The outgoing president of the EU Council will be missed!
Herman Van Rompuy has been an outstanding personality at the helm of the EU flotilla for two terms. He was able to jump-start the Lisbon Treaty without a hitch. He was able to achieve the almost impossible, gaining the trust of all and the enmity of none. The EU waters were stormy but he could navigate cliffs and rifts with intelligence, flair and modesty. The insults of Nigel Farage left him unmoved, the cat fights between the usual EU suspects were never allowed to get out of hand and the expected tensions with the Head of the Commission were never realized. This discreet intellectual and writer of Haiku poems used his Belgian political savoir faire for debunking false arguments and extirpating compromise. If the EU could avoid a crash it is thanks to the joint efforts with Jose Manuel Barosso, the Commission's president, who had an almost impossible task.
This consensual figurehead will be a difficult act to follow at a time when economic priorities in several member states are on a collusion course. Besides, one needs a sophisticated hand to reign in the populist grab for attention. Herman Van Rompuy had that skill and authority. These qualities are hard to transmit. They might also be even harder to find!
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