The EU heads of government reached an agreement at their special summit in Brussels (19/11/2009). The Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy will be the first permanent EU Council President, and the British Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton the new “EU Foreign Minister”. However both politicians are widely regarded as compromise candidates.

Rzeczpospolita – Poland

The decision to appoint Herman Van Rompuy and Catherine Ashton as Europe’s new leaders is a bad one, and Poland is among the losers here, the conservative daily Rzeczpospolita writes:

“The Franco-German tandem and the women’s lobby in the Union have won the day. And the British, too, can be satisfied. Meanwhile among others Poland, which had striven to make the process of enthroning the ‘president’ of Europe more democratic, comes out losing. The triumph of Herman Van Rompuy was foreseeable, but the choice of Baroness Ashton, who has never even been deputy foreign secretary, comes as a surprise. Unfortunately neither of the two nominations bode well for Europe. The advocates of the Lisbon Treaty were convinced that it would endow the Union with a strong leader.

… [But] the man who has become president of Europe is one who has no sway in the international arena and the foreign minister is a woman who … has no experience whatsoever in the field of diplomacy.” (20/11/2009)

Lidové noviny – Czech Republic

There is ‘a large amount of political calculation’ behind the selection of the permanent EU Council President and the High Representative for Foreign and Security Affairs, writes the conservative daily Lidové Noviny:

“Should an eminent figure like [British ex prime minister] Tony Blair who the whole world knows be chosen? Or would a lesser known but hard-working and compromise-friendly man like Belgian Prime Minister [Herman] Van Rompuy be a better choice? For the three major powers in the EU, the UK, France and Germany, the latter option was preferable, and they know why. Right now the EU Commissioners are also being chosen, and there are still a number of key posts up for grabs there.

… They want to position their people in posts that may have a smaller area of responsibility but also have a larger sphere of influence.” (20/11/2009)

Aftonbladet – Sweden

The daily Aftonbladet says that by electing Herman Van Rompuy the EU has missed an historic opportunity, but that putting a woman in charge of foreign policy is at least a step in the right direction:

“Europe has preferred to go on talking with itself rather than with the rest of the world. … The choice of Catherine Ashton, the British Labour EU commissioner, as foreign minister is problematic partly for the same reasons.

… But one should not underestimate the force of having a woman in a very high position in the EU. The dominance of men is a huge democratic problem. Twenty-six of the twenty-seven heads of government are men. As the French EU correspondent Jean Quatremer has commented, ‘it looks very much like a Christian-Democratic version of a Saudi government’.” (20/11/2009)

De Standaard – Belgium

The new EU president should not be underestimated, writes the Belgian daily De Standaard:

“The job of the permanent president is to point the way forward in the long process of forming a European identity. The days when the Union could stride onward with seven-league boots … lie far in the past. The enlargement to 27 member states requires a new dynamic, and we must start thinking in terms of generations, rather than years. … Herman Van Rompuy is no superman, but he’s not a wimp either. He’s able to make the best of a hopelessly complex situation, even if it doesn’t amount to much. He can live and make do with the limits that are imposed on him.” (20/11/2009)