With the Irish referendum out of the way Brussels is consumed with gossip over who will get the new top jobs created by the Lisbon Treaty.

Who still dares to say no to Tony Blair now that the Irish have said yes to the Lisbon Treaty? That is the question many in Brussels and in a number of European capitals are asking these days now that the race for the EU's new top jobs is on. The Lisbon Treaty creates two new posts that need to be filled: that of president of the European Council of Heads of State or Government, a kind of 'EU president', and that of EU foreign minister.

Balkenende?

Former British prime minister Tony Blair has emerged as the favourite, but he has several strikes against him. Dutch prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende's name has come up too, even if he has dismissed as 'nonsense' his ambition for a top job in Europe.

Does Balkenende really stand a chance? "It's not very likely, but I wouldn't rule it out completely," said a diplomat from one country. "He is working hard behind the scenes," said a diplomat from another member state. "His name doesn't really come up, except from Dutch journalists," said a diplomat from yet another nation.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has sided with smaller member states in trying to restrict the role of the proposed president of the European Council, a new post created by the Lisbon Treaty.

Addressing the European Parliament on Wednesday (7 October), Mr Barroso chastised MEPs for referring to the post as "president of Europe."

"I am sorry, there will not be a president of Europe. There will be, if we have Lisbon, the president of the European Council. It is important to understand that point because sometimes I think there are some ideas about certain derives institutionelles [institutional drifts]," he said.

Loosely defined in the treaty itself, talk about the nature of the president's role has become one of the main topics in Brussels in recent days, as national governments deliberate whether the post should go to a well-known personality from a big country or a more discreet politician.

The exact job description will be written by the first person holding the job, with ex British prime minister Tony Blair among the most-mentioned candidates for the post. It is widely agreed that a politician of Mr Blair's standing would take the post far beyond the largely administrative role foreseen in the treaty.

The Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has dismissed the loss of his legal immunity as a politically-motivated farce. Italy's highest court said that a law passed by Berlusconi's government protecting him from legal action violates the constitution. Berlusconi retorted that the ruling was driven by politics:

"We have a minority of leftist `red' judges who use the law in their political struggle," he said. "72 per cent of the media in Italy is left-wing. The cases against me they want to re-open are utterly false. I am going to have to spend some of my working day ridiculing my accusers. But these sort of things give me a buzz, as they do all Italians. Viva Italia, viva Berlusconi!"

The Constitutional Court ruled that the immunity legislation violates the principle that all Italians are equal under the law. The prime minister's lawyers had argued that he should be considered `first above equals' but the judges rejected that.

A defiant Silvio Berlusconi said today that he would govern with "even more grit" after Italy's top court stripped him of his legal immunity.

In a radio interview, the 73-year-old Prime Minister also promised to show that corruption changes against him were "laughable".

Yesterday's decision by the Constitutional Court, which struck out an immunity law pushed through by Mr Berlusconi when he took power in April last year, caps a 15-year legal tussle between the billionaire and the Italian judiciary.

Already beset by sex scandals, Mr Berlusconi now faces a series of trials for fraud, corruption, tax evasion and bribery that will at best destabilise his centre-right coalition and at worse force its collapse.

In April last year Silvio Berlusconi was swept to power for a third term as Prime Minister, capitalising on public disenchantment with the fractious and inept government of his great rival Romano Prodi.

He triumphantly formed a new party, the People of Liberty, a merger of his Forza Italia and the Alleanza Nazionale, a former neo-fascist group led by Gianfranco Fini. Greatness beckoned for the brash, wise-cracking "outsider", a property developer and television mogul who transformed Italy -- its politics, society and culture -- when he formed Forza Italia in 1994. Once his third term was out of the way, he had his sights on the Italian presidency, with a vision of the Right in office "for decades to come".

A year and a half later it has all gone wrong. He will still not resign, his spokesman says, and will complete his five-year term. Outwardly Mr Berlusconi, who turned 73 last month, remains a crowd-pleaser, a showman who maintains that Italians "love me the way I am" or even that "all Italians want to be like me". He is, he boasts, "the best Prime Minister united Italy has had in its 150-year history".

Many Italians still forgive him his perma-tan, hair transplants and platform shoes, even his notorious gaffes, ranging from telling victims of the earthquake in Abruzzo in April to imagine they were "on a camping holiday" to describing President Obama -- twice -- as "tanned".

As he awaited yesterday's crucial ruling Silvio Berlusconi acted as if all was normal. He discussed the Middle East with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, and aides claimed that he was in "excellent spirits". But the situation is anything but normal and the verdict plunges Italy into political turmoil. Several options are open to the Italian Prime Minister -- and to his foes:

He carries on regardless

This will be difficult. A number of cases against him were frozen when he passed the law last year giving himself immunity from prosecution, and prosecutors will undoubtedly revive them.

They include the allegation that he gave David Mills, his former British tax lawyer and the estranged husband of Tessa Jowell, a $600,000 (£376,000) bribe to give false testimony on his behalf in corruption trials in the 1990s. Mills was sentenced to four and a half years in March for the offence. His appeal starts in Milan on Friday and Mills's defence has asked for Mr Berlusconi to appear as a witness. Now the Italian Prime Minister is likely to find himself on trial instead.

Silvio Berlusconi may escape conviction on corruption charges because Italy's slow judicial system is likely to push the charges beyond the statute of limitations.

Judicial experts said the complex legal process meant he could avoid a trial despite being stripped of his immunity from prosecution in a court ruling on Wednesday.

It could be months before he is ordered to appear in court in two reactivated trials.

"We must govern for five years with or without the law,"

Cheney?  W?

I have a t-shirt with that on it. And whatever you do, DON'T BLINK!

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The heads of the EU's three main institutions on Wednesday (7 September) came together to point out to Czech President Vaclav Klaus the "costs" to Europe if he continues to delay ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, the union's new rulebook.

European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso, European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek and Fredrik Reinfeldt, the Swedish Prime Minister and the current chair of the EU, said several pending decisions are awaiting clarification from Prague.

Jose Manuel Barroso (l) and Fredrik Reinfeldt - waiting for clarity

Chief among the issues hanging in the balance is whether the Swedish presidency will be able to press ahead with a planned summit on EU institutional affairs at the end of the month, where the names for the new president of the European Council, the EU foreign minister and commissioner portfolios are to be agreed.

Mr Reinfeldt said it would be "wrong" to start consultations on these posts "without further clarification" from Prague, while Mr Buzek said there should be "clear information about how costly it is [the delay] for other member states."

The Eurosceptic Czech President, Vaclav Klaus, wants a new two-sentence footnote to be added to the EU's Lisbon Treaty before signing it, Sweden says.

The new condition came up during a phone conversation between Mr Klaus and Swedish PM Fredrik Reinfeldt, current holder of the EU presidency.

Mr Reinfeldt said the requested footnote was linked to the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Poland's president is to sign Lisbon in a ceremony on Saturday, officials say.

Jay smooth has a comment he'd like to add;-

keep to the Fen Causeway