Turkey-skeptic, low-profile Van Rompuy becomes EU’s first president

EU leaders on Thursday named Van Rompuy, who is little known outside his own country, as the bloc’s first president to lead efforts to make it more influential on the world stage.

They also chose Baroness Catherine Ashton, a Briton little known even in her own country, as EU foreign affairs chief under a deal that kept out more established figures such as Tony Blair and raised questions about how the bloc plans to raise its profile.

Just ahead of his appointment, records of a speech by Van Rompuy during a meeting of the Council of Europe on the subject of Turkey’s possible entry into the EU, held in the Belgian parliament in December 2004, have clearly revealed his strong opposition to Turkey ever joining the EU.

“Turkey is not a part of Europe and will never be part of Europe,” Van Rompuy said at the time, suggesting that Europe’s Christian “fundamental values” would be undermined by admitting Turkey into the union, EUobserver news portal reported, noting that the speech has remained buried until now.

“An expansion of the EU to include Turkey cannot be considered as just another expansion as in the past. The universal values which are in force in Europe, and which are also fundamental values of Christianity, will lose vigor with the entry of a large Islamic country such as Turkey,” the then-opposition politician said.

An EU summit decision in December 2004 had given the go-ahead for opening membership negotiations with Turkey in October 2005.

Speaking to EUobserver, Belgian officials confirmed that the speech was made but noted that the comments were made when in opposition. Soon after his appointment, speaking to reporters in Brussels on Thursday, Van Rompuy was posed questions on his stance concerning Turkey’s EU bid. He responded that from now on, as the EU president, his personal opinions did not matter as he would harmonize his views with the EU’s decisions.

“What I think is not important at all. My duty as president is producing reconcilement among EU countries,” Van Rompuy added.

Several commentators argued, though, that Van Rompuy’s 2004 speech puts him squarely on the side of Nicolas Sarkozy, president of France, and Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, both of whom are willing to offer Turkey a “privileged partnership” but want to keep the country out of the EU.

The fact that Van Rompuy is said to be the Franco-German candidate strengthens such views. But the EU president has a small role in influencing the EU decision on Turkey’s membership, which has to be made by member countries.

Does personal profile matter?

The appointments of Van Rompuy and Ashton are intended to bolster the EU’s standing and help it to match the rise of emerging powers such as China following the global economic crisis, but neither Ashton nor Van Rompuy is a familiar figure outside Europe.

“I believe my experience will speak for itself. Am I an ego on legs? No I’m not. Do I want to be seen to be out there saying everything all the time? No I don’t. Judge me on what I do, and I think you’ll be pleased with the outcome,” Ashton told reporters.

 Van Rompuy, 62, and Ashton, 53, are compromise candidates who plan to use quiet diplomacy and consensus. At least initially they will not have the weight in foreign capitals that a better-known figure such as Tony Blair, a former British prime minister, would have had.

Agreement on the positions took weeks, undermining efforts to present the bloc as a united force, partly because Britain had demanded that Blair be president.

The breakthrough came when Prime Minister Gordon Brown dropped that demand and backed EU Trade Commissioner Ashton as foreign affairs chief and vice president of the EU’s executive European Commission instead.

“We got a candidate who brings consensus and whose political competence has long been tested and tried throughout his political career,” said German Chancellor Merkel of Van Rompuy.

French President Sarkozy said it had been “a very wise decision” to choose a candidate from “an important country but not one of the most important countries, so that no one will feel excluded” from the EU debate.

The co-president of the European Greens-European Free Alliance in the European Parliament, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a pro-Turkey politician also known as Danny the Red, was, however, not as optimistic as Merkel and Sarkozy.

“EU leaders have continued the job of weakening the EU institutions. They have followed their weak choice of commission president with a bland council president and an unremarkable foreign affairs high representative,” said Cohn-Bendit, referring respectively to José Manuel Barroso, who was recently granted a second term at the helm of the European Commission, as well as Van Rompuy and Ashton. “Europe is sinking to a low. The good news is that things can only get better,” he added.