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Petition starts against Blair candidacy

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Members of the European parliament have launched a campaign to stop Tony Blair from running for president of the European Union. The post will be created if the EU ratifies the Lisbon Treaty. Anchor Marco Werman finds out more from Washington Post reporter, Anne Applebaum.

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MARCO WERMAN: Germany’s not just a site of our Geo quiz. It’s also an influential member of the European Union. Right now the European Parliament is debating who might head the EU if it finally gets a president. The role would be created once the Lisbon Treaty is approved by all member states. To help us size up the candidates and the office we called Anne Applebaum. She’s a columnist for the Washington Post and Slate. She says lots of folks want the job but it’s not clear what the EU is looking for.

ANNE APPLEBAUM: They’re not looking for somebody [INDISCERNIBLE]. In fact, one of the oddities of it is that it isn’t yet clear what the requirements of the job are and what kind of person they’re looking to find you know. Is the president of the EU supposed to be you know somebody who’s going to just make everybody get along and be a kind of conciliator or is he going to be somebody who you know is going to put forward a very strong view of the world and so on? It’s not clear yet.

WERMAN: And will they be elected by a European-wide vote or will the parliament, the European Parliament, elect them?

APPLEBAUM: Oh I think they’re going to be chosen by the other, by the heads of state.

WERMAN: I see.

APPLEBAUM: Nobody would let you know the European Parliament choose something so important.

WERMAN: Tony Blair’s name keeps coming up. He certainly has personality. Is he the right one for the job? I mean when I think you know sort of brand Europe, I don’t really think Tony Blair. He’s sort of more brand UK.

APPLEBAUM: Yes well that’s going to be one of the objections to him. Another problem that he might have is that by the time this all happens, or anyway very soon after it happens, it’s possible that the conservatives will be in power in England and they’re not going to be very pleased with having the former Labour Prime Minister of many years be the president of Europe. So there are a lot of questions about Tony Blair. But you know you can say that about almost anybody. I mean any French person you chose; any Italian person you chose, you know would be coming out of French or Italian politics and so they are more likely to be … . You know they’re going to somehow represent their country. So therefore it has to be somebody who you know while keeping their whatever skills it was that brought them to power in Italy or France is also somehow able to speak for Europe.

WERMAN: Isn’t there something to be said though for having somebody of a large personality take that position?

APPLEBAUM: There are actually two positions. There’s president of Europe and then there’s a kind of foreign minister of Europe. And at least one of those people has to be somebody with a big personality and has to be somebody with some kind of name recognition in the US or in China or even in Europe so that Europe has a larger voice in the world. I mean Europe is the biggest economy in the world now if you count you know all the members of the European Union alone. Yet it has very, very little voice and very little influence on world policy – whether economic policy or foreign policy. And without somebody who’s a kind of spokesman you know for the group, they’re going to remain without influence. So it’s absolutely crucial.

WERMAN: What would the president of Europe actually do? And would they be more of a figure head or would they actually kind of make policy?

APPLEBAUM: Again it’s not clear yet. The way these things happen in Europe is they evolve over time. And you know what the president of Europe would do is probably you know consult with people. He wouldn’t probably be able to you know make up his own policy and go off on a limb but he’ll have to consult with other people but it seems like whoever it is could very influential just by his title and just by the function. I mean president of Europe sounds good right? I mean you can imagine a summit with the president of the United States and the president of Europe and the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and that would be an important summit.

WERMAN: As you wrote in your piece in Slate, Henry Kissinger is remembered for saying there’s no phone number to call when America wants to talk to Europe. If the EU does get a president and a phone number in the book in the short term does suddenly the EU count?

APPLEBAUM: That is almost literally the idea. I mean the idea is that there be somebody you can call up if you want to talk to Europe. And beyond that the job is almost totally undefined. And that’s you know, it’s either the beauty of it or it’s you know the potential disaster of it. I mean the temptation in Europe is always going to be to choose somebody actually rather weak and unimpressive because then everybody else can run rings around him. That’s happened many times in recent selections of European leaders. So the real test of whether  Europe wants to be, you know wants to have a louder voice, and wants to you know have a greater role in international politics, is going to be if they can choose somebody who isn’t somebody who has views of his own is able to create coalitions and is able to make arguments. You know then it would be an important change.

WERMAN: Anne Applebaum, columnist for the Washington Post and for Slate. Her most recent book is Gulag: A History. Thank you very much indeed.

APPLEBAUM: Thank you.

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