Watch carefully who pushes his candidacy - it will be those who back the English vision of the EU - a larger customs union than the outdated one they already have with Scotland, Wales and those parts of Ulster they still occupy.

I'm sure we'll see some of the usual suspects, but I suspect we will also learn from the silence of those who choose to keep quiet.

Nice to see that this prospect apppears to be largely rejected by the entire political spectrum in France, with the exception of our emperor-ado.

Let's Go Red Wings!

However just for the hell of it I will take the contrarian view.  A leader of his stature is just what the EU needs to be taken seriously by the world and by its own citizens.  Sure he would be controversial.  Good.  Lets have the rows.  At the end of the day he would be subject to the decisions of the council.

Are we seriously saying Jean-Claude Juncker is the best alternative?  Bertie Ahern would be better!  And you can have him.  Ireland is finished with him...

notes from no w here

And why would they want someone who flunked the UK economy - do they want the same thing to happen to the EU?

the reason why he is "fit" for the presidency are precisely the reasons you state why he should not be fit to the prsidency. That's how europe works int he mind of some of our oligarchies..sigghhh

A pleasure

I therefore claim to show, not how men think in myths, but how myths operate in men's minds without their being aware of the fact. Levi-Strauss, Claude

He is an (alleged) social democrat, who despises the poor and the powerless and adulates the rich and powerful.

He is an (alleged) pro-European, who never had the courage to take on the euro-sceptics.

He is an (alleged) person who wishes to do good in the world, but who sets far too low a bar for the use of military force.

He is an (alleged) reformer, who frittered away his time and energy on managerialist re-arrangements of health and education. I guarantee that the Blair "reforms" will be minor footnotes in specialist histories (if that) in a generation.

He is an (alleged) master politician, who specialised in issuing fatuous ideas for the sake of an ephemeral triumph in the next news cycle. Mostly these ideas disappeared without trace, until it was time to re-announce them as a great new initiative and repeat the news management process. Unfortunately some version of some of his daft ideas actually became public policy and were implemented.

He is an (alleged) champion of freedom but, because he lacked any sense of the importance of history and his ideas were instinctively authoritarian, he was an objective enemy of liberty.

I am sorry that I have been so moderate in my criticism of this truly awful politician.

However it does not matter. Gordon Brown can be relied upon to sabotage any attempt by Blair to get back into politics.

It is not realistic to think that the world will believe in someone from Luxembourg at this level

I don't understand your point. Plus, as far as I can tell, Junker would make a most honorable head for the EU.

That Sarkozy even thinks of pushing a war criminal candidacy to the EU presidency tells a lot about the man. Two sinister characters.

I have a perverse hope that this consideration will ultimately save us...

There's no such thing as original sin - Elvis Costello

Under the Reform Treaty there will be a permanent President of the European Council to replace the rotating six-month presidency we had so far.

However, there will still be a President of the European Commission. The European Commission will retain legislative initiative and be the executive branch (and civil service) of the EU.

In addition, there will be a High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, to replace both Solana's current position (associated with the Council) and the Commissioner for External Relations.

And then there will be the President of the European Parliament.

The "EU President" won't get to "run the EU". The President of the Commission will still get to do that. They won't represent the Eu internationally, the HRCFSP will do that.

I'm sick of the media frame that says that everything happens in the European Council. It only benefits the member states and people like Sarkozy and Blair, to the detriment of the Union.

We have met the enemy, and he is us — Pogo

President Sarkozy's centre-right wing party

There is nothing centre to UMP. It used to be a rightist party, and now is a far right party.

"The womb that spawned that thing is fertile yet"

An individual who has graduated from Mexican cosmic mud baths to Catholicism will never have my approval. He's simply substituted one lap for another, red silk instead of cordoroy.

I say, on every single account, a big big NO!

I admire Frank's boldness to play contrarian, but what do you and he mean by Bliar's stature? That some Very Important Men think he is a Very Important Man? That just cuts to the core of Bliar's shallow mind, something that alone would make him unfit for any leadership post.

I should add that this 'stature' of Bliar in large owes to the fact that politicians in the rest of Europe don't think about the British political system, and are impressed by repeated wins with large parliamentary majorities -- that just wouldn't happen in their own systems. (Schröder lost in 2005 with barely less votes than Bliar won the same year...)

And what about the opinion of EUropeans (not to mention non-EUropeans!...) other than Very Important People?

FT.com / In depth - EU citizens want referendum on treaty

Tony Blair, the British prime minister, is also regarded by many Europeans as the wrong person to be EU president, if the job were created. Italy (27 per cent) was most supportive of Mr Blair as a possible candidate but only 16 per cent of French backed him - a disappointment to President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has proposed his candidacy to other European leaders.

I also note that Bliar wants the post himself, it's not like it's pushed on him, and the idea is not new.

Even apart from stature, Bliar would not promote Europe's best interests. He would push the Anglo Disease upon us instead.

Schröder may have sold himself to GAZPROM, but Bliar sold himself to Murdoch, Berlusconi, JP Morgan, dozens of campaign contributors, not to mention all acting US Governments. Which reminds me, the EU should cut itself independent from the US, because an alliance with it in its current state is not only a practical and moral bad decision, but no alliance really: more vassaldom. For Europe to have credibility with the rest of the world, it must act on its own.

Juncker may not be well-known to you, but I at least know him, he plays an important role at EU summits for years, and he is better suited than Bliar in every respect. If you want someone else better known, there is still former German foreign minister Joschka Fischer.

The Euro and Schengen are, on one hand, meant to eventually include all countries, on the other hand, both already involve the wide majority of the EU's population (and the absolute majority of EU member countries). Even most of those still outside weant in (new ex-East-Bloc members who aren't yet it), what's more, we could soon see a second Danish Euro referendum resulting in a Yes vote.

I most vigorously deny that Bliar can build consensus. What Bliar can do is build up a power base, and then run roughshod over opposition, to showe down things people's throats when he has a government bureaucracy and a propaganda war machine at hand. He has no clue how to get something done when he is not in control. That marks his entire history in the EU, trying to build power blocks which then always falter on just as determined opposition. He is NOT a clever strategist, NOT an excellent tactician, and most certainly NOT a political maverick.

Re Iraq, he not only has a disastrous legacy and a bad image, but he is a war criminal who would belong to Hague, not Brussels. Now would that be a way to build European credibility with people in the rest of the world...

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

Anyway, I couldn't put it better. Blair for EU president? Over my dead european body. It's obviously a stupid idea, it's obviously wrong to reinforce such incompetence, and it's obviously retarded.

But then he and his twice-divorced, thrice-married-to be buddy Naboléon are now good catholics. Eh! WTF. Strange times. Sarko times! Dire times.

A 'centrist' is someone who's neither on the left, nor on the left.

/next question

"If you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles." Sun Tzu