November 23, 2009. Copyright 2009, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Herman Van Rompuy: Can Belgium's Mr Fixit mend EU ways?
By Joanna Griffin

LONDON, November 23, Graphic News:  As the dust settles on his appointment as the first president of the EU Council, Belgium's Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy might reflect on how much easier it appeared to achieve harmony between Dutch and French speaking parties in his government than among EU members whose simmering disagreements threaten to explode at any moment.

After all, Van Rompuy is a reflective type: the Flemish Christian Democrat and pious Catholic regularly takes himself off to monasteries, and likes to pen haikus, 17-syllable Japanese poems, which he recites at political meetings. His record as a consensus builder was a key reason he was chosen for the leadership role enshrined in the Lisbon Treaty. But anyone who believes he does not intend to make himself heard is much mistaken.

Van Rompuy, 62, who takes over the €350,000 (euros) a year job on January 1, has already ruffled feathers by declaring himself in favour of a controversial "Euro tax" on financial transactions. He is an avowed federalist who wants EU symbols to replace national ones, and he has loudly opposed EU membership for Turkey because it is a Muslim country. He has said that EU unemployment and tackling climate change are his top priorities.

While his apparent low-profile has exasperated Europhiles (who would have liked a more charismatic figurehead) and delighted Eurosceptics (who wanted anything but), most agree he is a competent politician who brings a commonsense approach to the job. A trained economist, he led the Christian Democrats and served as budget minister before being persuaded by Belgium's King Albert II to lead his country's fractured government.

While at home they don't want to see him go, in Brussels reaction to his arrival is mixed.
/ENDS