Stitch-up so Tony Blair won’t be President of Europe

Tony Blair's hopes of becoming European president are all but over
12 April 2012

Tony Blair's chances of becoming EU President looked all but dead today after France and Germany signalled they had a rival candidate.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy delivered a body blow to the former prime minister's hopes of the plum post by hinting that he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel had agreed on a less high-profile contender.

As the EU summit broke up in Brussels, Mr Sarkozy said he and Mrs Merkel had agreed "behind the scenes" on their favoured candidate.

Gordon Brown had pushed hard for Mr Blair to get the post, which is set to be created next week when the Czech government finally ratifies the Lisbon Treaty.

But Mr Sarkozy said: "The names that first come out of the hat are not necessarily those that are finally chosen. With Chancellor Merkel, we completely agree that we are going to have the same approach, the same vision and support the same candidate when the time comes."

Mrs Merkel has suggested that she wants a "chairman" rather than a powerful chief executive as President.

Mr Blair's allies insisted that he was still in the race, but Dutch premier Jan Peter Balkenende was widely seen as the new favourite.

Sources close to Mr Blair said he was relaxed about no longer being seen as the front-runner. "He's not standing by the phone, waiting for a call from Brussels. He's been around the block long enough to realise what happens at summits," one source said.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband is now in pole position to become the EU's new foreign affairs chief. The socialist group of MPs, which believes it has the final say over the newly-created post, has put forward his name.

Although Mr Miliband has said he's "not available", his allies say he could "do a Mandelson" by spending a few years in Brussels before returning for a possible Labour leadership bid.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in