You might have noticed that nobody asked you to express your view on who should be the first President of the EU. if you were looking for evidence of a democratic gap in the Union, your request has been met.
The party royalities decided on our behalf (or despite our will) and picked Herman van Rompuy and Baroness Ashton from Belgium and the UK respectively. Are you happy with this postmodern Ancien regime which takes all the decisions for our political future while you spend your time on holiday?
I’ve just read in Euractiv.org someone took the liberty to run a poll: ‘Bulgarian website Mediapool keeps open an online poll, where readers can vote for six candidates for the EU top job: Latvia’s Vaira Vike-Freiberga, the Netherlands’ Jan-Peter Balkenende, Tony Blair, Jean-Claude Juncker and Herman Van Rompuy. On Wednesday afternoon (18 November), the poll gave a clear advantage to Blair with 355 votes or 39%, followed by Jean-Claude Juncker with 207 votes or 23%. Reinfeldt came third with 127 votes or 14%. All other candidates, little known by the audience, are lagging far behind.’
I’m not mad for Tony but he would have made the post a global role lavereging third sector forces as he did when he was in government in the UK. E!Sharp asked me to provide the arguments for civil society to support his candidature. If you are nostalgic you can still read it.
OK let’s make a life resolution: I will get a first President of the European Union elected by citizens. It would be a nice progress to tackle the democratic gap. But for now, forget Old Europe and explore Mumbai.
