The delicate balance that must be struck

The EU’s new top jobs are causing problems.

The controversies that have simmered about who should be appointed to two of the European Union’s most senior jobs are instructive. David Miliband, currently the foreign minister of the United Kingdom, this week ruled himself out of the (unofficial) contest to become the high representative for foreign and security policy – a post which under the Lisbon treaty comes with extra powers as a vice-president of the European Commission.

Miliband’s disavowal of interest in the job – after a period of wavering – creates problems for Fredrik Reinfeldt, Sweden’s prime minister. Reinfeldt will be chairing Thursday’s (19 November) meeting of the European Council that is supposed to select two names: one to be the high representative and the other to be the first president of the European Council.

Striking a balance between those two appointments is something of a challenge for Reinfeldt – a balance, that is, between small member states and large member states and also between political families. A balance between names from long-standing member states and recent arrivals might be more problematic, as would be a balance between men and women.

The agreement reached two weeks ago that the socialists would come up with a candidate for the high representative while the centre-right would take the post of president of the European Council seemed, on the face of it, to strengthen Miliband’s chances. Reinfeldt could balance Miliband, someone who is nominally a socialist, from one of the larger member states, against a candidate from the centre-right from one of the smaller member states – such as Jan Peter Balkenende, Herman Van Rompuy or Wolfgang Schüssel.

But Miliband, at least for the moment, prefers to remain in domestic British politics. His supporters will read into his disavowal a deep-rooted loyalty to the (electorally doomed) Labour Party: he will not (yet) abandon the sinking ship. More dispassionate observers believe that his ambition is to take over the leadership of the Labour Party after Gordon Brown has lost the next election and, eventually, to become prime minister.

Compare and contrast that with Herman Van Rompuy, Belgium’s prime minister, who is being talked about as the next president of the European Council. He is so much a front-runner that, if he wants the job, his best course is to say nothing until Thursday.

The contrast in attitudes between a small member state enthusiastic about the EU and a large member state doubtful about the EU could scarcely be starker. Belgium can ill afford to lose Van Rompuy. The preceding premiership, that of Yves Leterme, was unhappy and divisive. If Van Rompuy moves his official residence from one end of the rue de la Loi to the other, there is a very real possibility that Belgian politics will plunge back into a further round of infighting. Yet the Belgian political world seems ready to do its duty by Europe. Le Soir, one of the leading Belgian francophone newspapers, reacted to the idea that Van Rompuy might relinquish power by ‘vetoing’ the reappointment of Leterme as prime minister, but it did not come out against Van Rompuy taking the job.

Miliband hopes for something greater than the EU job – the premiership of his country. Van Rompuy, who is his country’s prime minister, also hopes for something greater – the presidency of the European Council. The big country-small country difference is plain to see. It is the same reason that neither Angela Merkel nor Nicolas Sarkozy would dream of forsaking the leadership of their countries for an EU job, though both have at times pressed the case for Tony Blair, who was once their counterpart. For Miliband and Van Rompuy, the relative weights of national and European politics are markedly different. It would be surprising if, underlying that, there were not also different attitudes to the EU and to being at the service of other member states.

These differences should be borne in mind when the government leaders meet next Thursday. A balance between small member states and large member states must be respected.

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