Herman Van Rompuy

Herman van Rompuy to visit Latvia as Belgian PM

Ria Novosti (Free subscription) | 2 hours ago

Herman van Rompuy, recently elected the first European Union president, will visit Latvia December 2 as incumbent Belgian prime minister.

Bringing in a Strong Team: Obama vs the EU

fivethirtyeight (Free subscription) | 16 hours ago

When the Lisbon treaty comes into force on December 1st, the European Union will have achieved two of its key goals of the last decade -- improved coherance and a stronger common foreign policy. Among many other things, the Treaty brings major changes to two top posts in the EU, a permanent President of the European Council (rather than 6 month rotating among the heads of states/governments in the...

Dominic Lawson: Europe will always be a foreign land for the British

The Independent (Free subscription) | 7 hours ago

You might have thought that it is only the red-top tabloid press which regards any European with an unfamiliar surname as inherently ridiculous. If so, you would be wrong. Even the more serious BBC political programmes, such as Newsnight, have been cracking juvenile jokes over the identity of the new President of the European Council, Herman van Rompuy. Rumpy-pumpy! Rumplestiltskin! Cue smirks in...

This process is an insult to Europe

The Australian (Free subscription) | 18 hours ago

CHOICES for president and foreign affairs raise questions on how the EU operates. THE appointments of Catherine Ashton representative for foreign affairs and security and that of Herman Van Rompuy as President of the European Council are an insult to European democracy.

Europeans baffled by EU's choice of leaders

Euractive (Free subscription) | 19 hours ago

Public opinion and the European press were widely critical of the appointment of Herman Van Rompuy and Catherine Ashton to the EU's new top positions last week, with Germany in particular feeling it had been tricked into accepting a bad deal. But more cheerful notes could also be heard, according to a round-up by EurActiv's network.

Who is the most powerful politician in Europe?

Bulgarian Elections (Free subscription) | 21 hours ago

It’s a question set to cause bitter disputes at pub table quizzes, given the variety of plausible answers. EU Leaders have chosen Herman Van Rompuy as the first permanent president of the European Council. So will he be the boss in Brussels? Well, the new foreign affairs position – handed to the UK’s Catherine Ashton – could [...]

EU Backs Consensus Over Egos for Top Jobs

All Africa (Free subscription) | 22 hours ago

In a surprisingly quick compromise, European Union leaders have named Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy and Catherine Ashton as EU president and foreign policy chief.

The EU and taxation

Not a sheep (Free subscription) | 22 hours ago

Rumours abound that the quiet, unassuming Herman Van Rompuy, the first permanent president of the European Council, is not the nonentity that the MSM seem to be suggesting he is. Rather he has form as a proponent of EU taxation and it seems that this source of central EU revenue will come via a combination of CO2 taxation an a form of Tobin tax. Thus a trade body reliant on its members for its income...

Europe chooses a low profile

Israel Matzav (Free subscription) | yesterday

The European Union has chosen its leadership for the first time under its new constitution. Belgium’s prime minister, Herman Van Rompuy, was chosen as the bloc’s president and Catherine Ashton, the European commissioner for trade, who is British, was chosen as foreign policy chief. Max Boot points out that the choice of these two relative unknowns shows that the European Union is nothing...

In praise of… the Low Countries

The Guardian (Free subscription) | yesterday

Back in the 90s John Major sought to restore his battered political stock by vetoing the appointment of the Belgian Jean-Luc Dehaene to head up the European commission. Little Englanders cheered, assuming that because Dehaene didn't hail from a "proper country" he would not comprehend national pride. In the end, though, Major's stunt backfired because the Luxembourger Jacques Santer was...

A gross insult to the people of Europe

Times Online - William Rees-Mogg (Free subscription) | yesterday

The appointments of Baroness Ashton of Upholland as European High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and that of Herman Van Rompuy as President of the European Council are an insult to European democracy. These are new posts under the Lisbon treaty. The candidates are not strong. This has been done with no due process, in a completely arbitrary way.

EU latest: a triumph for democracy?

BBC - Radio 4 - The World Tonight (Free subscription) | yesterday

The Euro-chatterati can be divided broadly into two camps, following the choice of Herman van Rompuy and Cathy Ashton as EU council president and foreign policy chief respectively. In the words of a Financial Times leader on Saturday: "Supporters of the European Union are dismayed, just as Eurosceptics are sneeringly exultant." But just for the sake of argument - and simply in the interest...

EU appointments: visionaries need not apply

Bulgarian Elections (Free subscription) | yesterday

We live in the age of media celebrity. So no surprise at the critical and sometimes bitter press reaction to the nomination of Herman Van Rompuy and Catherine Ashton, virtually unknown beyond their own parishes, as Council President and High Representative respectively. As someone said, it was like a TV talent show where the choice [...]

• EU appointments: visionaries need not apply - Michael Berendt’s blog

Ashton plunges into daunting agenda

Financial Times (Free subscription) | yesterday

Unlike Herman Van Rompuy, whose 2½-year term as president of the European Council starts only in January, Lady Ashton will take over half of her new job as soon as the Lisbon reform treaty enters into force on December 1

Euro taxes

EU Referendum (Free subscription) | yesterday

One of the restrictions against which the "colleagues" in Brussels chafe is the need always to go cap-in-hand to the member states for their funding. As long as the purse-strings are held in this way, the member states at least have some control over the wilder ambitions of the project. It comes as no surprise, therefore, to see pieces in The Sunday Telegraph today which point to EU plans...