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I don't actually mind van Rompuy. If he managed to compose a viable government for Belgium after the last parliamentary election he may be just what the Council needs to get its job done.

En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Nov 19th, 2009 at 04:27:45 PM EST
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I was hoping for D'Alema - not so much because he's Italian as because he's ME-friendly, talks to everyone, successfully finangled that ceasefire resoluton on Lebanon that screwed the US into OKing clauses that assured a NEUTRAL buffer-force between Leb and Israel that gets on fine with the Lebanese (all faiths) instead of what the US wanted i.e. an Israel-proxy goonsquad to kick down doors and plant euro-boots on the Shi'ite population's necks.  So I had hopes that if we got D'Alema - whom Israel formally-objected to 'cause horror of horrors, he actually talks with H*a*m*a*s!! - he might actually succeed in getting Gaza de-blockaded, force through a reasonable just-solution Palestinian state! So booohooo and grrrrr!  Also worried about having a Brit - ANY Brit - in the FP slot because they're major troublemakers re relations with Russia.  Plus he's NOT a neoliberal... and as the Presidency-thingy was going to a northerner it seemed only-fair to give the FP post to a southerner/Mediterranean-critter. If not D'Alema, I'd have been perfectly happy with Moratino... or a Greek. But a Brit??? - regardless of such irrelevancies as the nonentity's gender-if-any, Brits AS SUCH are bad-bad news for the EU and its "neighbourhood".. :-(

"Ignoring moralities is always undesirable, but doing so systematically is really worrisome." Mohammed Khatami
by eternalcityblues (parvati_roma aaaat libero.it) on Thu Nov 19th, 2009 at 08:47:59 PM EST
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