Blair ‘will not become EU president’

Translated from Dutch NOS TV:

Blair can forget about European Union presidency

29-10-09

By Joris van Poppel, Brussels correspondent

British ex prime minister Tony Blair does not have a chance any more to become the first president of the EU. That job will go to a Christian democrat. At the EU summit in Brussels, it turned out that there hardly was any support for the social democrat Blair‘s candidacy.

Criticism

Many other social democrats criticized Blair’s candidacy. According to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of Luxembourg, Jean Asselborn, Blair is a man “from the age of Bush. And we should not go back to that age.”

Blair, jointly with Bush, was the main architect of the Iraq war. This afternoon, the chancellor of Austria, [Werner] Faymann, said openly that because of that he thought Blair was not a good candidate for the job.

In order to become president, a candidate needs the support of all 27 EU countries. Blair is the only officially proposed candidate.

See also here.

Related articles

• David Cameron urged to break logjam as Gibson and Chilcot reports delayed (theguardian.com)
• If I ruled the world – Tony Blair’s lessons in how best to govern (independent.co.uk)
• Former Durham police officer who protected Tony Blair facing £61,000 swindle (thejournal.co.uk)
• Kazakhstan: Blair Criticized For Cozying Up To Astana (eurasiareview.com)
• Tony Blair’s Kazakhstan role has failed to improve human rights, activists say (theguardian.com)
• Tessa Jowell to stand down as MP (bbc.co.uk)