EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU member states have begun preliminary talks on some of the most political aspects of the bloc's new treaty - the office set-up for the proposed new full-time president, the shape of the diplomatic service and the power-sharing arrangement for the regular ministerial meetings in Brussels. With the European Commission due to present the first draft of the 2009 budget later this month, EU ambassadors last week discussed a possible salary, number of staff and perks for the EU president - a job created by the new treaty which is supposed to come into force on 1 January next year. Characterising the talks as "very abstract and very general", an EU diplomat said that there appeared to be general agreement that that the president of the council - whose job description has yet to be defined - will get the same sort of treatment as the president of the European Commission. This would mean a salary of around €270,000, a chauffeured car, a housing allowance and a personal staff of around 20. What the EU president will actually do remains unclear.
what's really relevant is what kind of staff, and what kind of diplomatic rank (protocol office, media office, EC staff or personal selection, etc...) he gets, because that will in turn drive what kind of attention the job can garner, and what kind of influence it will have. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
He won't want the EU job unless it comes with a shiny tiara and - more importantly - the chance to make even more money.
The downside is that if he gets the job, the UK Eurosceptics will feel vindicated in their EU loathing.
And that might not even be unfair, considering.
