* Posts by Filipe

1 publicly visible post • joined 23 Jan 2008

EU president sets green plans in stone

Filipe

President of the European Union?????

Dear sir, madam,

The European Union is not a state and hence does not have one president. Jose Manuel Barroso is the president of the European Commission and not the president of the European Union. In fact, his job is to coordinate the college of 27 European commissioners who have all an equal vote as per the Treaty of the European Union. Hence it seems to me leading a story with “EU president says this” is incorrect and a bit careless.

In should be added that the European Commission itself lacks the sort of executive powers that national governments have. Under the Treaty of the European Union, member states delegate a part of their sovereignty to an impartial secretariat - the European Commission - which is in turn entrusted with the task of proposing EU legislation, monitoring implementation by member states and monitor compliance of member states laws with the letter and spirit of the EU treaties. It should be noted that technically, member states do not have an obligation to continue to delegate this power to the European Commission indefinitely.

The closest thing to a president the European Union will have in the near future is the president of the European Council, who will be appointed by national governments once the Treaty of Lisbon is ratified. Tony Blair, the former UK prime minister, has been tipped for the job.