TWO STARTLINGLY approximate stories generated headlines last week: the inaccurate (and therefore misleading) reports of McDonald's "pulling out" of Iceland, and the highly spun story of Tony Blair being on course to become the first "EU president", writes TONY KINSELLA
McDonald’s did not pull out of Iceland, and the position of president of the European Union does not exist. If it did, Tony Blair would be one of the most extraordinarily disqualified candidates imaginable.
McDonald’s is a franchise. The corporation sells franchises for undisclosed but presumably hefty fees to restaurant operators who are then obliged to use corporate equipment and supplies to further boost corporate revenues. Smaller operations such as the three outlets in Reykjavik, with a catchment population of under 200,000, purchase ready-made supplies rather than investing in the machinery to produce supplies locally.
Iceland’s economic meltdown, with the consequent collapse of its króna, priced McDonald’s products – which had been imported from Germany – out of the market. Lyst, McDonald’s Iceland franchisee, is transforming itself into Metro, a new burger chain. The company’s owner, Jón Gardar Ögmundsson, said that by sourcing local supplies, Metro would create new jobs.
The likely creation of the third out of three EU presidencies lacks the punch of headlines about “Europe’s first president”. Those who preferred punch to accuracy created a logic whereby Tony Blair’s ability (in the words of David Miliband) to stop the traffic when visiting “Beijing or Washington or Moscow” became an essential qualification.
The EU’s first presidency is that of its commission, or executive – with Jacques Delors being one of the most memorable. While the current incumbent, José Manuel Durão Barroso, may not feature among the more stellar of commission presidents, his level of public name recognition remains impressive. It has not been forgotten that this centre-right former prime minister of Portugal owes his elevation to the commission presidency to the fact that Tony Blair and Silvio Berlusconi torpedoed the candidacy of Guy Verhofstadt, Belgium’s Liberal prime minister, in 2004.
The second of the EU presidencies is that of the European Parliament, currently occupied by the centre-right former prime minister of Poland, Jerzy Buzek, who was elected to the office last July. Prof Buzek was born in what is now the Czech Republic, and like many Polish democrats, cut his political teeth in Solidarnosc. Unusually among Polish leaders, he is a Lutheran. Having only been in office for a little over three months, he has yet to build an image beyond the parliament.
Under the Treaty of Lisbon, the third EU presidency will emerge when the European Council (of Ministers) elects its own president for a maximum of two two-and-a-half year terms.
The council, made up of ministers from the 27 member states, is the centre of political power in the EU. The 27 national prime ministers and presidents usually meet for council summits at least twice a year.
Up to now, its meetings have been organised and chaired by a presidency that rotates among the member states every six months. Sweden presides at the moment and will be succeeded by Spain next January, with Belgium and Hungary following behind to assure the transition to an elected presidency.
The function of the new president is much better described in English by the word chairman. The Council president’s priority will have to be the tedious but indispensable function of building the broadest possible consensus among Europe’s frequently fractious leaders. The new presidential function will thus be primarily internal.
The external function – possibly including traffic disruption in foreign capitals – will be assured by Europe’s new foreign minister or “high representative”, as per the awkward formal title conjured up to soothe London’s endemic Euro-angst. Perhaps only in the monarchy-without-a-constitution of the UK could the concept of an appointed figure exercising a significant political mandate gain traction. The other EU member states agree on the internal consensus-building function of the new office.
London may long to erase Blair’s consensus-shattering role in the 2003 Iraq invasion and the 179 British troops killed in Iraq may no longer be a political factor in the UK, but the 200,000 or so Iraqis, Americans, Britons and others killed in that pointless and illegal conflict still resonate in other EU capitals. Martin Schultz, president of the European Parliament’s Socialist group, reminded Gordon Brown of this forcefully at a meeting of socialist leaders in Brussels last week.
Luxembourg’s socialist foreign minister, Jean Asselborn, pulled even fewer punches. “There is a link . . . between Iraq, Bush and Tony Blair,” he said. “Sometimes in politics, you have to show that you can bring things together and not divide them. There are better candidates than Tony Blair.”
The Austrian socialist Chancellor Werner Faymann was equally succinct: “I do not find that the candidacy of Tony Blair is good because of what he characterises.”
So last week’s real headlines should have included “Iceland pulls out of McDonald’s” and “Blair hobbled by his past”.
Icelandic journalist Páll Stefánsson claims his country’s best burgers are to be found at Hamborgarabúllan in Reykjavik’s old fishing port.
And EU socialists are pushing for the foreign policy slot with David Miliband as a possible candidate, and quiet echoes are floating in suggesting that the talented multilingual former president of Latvia, Vaira Vike-Freiberga, might be the surprise choice for the EU’s third presidential slot.