13:44, 26 February 2010
By James Rogers
In the British media and political discourse, the recently appointed President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, is often poked as a figure of fun. He frequently gets called ‘Rompuy-pumpy’; the British Broadcasting Corporation produced a humorous video about him; and Nigel Farage, the anti-European UKIP MEP created a storm when he called him a ‘damp rag’ and a ‘low-grade bank clerk’ in the European Parliament. While many of these attitudes smack of British arrogance, it is fair to say that President Van Rompuy lacks the aura of power or charisma of someone like Bill Clinton, Barack Obama or Tony Blair.
However, these slights aside, Mr. Van Rompuy has battled on. Yesterday, he gave his first major speech – called ‘The Challenges for Europe in a Changing World’ – on foreign and security policy since he assumed his presidency, choosing the College of Europe as his venue. And actually, it was quite impressive. The President began his speech by looking into the changing global balance of power, which has begun to have a profound impact on the place of Europeans in the world: on their own, the Member States are no longer strong enough to have much influence on the key issues. This, he says, should not turn Europeans into ‘declinists’; rather, he points out, the only way forward is for the Member States to work together to project their power – yes, power – across the globe through the European Union.
As such, he outlined two key objectives for his presidency:
- Reforming the European economy, because this will provide the means to remain relevant and provide an incentive for Europeans to remain heavily involved in world politics;
- Transforming the European Union into a global power, because it is only through having influence and the means to enforce it, that Europeans will get their way and protect their social and economic well-being in the twenty-first century.
As he put it:
As you have learned here at the Collège, Europe started as a market, with a unique working method. We can be proud of what it achieved. However, building a market is different from being a power. “L’Europe-puissance”, as the French like to call it. [. . .] At the Copenhagen Summit we experienced that Europe can no longer shine by the “force of its example” only. You need more than the conviction that your proposal is the best, to win them over. To get in the deal-making game, the Union needs to assert itself politically.
President Van Rompuy’s approach seems to be informed by the approach taken in The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, which was a seminal book by Paul Kennedy published in the late 1980s. Professor Kennedy argued that a country’s geopolitical power can be correlated to its financial dynamism, economic productivity and industrial might; successful powers are those most able to project themselves economically and geopolitically, without over-extending themselves. In this respect, Mr. Van Rompuy’s approach suggests a good dose of critical strategic thinking on his part, which is a breath of fresh air for those of us who often deplore the wishy-washy mumbo jumbo so frequently pumped-out by Europeans on foreign affairs.
So is Herman Van Rompuy a ‘Rompuy-pumpy’, or is he a closet Machiavelli? Is he a ‘damp rag’, or is he a quiet but clever strategist, working tirelessly behind the scenes to flesh out and project the European interest? Only time will tell. But his first speech on foreign and security policy certainly shows promise, and demands that Europeans should have more respect for their new president, and pay him more attention.
• Credit to Luc Van Braekel on Wikipedia for image.
Hello,
Although I’m also strongly against the way how Mr. Rompuy was selected without ANY transparency, how EC officers have extremely high salaries and pensions without practically paying any tax, life-long career without a fear of unemployment, and many other benefits in comparison to most other citizens of EU, I don’t accept the rudeness how some people talk and write about Mr. Rompuy. If instead of his personal appearence, he would be for example black or a lady, and somebody would argue against him for that reason, I’m sure it would not be tolerated in the parliament. However, the current situation is in my opinion to him no worse.
It should be the subject that is discussed, not the appearence of this or that person!!!!!!!! Especially so, because he dresses and behaves very well despite of apparenly some jealous people around.
Coming back to other matter of EC benefits, they currently live in a dream world – as you can clearly see from their smiling faces. It is ofcourse very nice for them to have got all those befits as a permament EC staff, but the world should be made better for everybody and not just for themselves!!! Every person must be treated equally in EU. This means that other’s salarie must be risen, work conditions and requirements improved and EU benefits cut until that. Salary differencies must be lowered so that everybody can enjoy of a decent life. Outside the working life, we are all in the same situation and, thus, pensions, unemloyment money, agreed rise of salaries etc. etc. must be absolutely the same amount in Euros for every person. If a person used to be rich due to his good salary in work, he has been able to save something and, thus, his living conditions are in any case better than for the majority of people with lower salaries. Earlier economic benefits should no more be a reason for a higher pension.
An other matter is that the EC jobs should be distributed evenly for the whole EU population. Currently, the number of Belgian people in EC positions is very much too high and, in addition, their salaries appear to be considerably higher than in case of other nationals. Most commonly, they are ranked to the AD12 level, which is just a little below 10 000 EUR per month after taxes, if I remember correctly. In any case, there are also some countries, which are underrepresented. This situation must be corrected. No new Belgian staff should be hired until other countries have reached equal levels of their representatives. In addition, it should not be only the relative number of nationals that is important in filling the EC positions, but the relative financial equality. Thus, instead of hiring one person with a brutto salary of 10000 EUR, it should be possible to hire 2 persons with a salary of 5000 EUR, or even 3 persons with just a 3333.33 EUR per month. As well as a higher salary than some 5-10000 EUR is unacceptable no matter of the person’s position in EC, as well there should not be any lower salary than 3000 EUR per month in EC, especially when the person has to move out of his home. But, for permanently employed staff, this should not be a reason for extra allowances, because he has chosen the place and country, where his working position is.
Let’s make the EU a better plase to live! It is already good in many aspects, but EU parliament members should not be absent in the parliament sessions, if they want this to be achieved and don’t be just people seeking money for themselves. Stop being unpolite to each other! It is just the money, but also the mental environment, which is important. Have a good day, nice week and a better year!