How to appoint European Council President
February 23, 2008
Comments are specially invited, even if only ‘yes’ or ‘no’
Alain Lamasourre (in his comment of) came up with a great idea for the appointment of the President of the European Council, which is expected to be decided during the French Presidency (July to December 2008).
In a nutshell:
- Candidates are invited to declare themselves publicly.
- Each candidate has a televised hearing before the European Council, giving her/him the opportunity to state how she/he conceives the role and the relationship with the Commission President and Foreign Policy Chief.
- The European Council decides by qualified majority vote.
The advantages are obvious:
- Secrecy is eliminated.
- The public can easily relate to this process, which the media will certainly feature.
- The winning candidate should have greater legitimacy
Comments
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Great idea. Its simple, and still provides public scrutiny.
I guess every candidate would also need a government to “sponsor” him.
Interesting thought. Would be a lot better if there were some time between announcement/public hearing, and the vote. Newspapers would start writing about it, pollsters could take polls… We might actually get an idea of who the public would want as a president.