FT.com / Columnists / Wolfgang Munchau - Blair and Barroso: Europe's team from hell
...Mr Blair is not the kind of politician who can act as a counterbalance to Mr Barroso, who has been unable to fill the EU's leadership vacuum. Mr Blair, for all his political qualities and purportedly pro-European views, has never been a comfortable operator on the EU stage. The European Council, the grouping of 27 heads of state and government, is a hugely complex political construction... Nor is he a man who could be relied upon to provide leadership during a European crisis...I wonder what Mr Blair would have done had he been in charge last autumn, when the global financial crisis erupted? ...Would Mr Blair have really stood up against the eruption of nationalism or would he have accentuated the divisions?Mr Blair's undisputed communication skills and his political star qualities are no doubt an asset, but the EU's leadership problem is not primarily one of communication or perception.
Nor is he a man who could be relied upon to provide leadership during a European crisis...I wonder what Mr Blair would have done had he been in charge last autumn, when the global financial crisis erupted? ...Would Mr Blair have really stood up against the eruption of nationalism or would he have accentuated the divisions?
Mr Blair's undisputed communication skills and his political star qualities are no doubt an asset, but the EU's leadership problem is not primarily one of communication or perception.
.I wonder what Mr Blair would have done had he been in charge last autumn, when the global financial crisis erupted? ...Would Mr Blair have really stood up against the eruption of nationalism or would he have accentuated the divisions...
Begging a discussion of Münchau's "eruption of nationalism," and regardless of Bliar's inability to mediate with leaders who don't trust him...
wouldn't he have been most interested in serving his masters? Finance has already too much influence in the political sphere, do we need the Council's head to be a lackey as well? "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin
the EU's leadership problem is not primarily one of communication or perception.
