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So it’s done. The first permanent EU Council president is Herman van Rompuy and the first High Representative for Foreign Affairs under the Lisbon Treaty is Catherine Ashton.

The EU has once again missed a chance to make a real impact on the world stage. The very little known van Rompuy is apparently meant to be more an internal negotiator than a representative on the world stage. And Ashton has next to no experience in foreign policy.

The blame for this disappointing outcome goes to Angela Merkel and Nicholas Sarkozy, who obviously did not want any serious competition from Brussels. So much for their advocacy of a “strong Europe”.