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Europe's first president: Prophetic significance?
In January 2009 the United States will inaugurate its 44th president. The selection process has been underway for many months. But few realize that, across the Atlantic, it's quite possible that the European Union (EU) may see its first president also assume office in January of next year, beginning a 2½-year term.
Currently the two primary candidates are former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Jean-Claude Juncker, current prime minister of Luxembourg. The EU process of selection runs roughly parallel with this year's U.S. presidential race, although the methods are vastly different. The much less democratic EU selection will be by a "council of chiefs of state and government created by the Lisbon Treaty" (International Herald Tribune, Jan. 22, 2008).
Europeans who oppose Tony Blair's candidacy point to Britain's ambivalence about its EU role in general. The U.K.'s choice to reject the euro as a national currency doesn't help his cause either. Britain's participation in the Iraq War is yet another important factor. However, in January Mr. Blair delivered a strong pro-Brussels speech in the French language at a Parisian conference in the presence of the new president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy.
Prime Minister Juncker's reputation is "that of a European federalist or super-state advocate" (ibid.). Many in Britain oppose his candidacy. Perhaps a compromise choice will eventually emerge.
The term of office and the powers of this new EU presidential office are definitely limited in scope for the present time. Still, many European observers consider it a groundbreaking move forward for Europe. This is just one more step in the steady EU progression towards greater political union with a European military force firmly in the EU vision. In retrospect, the progress made in the last 50 years has been nothing short of astonishing.
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