Van Rompuy Fails to Impress

The talk given by Van Rompuy at Chatham House at lunchtime was exactly as expected. A series of bland statements in order not to frighten the horses (he was in England after all) but reading between the lines the message that was being pumped out was the inevitability of a United States of Europe for the benefit of all europeans since, you know, we are all the same and have the same experiences, history and so on that makes us all a part of a homogeneous whole. Statements about how Europe now attends G8 meetings and how countries were using the EU embassies instead of their own and consulted with Brussels before setting out their own foreign policy were all made to emphasise that we are one continent. No irony here but doesn't the continent begin at Calais and where exactly does it end? In typical politician manner he failed properly to answer any question he was asked which luckily for him and boring for the rest of us were all asked from a sympathetically pro-european stance. No one got a chance to ask a question about the euro or why the EU needs a foreign office or why the budget is increasing or anything remotely controversial and the event was brought to an abrupt halt before those who had been told they would also be allowed to ask questions were able to do so. There was one question he was asked though which was of more interest than the rest and which was whether he thought he should be elected by popular vote rather than being appointed. He thought that if he had to win an election it would change the role of the President of the European Council since anyone standing for election would have to have an agenda whereas his role is that of a negotiator to try and help the European Council comprised of the various member heads of government reach a satisfactory compromise on those issues put before them. It was interesting to note on leaving Chatham House that Van Rompuy had a full blown motorcade with police motorbike outriders waiting to whisk him off to his next meeting. I would have thought that no one would have recognised this great personage and that if he merited any security at all it would have been a couple of Community Support Officers on bicycles. A truly disappointing event.