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Tony Blair: the EU needs a president
Daily Telegraph (UK) ^ | 5:29PM GMT 29 Oct 2012 | Rowena Mason

Posted on 10/30/2012 12:39:05 AM PDT by Olog-hai

Tony Blair has said the EU would be better off with a directly elected president, as he warned deep political rifts between countries could lead to a break-up.

In a move interpreted by some as a job application, the former prime minister said the EU could do with a strong leader approved by the people. …

Europe’s millions of residents might feel “alienated” unless they have a direct say in who is governing them, Mr. Blair told the Nicolas Berggruen Institute on Governance. …

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Government; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: euempire; eupresident; eussr; tonyblair
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It’s a bit funny that he didn’t have a problem with an appointed president three years ago, especially when it kinda looked like he would get the post rather than Herman van Rompuy.
1 posted on 10/30/2012 12:39:13 AM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: Olog-hai

I can’t think of any one who would want to run for it... and European national leaders don’t any one more powerful than them.

It will go nowhere.


2 posted on 10/30/2012 12:42:30 AM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved FrieGrnd Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: Olog-hai

We can send Obayma right over!


3 posted on 10/30/2012 12:42:56 AM PDT by exnavy (The time is upon us, fish or cut bait, may God guide your heart.)
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To: goldstategop

The EU wouldn’t have gotten anywhere without national leaders in the pocket of the elite movers of this so-called “peace project”. But one thing is for sure, that they will never go for an elected president—they want another appointed leader with more power than any other individual on the continent ever possessed, which is what the whole “super-president” and “super-commissioner” talk of late was about.


4 posted on 10/30/2012 12:47:13 AM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: exnavy

The Euroweenies will offer it to him after he loses. $10 bet. Then Blair will throw a hissy fit.


5 posted on 10/30/2012 12:49:24 AM PDT by max americana (Make the world a better place by punching a liberal in the face)
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To: Olog-hai

They can have Obama. He’ll be looking for a job soon enough.


6 posted on 10/30/2012 12:49:31 AM PDT by Optimus Prime (Do liberals even qualify as sentient beings?)
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To: exnavy

I don’t think they want a black man running their empire. They would prefer him as their “useful idiot” (in the Leninist sense) running the USA, into the ground as it were.


7 posted on 10/30/2012 12:51:14 AM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: exnavy

No thanks!

Send him to Cuba or somewhere. We have enough egomanical idiots as it is.


8 posted on 10/30/2012 12:52:31 AM PDT by ScaniaBoy (Part of the Right Wing Research & Attack Machine)
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To: Olog-hai

This would be a president not elected by the people but appointed by beaurocrats.


9 posted on 10/30/2012 12:53:18 AM PDT by gattaca ("Great things can be accomplished if you don't care who gets the credit. " Ronald Reagan)
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To: Olog-hai

Go away Tony.

And take the Reich with you.


10 posted on 10/30/2012 1:12:29 AM PDT by Hardraade (http://junipersec.wordpress.com (I will fear no muslim))
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To: Olog-hai

Ironically, who is the most populous nation of Europe?

Mr. Blair would have been hanged in any other period of UK/English history.


11 posted on 10/30/2012 3:56:39 AM PDT by wolfman23601
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To: max americana

The chances of the Eurocrats appointing anyone with British blood to that position are equivalent to the chances the Cardinals appointing an American Pope. Ain’t gonna happen.


12 posted on 10/30/2012 3:59:31 AM PDT by wolfman23601
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To: gattaca; wolfman23601; Hardraade
Actually the current EU Presidency IS appointed by bureaucrats. Blair is saying this should not be so, but should be directly elected.

Also, there is no chance a German would get elected in an open election -- nor a Frenchman. Rather a small country man like from Belgium or other places

13 posted on 10/30/2012 5:25:48 AM PDT by Cronos (**Marriage is about commitment, cohabitation is about convenience.**)
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To: wolfman23601; max americana
The EU has had British Presidents of the EU Parliament:
Charles Plumb from 1987-1989

The EU has had Presidents of the European council
Maggie Thatcher (1981 and then 1986), John Major (1992), Tony Blair (1998 and 2005)

And the UK has been President of the Council of the EU a few times: 1981, 1986, 1992, 1998 etc

14 posted on 10/30/2012 5:35:23 AM PDT by Cronos (**Marriage is about commitment, cohabitation is about convenience.**)
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To: goldstategop

The European Commission, in my understanding, is slowly taking over the legislative functions (they now originate all bills the legislature votes on) and executive functions. The EU is losing its democracy. If true, then the “President” is closer to a dictator, and probably appointed instead of elected.


15 posted on 10/30/2012 5:44:35 AM PDT by tbw2
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To: wolfman23601

stranger elections have happened — who would have thought that Karol Wojtyla would become Pope in 1979? A Polish Pope? unthinkable. But it happened.


16 posted on 10/30/2012 5:58:55 AM PDT by Cronos (**Marriage is about commitment, cohabitation is about convenience.**)
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To: tbw2
The Commission has always been like that. Even before the Eurocrats decided to make the EU government pseudodemocratic and turned the European Parliament from an appointed body into an elected one, the Commission both wrote the laws and passed them, holding sole legislative initiative (no separation of powers, and you have a “legislature” with no legislative powers whatsoever), with the Parliament acting as a rubber stamp. It has always been a copy of the USSR’s government.

The President of the European Commission (Barroso) and the President of the European Council (van Rompuy) are both appointed. The entire European Commission is appointed, as is the Council of Ministers (another “executive” body with unspecified powers).
17 posted on 10/30/2012 8:18:53 AM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: tbw2
The Commission has always been like that. Even before the Eurocrats decided to make the EU government pseudodemocratic and turned the European Parliament from an appointed body into an elected one, the Commission both wrote the laws and passed them, holding sole legislative initiative (no separation of powers, and you have a “legislature” with no legislative powers whatsoever), with the Parliament acting as a rubber stamp. It has always been a copy of the USSR’s government.

The President of the European Commission (Barroso) and the President of the European Council (van Rompuy) are both appointed. The entire European Commission is appointed, as is the Council of Ministers (another “executive” body with unspecified powers).
18 posted on 10/30/2012 8:51:09 AM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: Olog-hai

it doesn’t need a president, it needs to go away

and in its placed Europe needs nothing more or less than an absolute free trade agreement - not a currency agreement, not a tax agreement, not a fiscal agreement, not a central bank agreement, not a mutual debtors fund agreement - just an agreement that between all partners there are no tariffs or trade restrictions or labor restrictions for their CITIZENS, in either direction

economics will take care of economic productivity, including labor and business telling - with their feet - the worst governments in Europe to reform themselves into less socialistic more private capital friendly goverments


19 posted on 10/30/2012 1:05:55 PM PDT by Wuli
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To: Wuli

Empires don’t just go away, though. The only thing that weakens them is wars. And this empire is still on the way up.


20 posted on 10/30/2012 1:20:53 PM PDT by Olog-hai
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