that two smaller states, Denmark and Sweden, had just swung behind the idea, which originated in London but was first publicly proposed by President Chirac of France. A new president would be elected by heads of government of EU members and would hold office for five years. The creation of such a post would help to settle the decades-old question posed by Henry Kissinger of whom to call in Europe in an emergency. It could also help to prevent a repetition of the bitter arguments that erupted over Iraq, which overshadowed proceedings yesterday.

Mr Blair has been linked to the new post, which, conveniently, is likely to come into being in 2006, a year or so after the next general election. Fogh Rasmussen, the Danish Prime Minister, and José María Aznar, the Spanish Prime Minister, have also been suggested as prospective candidates.

Via Drudge.

I am grateful that Mr. Blair has stuck with the US for so long and so steadfastly. His behavior has been extremely heartening to me. But we can't forget that he is from the UK Labour Party, which prominently displays this:

The Labour Party is a democratic socialist party. It believes that by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone, so as to create for each of us the means to realise our true potential and for all of us a community in which power, wealth and opportunity are in the hands of the many, not the few. Where the rights we enjoy reflect the duties we owe. And where we live together, freely, in a spirit of solidarity, tolerance and respect.

In a sense, Blair and his core constituency are the political inverses of Bush and his constituency. It's remarkable they've gotten along so well. But, as the Samizdatistas know and so often point out, Blair is no friend of capitalism and true individual rights.

Kinda like Bush...

Posted by Drizzten at April 17, 2003 12:22 AM