Van Rompuy takes EU presidency


By George Parker and Tony Barber in Brussels
Financial Times
November 20 2009 00:16


European Union leaders on Thursday night awarded two of its top jobs to politicians relatively unknown on the international stage, after almost a decade of wrangling over how to project Europe’s global presence.

At a Brussels summit the EU picked consensus builders rather than star names, choosing Herman Van Rompuy, Belgium’s centre-right prime minister, over Tony Blair as the EU’s first full-time president.

Britain secured the position of foreign policy supremo for Lady Ashton, the EU trade commissioner, who has never held publicly elected office and has only been in her post for a year.

Gordon Brown admitted disappointment that Mr Blair had failed, but claimed Lady Ashton would give Britain “a powerful voiceâ€