**European President and High Representative to be confirmed tonight**

From my friends at politicshome, just confirmed to me ..

Downing street has confirmed to PoliticsHome that Baroness Ashton is expected to be confirmed as EU High Representative by the end of the evening

Belgium Prime Minister, Herman Van Rompuy, for the Presidency (no other candidate has come forward)

Official announcement:

Belgian Prime Minister Herman van Rompuy has been confirmed as the first EU President, and EU Trade Commissioner Baroness Ashton as EU High Representative.

reply to post by infinite


So much for European democracy.

We can criticize the USA for their madcap electoral system and the ridiculous length of their election campaign ... but at least they get to vote ... where were our votes here ?

Never heard of either of them. Ashton has never stood for election for public office in her whole life and now she's the EU High Representative/Foreign Minister ??

It's a total joke, the whole thing.

reply to post by infinite


Do you have a source?

And, by the way, he wouldn't be the first EU president. Many have come and gone. The Lisbon Treaty simply just reworked how the president is chosen and gave him a longer term.

Before the Lisbon Treaty, the EU presidency was an office held by the leader of an EU nation for six months. After six months it would rotate to someone else.

reply to post by Ulala

We can criticize the USA for their madcap electoral system and the ridiculous length of their election campaign ... but at least they get to vote ... where were our votes here

I don't know how the electoral process works in other countries, but here in Germany, the people don't choose the chancellor or the president. All the people do is choose the representatives to the Bundestag. Then the Bundestag chooses the Chancellor. I think that many nations are the same with how similar positions are chosen. The people in the UK don't elect the Prime Minister do they?

It seems to be the same process here. The EU citizens voted for their representatives to the EU parliament. Now, this guy will be nominated tonight and, from my understanding, the EU parliament will have to confirm him. It's an indirect choosing by the European people.

reply to post by octotom


And that's where the democratic deficit comes in.

It'd be like US citizens relying on Congress to choose the President.

Is that really the best scheme they could put in place to elect a President ? Because that's what the office will eventually become, a European Union Head of State.

National governments give away sovereignty and the EU asks for and is granted even more. And before you know it we'll end up with no national governments, with sovereignty transferred entirely to Brussels.

I don't want to live in an EU like that. I want what was promised decades ago and what the people gave their assent to, a Common Market/Economic Community, which promised economic cooperation and occasional integration ... not a federal superstate by the backdoor.

reply to post by Ulala

It'd be like US citizens relying on Congress to choose the President.

Just to be clear, technically, American's don't elect the president, the Electoral College does. It just happens that the electoral college has always, since the people actually started voting for president, has gone with the people's will. They could though, in theory, choose someone else.