Late night looms for EU leaders
Tony Blair now seems EU president outsider
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Thursday, 19, Nov 2009 12:00
By politics.co.uk staff
European leaders are expected to argue long into the night as they choose who will be their first president.
Members of the 27-state European Union will try to reach consensus in after-dinner talks on the president of the European Council post created under the Lisbon Treaty, which comes into force on December 1st.
A secondary post, that of the EU's high representative for foreign affairs, will also be filled in the crunch Brussels summit.
The odds of a British candidate filling either role have lengthened considerably in recent weeks after former prime minister Tony Blair emerged as an early favourite.
But the betting in Brussels is now that the little-known Belgian prime minister Herman van Rompuy will take the role.
Reported joint support for Mr Rompuy from Germany and France could seal the decision in his favour. The president will serve for two-and-a-half years, will chair EU summits and "facilitate cohesion and consensus".
The high representative post had, at one stage, seemed likely to go to foreign secretary David Miliband. But he ruled himself out of the role last week as Europe's focus shifted elsewhere.