Appointment of Van Rompuy as Euro President – what this means for the Tories

Richard Hendron (22/11/09)

Senior Tories have received the appointment of the relatively unknown Herman Van Rompuy as the first European president and Lady Ashton as first European foreign secretary with surprise and some disdain.

The experience of the appointees has been brought into question, understandably so. Mr Van Rompuy has only been prime Minster of Belgium for under a year and is little known outside his country. Lady Ashton is even more of an unknown. A former charity worker, she was appointed to the House of Lords in 1999 by Tony Blair and last year replaced Lord Mandelson as EU Trade Commissioner. Her appointment was, it would appear as much as a surprise to her as it was to everyone else. On her appointment she conceded that it was “perhaps a measure of my slight surprise that I do not have a speech written”. Daniel Hannon MEP, describes her as a quangocrat, who has never been elected to any role and who has failed to achieve anything since being EU Trade Commissioner.

Timothy Kirkhope, the European Conservative leader voiced his disapproval in the daily express with the appointment of Mr Van Rompuy, stating that “Belgian politicians seem to love taxes even more than chocolate, beer and frites”, while the honourable Phillip Davies MP, expressed outrage in being governed by a Belgium autocrat, and questions if the Labour government thinks this is all the UK is worth.  However a more balanced and considered view came from William Hague. While pointing out that the Conservatives were against the Lisbon treaty, he congratulated the appointees on there appointments while acknowledging that Lisbon is now a matter of fact, accepted the need for the next government to work with them, to ensure continued growth. Hague expressed approval of the appointment of Mr Van Rompuy stating that he is pleased that we will have a chairman and not a chief, making reference to Tony Blair’s bid for the presidency.

The Conservatives were opposed to the potential Blair presidency so surely they should now be breathing a sigh of relief? Due to Mr Van Rompuy’s lack of political weight it is inevitable that he will take on more of a chairman’s role and is unlikely to overshadow, or end up in political war with a potential next conservative government, which was a likely outcome of a Blair Presidency.

By the time the elections arrive next year, Mr Van Rompuy will have been in post for potentially up to six months, the hysteria of the new EU President would have faded and attention again will be back on domestic issues. Mr Van Rompuy is not the flamboyant type that may overshadow the next Tory government. He also lacks the weight to assert any real political influence over Europe, which should please the Tories due to their euro sceptic nature. The approach taken by Hague should be embraced by those dissenting Tories as Lisbon is now a reality and next month Mr Van Rompuy will be appointed first European President. The Tory euro sceptics should take heed and perhaps celebrate with the proverbial Belgian chocolate, frites and beer, that the conservative European leader, Mr Kirkhope seems so fond of.

The biggest problem for the Conservatives in Europe

Jenny Riddell (7/11/09)

I don’t often like Iain Dale, but his interview in this month’s Total Politics with Michal Kaminski, the Polish MEP and head of the Conservative and Reformist group in the EU, was quite frankly -fantastic.

He clearly has little time for this man, and neither do I.  To be honest,  much of my dislike for Mr Kaminski rest on his appearance: he looks more like a worm than a politician. I wouldn’t have trusted him with a vote because of his face alone, forget his politics. Sadly, many of the active voters in Poland disagree….[Continue Reading}

Mr Kaminski gained notoriety in Britain as being anti-Semitic.  He had claimed that it was wrong for the Polish PM to apologise on behalf of the Polish nation for the Jedwabne massacre in 1941.  Although I’m (nearly) sure he isn’t as anti-Semitic as much of the British media  have made out, he still holds some very questionable  views. Not least that he idolizes Margret Thatcher and General Pinochet. Ok, to be fair, he has since admitted that idolizing the later was a big (political) mistake on his part, but still.

Not that his view on homosexuality not make me feel any better. He famously  used the offensive polish word “peda” (which doesn’t translate into English), but he now assures us that we now “know more about homosexuals”  and because they felt offended “I said I would never repeat such words”

This alone inspires images of Mr Kaminski going undercover -David  Attenborough style-  into the  world of the ‘homosexual ’ .  Sadly, it probably wasn’t so much of a soul hunt,  I’d hedge a bet that he was  briefed by an advisor  that further usage of the  term ‘pedal’ would ruin his career.

But, nonetheless, he remains opposed to civil partnerships in Poland because “it is a different society”. Oh dear. Throughout the world there are so many more (some arguably more disgraceful) human acts that we could legitimise, and turn a blind eye to by using this line.  Perhaps naively, my idea of a politician is they dedicate their life to improving society. Not so for Mr Kaminski, he lives in hope that no bill for civil partnership would ever come before European Parliament, and you can forget about gay  couples adopting.  Yet, most surprising of all, he doesn’t see his views as being homophobic. Not that I’m surprised, he doesn’t seem one to admit his flaws.

Please, Mr Kaminski, don’t cross the channel

Milliband 0 – 2 Hague

Siobhan Gabriella Gibney (05/11/09)

Foreign Secretary Miliband has been dealt two harsh and public blows by Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague this week.

