The First Council President

Several of the EU nation states who will finally and almost completely lose their sovereign independence and certainly their democracies under the ratified Lisbon Treaty, will have arrived at that point because of the naked ambition of their present leaders to become the first President, or even more amazingly, as hinted by Bernie Ahern, merely the EU's first High Representative for Foreign Affairs. Britain is not quite in that category as Tony Blair has already resigned. The obvious fact that he still aims to collect his thirty pieces of silver in the form of the Council Presidency is referenced again by the FT today, linked here. Denmark's Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who dined with President Sarkozy this week, at least has the sense to realise that it is unlikely a less than fully participating national is unlikely to be considered, is now planning to run a referendum on the remaining Danish opt outs before the year ends, according to an interview in Le Figaro, linked here. Also in French, Les Echos reports that the appointments will be matters for the French Presidency: "c'est aussi au second semestre que devraient être désignés le président de l'UE et le haut-représentant pour la politique étrangère, les deux nouvelles fonctions prévues par le traité de Lisbonne." Can you imagine Blair's face when the first President is announced by Sarkozy as .....,( still most probably in my opinion Edmond Stoiber, or possibly his fellow countryman, the present President of the corrupt European Parliament, Hans Gert Pottering!) Will a Frenchman ever latterly get a turn? I doubt I will live long enough to know!