EU-DIGEST

EU's first president could earn 270,000 euros a year

The EU's first president could earn 270,000 euros ($427,000) and potential perks include a housing allowance, car and some 22 staff, Belgian media reported on Tuesday. EU ambassadors to Brussels have already started discussing the terms and conditions of the new post, as well as the job description and the proposed role the head of the 27-member organization will have. Suggestions have been made that the post could be purely administrative or the president could act as the organization's fully-fledged envoy. The introduction of the EU president post is part of the Lisbon Treaty, signed late last year, which states the EU president should be elected by European leaders for a term of two and a half years and will represent Europe on the international arena. The Lisbon Treaty is expected to come into effect on January 1, 2009 after ratification by parliaments in all EU member-countries, except Ireland, which is preparing to hold a referendum.

Note EU-Digest: EU Citizens need to be able to elect the President they have, not get someone like Tony Blair shoved into their shoes.

Labels: Elections, EU, EU CONSTITUTION, President

Speculation Grows Over Blair's Ambitions for EU President

Even before the Lisbon Treaty was signed, speculation was rife as to who would be the first European president as proposed in the new document. Now it is signed and sealed, one man heads the list of potential candidates. The role, outlined in the treaty signed by the 27 member states at the end of last year, will replace the current system whereby each country assumes the rotating presidency for six months. The job, a two-and-a-half-year term, will be up for grabs in 2009 if the bloc's 27 member states can keep to their timetable and individually ratify the treaty over the next year. It now appears that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has taken an early lead in the speculative stakes after he jetted into Paris for talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy at a meeting of the right-wing Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party in Paris on Saturday.

Sarkozy has made no secret of his admiration for Blair and was the first and most vocal advocate of his potential presidency. "He is a very remarkable man. He is the most European of Britons ... it would be intelligent to think of him," Sarkozy said last year.

Note EU-Digest: Let us hope the EU will be able to have a universal vote with several candidates on who they want to have as their President and that we do not get a President shoved into our shoes. The whole of the EU needs to make the choice for a President not Mr. Sarkozy.

Labels: EU, Power Politics, President, Sarkozy, Tony Blair

Will French Male Chauvenists Prevail- Presidential candidate Royal makes a play for women voters - Anna Willard

Socialist Segolene Royal played up her female credentials on Thursday in a bid to win over women voters.

"The fight for women in France isn't over," Royal said. "But the time for women has come and I hope the French will have the courage to make this bold choice in the presidential election."

More than 30,000 people, including personalities such as actresses Catherine Deneuve and Agnes Jaoui, have signed an online petition this week to denounce what they said was a misogynist campaign against the Socialist candidate. "Everything they say about her, about her voice, her hair, her ear-rings, her syntax, her blunders, her stubbornness, her sense of compassion or her toughness, is said to de-legitimise her," said the petition at www.1milliondefemmessenervent.org.

Labels: France Elections, President, Segolene Royal