The first involves Blair’s candidacy for European Council President. Although he has yet to publicly confirm that he wants the job (likely just to save himself from potential humiliation), Miliband and even former rival Gordon Brown have strongly supported his candidacy this past week. As I wrote in my previous post, Miliband insisted Blair has the global recognition necessary to do a good job for Britain and for Europe. It seems that EU member state leaders have decided otherwise. Meeting yesterday in a European Council Summit in Brussels, Sarkozy and Merkel informed other leaders that they would no longer be pushing for Blair. Berlusconi appears to be his strongest backer at the moment. As it’s a bit hard to take anyone seriously if they come recommended by Berlusconi, Blair’s chances have drastically diminished.

Apparently, Hague is largely to blame for the sudden disinterest in Blair. He’s likely to be the UK’s next Foreign Secretary, with Conservatives showing a strong lead in the polls ahead of next year’s election. Armed with confidence of a victory, Hague has spent the last few days making it very clear to European ambassadors in London that Blair’s appointment to the Presidency would be interpreted as a hostile act in Britain. He assured the ambassadors that relations between a Conservative government and the EU would worsen if Blair was President. This paints a frightening image, as relations between a Conservative government and the EU are likely to be strained at best. He must have made quite a strong impression on the ambassadors, who likely quickly relayed the message back to their home countries. Miliband 0 – Hague 1.

Miliband’s second blow came after he criticized the Conservative party for their membership in the European Conservatives group at the EP. Specifically, he accused the party chairman, Polish MEP Michal Kaminski of having an anti-semitic, neo-Nazi past, quoting Poland’s chief rabbi Michael Schudrich. Hague then had the pleasure of joining Schudrich in calling for an apology. It seems Miliband misquoted Schudrich, and while the chief rabbi does not see eye to eye with Kaminski, he is also not comfortable with his name being misused in a battle of words between Labour and the Tories. Fair enough. In an interview that appeared on the Today programme this morning, Schudrich said that while Kaminiski is ‘a complicated person’ who was previously a member of the National Revival of Poland organization (which is anti-semitic and neo-Nazi), Kaminski today is against anti-Semitism. So Miliband wasn’t far off. But as a top ranking politician he should know better than to misquote religious leaders (or anyone really) over such sensitive issues. It’s unfair to the person whose words are being construed, and it gives his political opponents yet another point on which to attack him. Miliband 0 – Hague 2.

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Finally its Over.

Patrick Hogan (05/11/09)

With the Czech constitutional court casting aside Vaclav Klaus’s last-ditch challenge to the Lisbon Treaty Europe can now move beyond the tiresome navel-gazing that characterized these two years since the first Irish ‘No’ vote and finally set about implementing the treaty’s much-needed reforms.

David Cameron insisted that he would not let matters rest after the second Irish ‘Yes’ vote though the writing was on the wall.  In practice not letting matters rest appears to have meant reneging on his formerly ‘cast-iron’ guarantee of a Lisbon referendum and instead laughably guaranteeing referendums on any future treaties.

In any case the Tories have given no indication that their Euroskepticism will abate any time soon and voters must now ponder what consequences a Conservative government would have for transchannel, and with it transatlantic, relations.

It is no secret that London is wary of Europe and instead prefers to embrace its ‘special relationship’ with Washington.  The problem now, contrary to recent public pronouncements, is that the relationship appears to be fraying.  Yes, Britain stands tall with the US on Afghanistan and a host of other issues.  But the quality of the relationship is deeply affected by Britain’s weak, relatively speaking, standing in the world.  From China to Russia to Iran to climate change and financial regulation, the UK is just another voice in the cacophonous choir of major powers.

It is only due to the incoherence of the EU that keeps America from working with the bloc more closely.  With Lisbon, warts and all, the Union actually has a shot at achieving serious geopolitical clout and offers the US a tantalizing partner on a range of issues.  Europe may yet find itself on President Obama’s speed dial, a realization of the Kissingerian dream.

But who will pick up the phone? Britain?  Well, if Cameron and Co come to power and remain steadfast in their commitment to intransigence and foot-dragging in Brussels it could find itself adrift, searching for its voice but increasingly strategically irrelevant, a point already being made by the French Europe minister. The English Channel would no longer be a quaint metaphor for British independence from mainland Europe but instead a symbol of the yawning chasm separating the two in importance.

With indications that Obama is not exactly having fits of excitement at the prospect of working with a Tory government, one can expect the fatigue under which the Anglo-American relationship currently strains only to increase with Cameron in Number 10.  Obama’s realism will direct him to partner with the strongest entity in order to advance America’s national interests abroad. Should a European partner be required, this partner will be the EU.

The smartest move for Cameron would be to keep the Euroskeptic wing of the Conservatives at bay in order to embrace, inasmuch as a Briton can embrace the European project, and integrate into the EU to give the US a strong ally within the group and set about rejuvenating the special relationship.  Reject the EU, as the Tories seem intent on doing, and risk cutting the UK off from America as well as Europe. Of course failing to embrace Euroskepticism risks pushing crucial votes to UKIP and the BNP and all of a sudden that majority the Conservatives will likely enjoy come next year looks a lot less secure.

Let’s just hope Cameron does the smart thing and keeps the nose firmly attached to the face.