NEWS

Prime Minister Pahor Welcomes EU Appointments as Step in Right Direction

The Prime Minister of Slovenia, Borut Pahor, attended an extraordinary meeting of the European Council held on Thursday evening in Brussels, at which Herman Van Rompuy, the Prime Minister of Belgium, was appointed the first President of the European Council, and Catherine Ashton, the British Commissioner, was appointed High Representative for Foreign Affairs. Prime Minister Pahor welcomed the appointments as a step in the right direction. "Step by step, we are headed in the right direction; perhaps this may seem slow to dedicated Europeans, but even we must admit that we are moving in the right direction and can be satisfied with progress," he said.
 

(Photo: Wiktor Dabkowski)

  
Prime Minister Pahor went on to stress the extreme importance of the fact that the European Union was not split on the issue of the appointment to the two positions introduced by the new Lisbon Treaty and that the European Council adopted the decision unanimously. "Very soon after the Lisbon Treaty was brought in, Europe has met the challenge of adopting such a decision unanimously," he said.
 
It is important for Slovenia, too, that the new president of the European Council is the prime minister of a relatively small country. Herman Van Rompuy is a man willing to compromise and a supporter of dialogue, and these are the characteristics that Europe needs, Prime Minister Pahor said.
 
Mr Pahor noted that, sooner or later, the time would also come for strong European leaders. "Europe needs a strong leader, and sooner or later the day will come when it will welcome him or her," he said. He added that Thursday’s decision, however, is the best at the moment for a Europe with 27 Member States and almost 500 million people, alongside many and varied political and state interests.
 
The Lisbon Treaty, signed by EU leaders in December 2007, will enter into force on 1 December of this year, after the process of ratification was successfully completed in all 27 Member States. Slovenia ratified the treaty in January 2008. For the first time, the treaty introduces the position of the president of the European Council, as well as the position of the high representative for foreign affairs, who is at the same time the vice-president of the European Commission. Besides the appointments to these positions, the European Council appointed on Thursday evening a new Secretary-General of the Council – this is Pierre de Boissieu, who had previously held the office of deputy.