Opinion: China has a President Hu, now Europe chooses President Who?

The process of elimination that led to Van Rompuy's appointment represents all that is institutionally wrong with the European Union.

Michael GoldfarbNovember 20, 2009 21:12Updated May 30, 2010 12:14

Belgium's Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy, who was elected European Union President during an EU leaders summit on Thursday, leaves his office after a cabinet meeting in Brussels, Nov. 20, 2009. (Yves Herman/Reuters)

LONDON, U.K. — Two weeks ago, after eight years of politicking, voting — including one do-over to make sure the right result was achieved — the European Union's Treaty of Lisbon was finally ratified.

One of its key provisions was the creation of the post of president. For once the people of Europe were genuinely interested in the doings of their union. Thursday night the EU's first president was named and the EU went back to sleep. The winner is: Herman Van Rompuy, prime minister of Belgium.

Haven't heard of him? Neither have most Europeans. One who has, Marie-Noelle Lienemann, a socialist member of the European Parliament, described Van Rompuy as "tasteless, odorless and colorless."

Well, he is a bit more than that. He is an economist by training with a long career in Belgian public life as a member of the right-wing Christian Democrat Party. A year ago when he became Belgium's prime minister his bifurcated nation was on the verge of splitting apart on ethnic lines and his emollient — or dull — personality is credited with dampening the tension between the Flemish and Walloon populations in the tiny country. Whether that same emollience is what the EU presidency is really all about no one is sure of.

The Lisbon Treaty is vague about what the president is supposed to do, besides chair summits of the EU's 27 member states. But there has to be something else important because the job pays unbelievably well. Van Rompuy's salary will be between 300,000 and 350,000 euros per year. At the current rate of exchange that is up to $100,000 more than U.S. President Barack Obama makes ... and Van Rompuy doesn't have to worry about 3 a.m. calls about nuclear triggers going missing in Pakistan.

Beyond the money, the very vagueness of the job description made it an attractive proposition for a number of former leaders of European countries including British Prime Minister Tony Blair who wanted the job — badly. Blair wanted to shape the presidency in his own image and give the EU a much larger presence on the world stage. Currently the organization's main international function is to provide large sums of money to underwrite diplomatic deals reached by its biggest members: Germany, France and Britain.

The process of elimination which led to Van Rompuy's appointment represents all that is institutionally wrong with the European Union. The EU's democratic deficit has often been noted. President's are usually elected by the public — not this time. The deal giving Van Rompuy the job wasn't cut in the traditional smoke-filled back room. Rather German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicholas Sarkozy — neither of them a smoker (in public anyway) — had dinner on Wednesday night to decide who they would back from the field of possibilities.