The President Precedent

So now that the Lisbon Treaty is effectively a closed deal, the EU will have President of Europe. Whilst Mr Eagle Eye can flap his feathers and peck about manically about how such a person will not have a democratic mandate, this is not a matter that can be contested now (thanks Ireland! A recession is no excuse to allow yourselves to be bullied!), so let me cast my wisdom onto the matter.

The first President of Europe will set the course of things to come for their successors. If the first President is seen as a capable and strong leader by the eyes of China, the United States et al (note the absence of European opinion, for this President is after all, unelected), Europe may be taken seriously on the international stage and punch in it's weight class for the first time since the Second World War. On the other hand, a weak President will continue to make Europe look like even more of an underachieving joke, gasping for breath whilst emerging economies balloon, and the damage may take several Presidents to recover, if at all. There is a man, whom William Hague has warned us of!



And I, Mr Eagle Eye, am in a conundrum! Europe does not have a good selection of heavyweights to choose from to represent this bickering continent. Tony Blair comes to mind, and who else? As much as Mr Eagle Eye despises Blair for his corpulent government that he delivered unto us, he is viewed with some degree of standing in the eyes of those he has not governed, particularly America. Also, for the Presidential role to carry genuine weight, centralization of power and political maneuvering will have to take place, and few are better at that than Blair. Whilst there may be other Europeans whose name is in the Presidential hat, Mr Eagle Eye cannot name them without having to look them up. China will not seriously sit down with talks with President, er, what's your name again?

Now that this Lisbon shite has splatted down to Earth, and the Conservatives will not take us out of the EU, we might as well make the best of the situation we've got. If the EU is to become a superstate with an unelected executive, let's at least be a powerful and respected superstate with an unelected executive! Or we could leave the EU, but Mr Eagle Eye suspects that Cameron has neither the will nor the bollocks.

But the EU is missing an open goal here, staring them right down the f**king beak! It's on their doorstep, and is pretty big. In fact, they don't get much bigger; Russia. Let's get Russia into the EU! Now that is what Mr Eagle Eye calls enlargement!