DutchNews.nl - Balkenende not nominated for EU job

The Netherlands will not nominate prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende or any other Dutch national for the new job of president of the European council of ministers, European minister Frans Timmermans said on Sunday.

The job is being created through the Treaty of Lisbon. At present the position of council president is rotated among the 27 member states of the European Union.

Sources in Brussels had told various Dutch newspapers that Balkenende was hot favourite for the job and that he enjoyed the backing of German chancellor Angela Merkel.

Forme British prime minister Tony Blair is the only 'official' candidate for the job so far. According to Britain's Daily Mail newspaper, he has the backing of French president Nicolas Sarkozy.

This makes sense. The Dutch will be in a better position to promote their self-interests and to thwart EU initiatives when they are not head of the European Council.

By Buzzer | October 5, 2009 3:20 PM

Very good news for Europe (except that Blur is in the running), but bad news for the Netherlands which is stuck with "JP"

By outraged | October 5, 2009 3:28 PM

That is good, he is not smart politician anyway!

By Michael | October 5, 2009 5:17 PM

Who wants Harry Poter anyway!

By Michael | October 5, 2009 5:20 PM

I know that Balkenende would be a very wrong choice.
In the Netherlands he has been absent in each and every crisis. Only when the opposition forces him to an opinion, he comes up with some kind of statement. He gives the impression of someone suffering from a clinical depression.
Beside this, he is a child! When he first met Bush jr., the former president of the USA, he behaved like a small boy that got a compliment of a headmaster. When he was patted on his shoulder by mister president, he was out of his wits from joy. In the Netherlands we made jokes about this, but we were extremely embarrassed. To please this Bush, he dragged us in an illegal war with Iraq. When the new coalition for his present government was formed, he demanded, that there would be no interrogation about this war. So we, the people, are not allowed to know what really let to this war.
A dutch soldier in Iraq fired his gun in the air during a riot. At that time an Iraqi male fell to the ground, apparently wounded or death, nobody knows. The same day an Iraqi male was buried. Maybe the same person, maybe another. The dutch soldier was arrested for murder by the dutch prosecutors office. Then there were endless trials against this soldier. In the end, each and every judge did acquit him from every charge and the dutch authorities had to pay him a great lot of money.
And now the big question. The Netherlands were in war with Iraq. During that war a soldier was attacked in the back by the dutch prosecutors office. Were was prime-minister Balkenende when this happened? This is of course a rhetorical question. He was were he is always when we need him: hiding in his tower, playing Harry Potter.
And now a question for the readers of this. And this question is NOT rhetorical.

Do you want such a person to be the leader of the European Union? Do you want Balkenende as your “president”?

I do not know if Blair would be a very good choice. But I have seen enough from Blair, that he would not abandon his own soldiers during a war that he himself choose for them. If you lead your soldiers into a war, you have to stand behind them, support them. As he was said:
“Backbone, not back down”.

Or in other words:
“Backbone, not back down, is what the European Union needs.”

There is no place in European government for a wimp and traitor like Balkenende. If his own soldiers can not rely on him, can we?

By Andreas Firewolf | October 28, 2009 9:39 AM