happy birthday mr president

Interesting study of the revived Constitution / treaty out today from a group of Brussels think tanks. One thing we hadn't seen before is this idea:

"It is currently expected that the main political parties at European level will designate their candidate for the presidency of the Commission in the campaign prior to the next elections to the European Parliament in 2009. The personality of the candidate could presumably become a significant element in the political debate."

A likely story. Our bet is that it will be three people who are virtualy unknown across the EU. We can't help thinking that they will all have to come from small countries...

This story is a a bit like the previous federalist hope that directly electing the European Parliament would lead to a huge surge in euro-feeling. In fact turnout has fallen in every election since the first one in 1979.

When the (virtual) "European Political Parties" start putting up their "presidential candidates" in '09 it will be interesting to see what happens when federalist ideas collide with reality.