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As you might be aware, the EU-leaders have decided who they want for the Lisbon-treaty top jobs. They picked nobodies, unknown and presumably relatively weak, politicians. Herman van Rompuy is the new President, and Baroness Catherine Ashton of Upholland will be the Foreign Policy Chief. The reaction has generally been negative, but the outcome cannot be surprising. After all, national government leaders have had to agree on the selections, and had they picked more flamboyant people — such as Tony Blair — their own standing would have diminished. It seems highly unlikely that Mr Sarkozy, Ms Merkel, Mr Berlusconi and Mr Brown would do that to themselves …

A couple of points could be worth making.

• Clearly, neither Mr van Rompuy nor Ms Ashton would have gotten the positions in a democratic election. On the other hand, democratic legitimacy was never the goal of the Lisbon treaty.
• The couple’s relative weakness is not entirely bad. If, like me, one does not favour the ever stronger centralization of the EU, these two may be a good thing. They will not have enough of political clout to direct policy, and the efficiency gains may well be lost in conflicts with national leaders. Inefficiency is not a bad thing when policy objectives are undesirable.
• If the idea was to make Europe more respected and influential on the international stage, Ms Ashton was probably not the best pick. I have a hard time seeing the United States, China or Russia bending to her will …

EU will continue to be run mainly by a combination of the leaders of the major countries and Brussels bureaucrats. Adding a president and a foreign policy chief into the mix is more likely to add to the internal power struggles than to increase efficiency.

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