My Way News - Belgian-British duo wins race for EU's top jobs
My Way News reports: "After years of effort the European Union named its first full-time president and powerful foreign policy chief on Thursday - but handed the jobs to two little-known compromise figures instead of global heavy hitters. [...] Belgian Premier Herman Van Rompuy (vahn rohm-POY) - a soft-spoken technocrat who shuns the public eye [...] will be the EU's new president. EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton of Britain, recognized by few in her home country and never elected to public office, was named foreign policy chief. [...] The EU president and foreign minister posts were created by an EU reform treaty that takes effect Dec. 1. It is vague on what the EU president is supposed to do, other than encourage more European integration."

Comment: I'm not really surprised at this outcome, Blair's candidacy really was doomed from the start, but it will be interesting to watch how these two positions grow over time. I suspect that the foreign minister position (the one that has a say over spending money) will in time, and over successive office-holders, emerge as the more powerful of the two. I also suspect that this will be the last time one or both of these offices is selected by the Euro elite rather than a popular vote.