LUXEMBOURG — London officially launched its campaign to see former premier Tony Blair installed as European Union president, as EU foreign ministers gathered in Luxembourg on Monday.
After a weekend media fightback amid growing continental opposition to the former prime minister taking the reins, ministers were to discuss the kind of leadership they want for Europe in the world.
While Czech President Vaclav Klaus has still to sign the Lisbon Treaty that creates the post of full-time EU president, Foreign Secretary David Miliband told journalists that the bloc needs "a strong voice."
Miliband, who ruled himself out as a candidate for a second new post of foreign policy supremo, said if Europe "doesn't get its act together," the rest of the world will "conclude that the EU is not ready" to play a global role.
He warned that a G2 of China and the United States would emerge to run world affairs over coming years if the EU -- the world's biggest economic entity -- does not appoint someone of global stature.
Miliband argued that the pre-Lisbon system of six-month rotating presidencies, currently held by Sweden and due to pass to Spain at the turn of the year, has been the "enemy of foreign policy" vis-a-vis these powers.
"It would be very odd if Europe shirked from the need for strong leadership at this time," he said, stressing that similarly big names could well emerge from other countries five years hence.
He said the appointment is "pivotal" to the EU's future course, and underlined: "Europe's leaders have to think whether they want a strong voice... it's not about big countries versus small countries.
"If Blair is a candidate, he will be a good choice. He is a persuasive advocate, a genuine European and a real coalition-builder."
Fighting a rearguard action domestically, where the opposition conservatives are tipped to emerge as the largest party in elections anticipated in the spring of 2010, he said it was a "joke" to think that Britain could be powerful in the world without Europe.
But in response to objections raised principally by Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, who say the job should only go to a country that uses the euro single currency and is in the border-free Schengen zone, he said the appointment must not be made like a "Eurovision song contest awarding of marks."
"Let's not cut our noses off to spite our faces," he said. "You appoint people on merit, on the basis of what they can do."
Copyright © 2012 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
