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A president of Europe? Continent's unity is tested
The European Union has battled long and hard for this moment: the imminent choice of its first president.To get there, the EU strong-armed Irish voters, brushed aside hostile French and Dutch ballots, and pressured the Czech president into agreeing to a single leader to give Europe a strong voice on the world stage. Yet after all that, EU leaders meeting Thursday may end up picking someone from a small country with little international power instead of a charismatic heavyweight to head this continental bloc of 27 nations, half a billion people and huge economic heft. To pick a boss they can all live with, they must strike the right balance between big countries and small, east and west, socialists and conservatives, perhaps male and female. They must maneuver between proponents of a strong Europe and those who fear it eurocentrics and euroskeptics, in the local parlance. It's a diplomatic minefield. Posted by: ed 2009-11-15 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=283405 |