Lavengro in Spain

Madam President

Mrs Vaira Vike-Freiberga was born in Riga (Latvia) on 1st December 1937. Fleeing the Soviet occupation her family left the country in 1945 and took refuge in Germany, then Morocco where she finalised her secondary education. She finally settled in Canada where she achieved a doctorate in psychology in 1965 from the University of McGill, Montreal.

What’s more, she wants to be President of the European Council. Whether or not she should be is a matter on which I have no opinion, but I report that this is an attempt to get a woman in one of the top EU positions. There is a web site supporting her candidature,

Klaus signs

It is widely reported, and therefore widely believed, that Václav Klaus has mounted a last-ditch defence of the Czech nation against a possible claim from the Sudeten Germans. The idea of a new German take-over of Bohemia is absurd. The Czech parliament has approved the treaty; it has been agreed between Germany and the Czech Republic that the issue of the Sudeten Germans has been resolved; and it is not for the constitutional head of a European state to decide for himself which laws he will sign and which he will not. Even in the UK the idea of withholding the royal assent from the Maastricht Treaty (which was far more radical than Lisbon) got precisely nowhere. Had Klaus persisted in his refusal to sign, he would have faced a challenge in the Czech Constitutional Court that he was acting perversely. As it is, there are proposals in Prague to ensure that no future president can place the country in such an embarrassing position ever again.

Klaus has ensured that the expression of his monstrous ego has been reported worldwide. The damage to the country of which he is the physical embodiment has yet to be evaluated.

Klaus signs

Václav Klaus has finally realised that in Europe heads of state do not have executive discretion about which bits of paper they sign and has signed the Lisbon Treaty.

Now we can chuck him out of a window.

Cameron’s stance on Lisbon referendum

Blair is out

I said all along (since 12 March 2008 – sic) that Blair had no chance for President of the Council.

The Guardian and stale news

The Guardian reports today:

Europe leaders incensed by David Cameron's letter

Sarkozy, Merkel and Zapatero criticise Tories for attempt to delay treaty

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Conservative leader David Cameron Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

Leaders of three of the most powerful countries in Europe have strongly criticised David Cameron at the EU summit over Conservative plans to scupper the Lisbon treaty.

Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel and José Luiz Rodríguez Zapatero are understood to have privately criticised the Tory leader after he sent a handwritten letter to the Czech president Vaclav Klaus, who is refusing to sign the treaty. The letter was seen as an attempt to influence the Czech Republic, the only country not to have ratified the treaty.

Well yes, but that letter was sent several weeks ago. The Tories have done nothing in the last few days to influence the ratification by Klaus of the Treaty. Would it not be better for the Guardian to be reporting the latest news, namely that Klaus has said that he will sign and that Sarkozy expects the Treaty of Lisbon to be in force on 1 December, than to keep banging on with stale facts to justify the class struggle in the UK?

Klaus ‘has no further demands’

Having had a positive response to his blackmail, Václav Klaus has announced ‘I will present no further conditions for the ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon.’

Let’s hope the old bastard isn’t lying. I’ll believe it when I see his signature on the paper.

Sarkozy said earlier  this evening (several hours ago, it is now 23.36 CET*) that the treaty of Lisbon would come into effect on 1 December ‘after the agreement reached with the Czech government to lift the last obstacle to ratification.’

The BBC hasn’t noticed this rather important fact. Perhaps it is still stunned by the Foreigners’ unaccountable disinclination to have Tony Blair foisted on them.

*01.21, no change.

Speaking for Britain and the national interest

Gordon Brown says:

"We, Britain, are supporting Tony Blair's candidature," which he said would be in the "British national interest".

A PM can and should speak for his country when presenting it against other equal sovereign nations on the world stage. And when it comes to EU haggling – OK, we know that in shorthand we say that Britain is supporting this or that the Finns won’t stand for that. But in a formal statement on internal EU matters, for the PM to arrogate to himself the right to speak for Britain in expressing support for a man who quite blatantly divides Britain is absurd.

And the reference to the British national interest is unfortunate and arrogant. As Timothy Garton Ash says:

All the major states of Europe today are quite pragmatic and hard-nosed about pursuing their national interests. Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Poland do it through Europe and in Europe's name; Britain is just about to enter another curmudgeonly, self-defeating period of doing it at odds with Europe.

Spain, certainly, is doing everything it can to extend and increase its influence and commercial presence in Latin America – and it sees the resources and presence of the EU as an immense background against which it can act.

Plotting – the latest

El País reports that in the ‘endless labyrinth of speculation’ about the top EU jobs the only sure thing is that Blair is losing ground. The deal that the President is from the EPP and the High Representative will be a Socialist seems to be firm. Among the Socialists the Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann and the Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn have both said that Blair was too closely connected to George W. Bush and the Iraq War. Faymann said that “someone other than Blair is needed for the Presidency of the Union".

Brown is still supporting Blair tooth and nail, describing him as ‘an excellent candidate’ even though he isn't yet a candidate. It is thought that the strategy here might be to support Blair to the hilt so that when he withdraws, as he will have to do, Miliband will get through on the rebound.

All sorts of names are being mentioned – even Bertie Ahern for heaven’s sake! – and anything could happen. I think we can rule Blair out now. What about Miliband? The idea of a Brit running EU foreign policy is not one that will appeal to many Europeans.

Let plotting commence

El País is reporting a growing consensus that the President of the Council will be EPP and the High Representative will be a Socialist (succeeding the Spanish Socialist Javier Solana). Ramón Jáuregui, the European Socialist spokesman for constitutional affairs, is quoted as saying, ‘We are reaching an agreement that Blair is not a representative of the Socialist family.’

The list that the Socialists are working on, according to EP, is Frank-Walter Steinmeier, former German Foreign Minister; David Miliband, British Foreign Minister; Elisabeth Guido, former French minister of Employment and Solidarity ; Alfred Gusenbauer, former Austrian Chancellor and Adrián Severin, former Rumanian Foreign Minister. There is not complete consensus because Brown is still insisting on proposing his new best friend Blair as President.

Meanwhile in Paris, Merkel and Sarkozy are plotting for President. Merkel flew there yesterday immediately after her formal re-election in the Bundestag and cancelling the speech she was due to make there. Of course, they have rather more on their plates than just this matter. Their meeting is attended by José Manuel Durão Barroso and the prime ministers of France, François Fillon; Holland, Jean Peter Balkenende;  Luxembourg, Jean Claude Juncker; Belgium, Herman Van Rompuy; and Sweden, Fredrik Reinfeldt.

According to EP, even with Juncker declared Balkenende is still well placed. It also says that Felipe González is a possibility but has the disadvantage that Barroso is also Iberian. I think he has more disadvantages than that, but well, we will see.

As always, Timothy Garton Ash is worth reading in the Guardian.