Van Rompuy and Ashton- Childish Name Calling Must End: Letter to Editors of South West Newspapers

12.00.00am GMT Thu 26th Nov 2009

Dear Sir,

I feel it is time we got some perspective on the debate (or in many cases childish name-calling) about the appointment of the EU Council President and Foreign Affairs Representative.

In a truly liberal world, every public official would be directly elected; I am a strong supporter of elections to the European Commission and also the House of Lords.

But if these recent appointments prove anything about the EU, it is the complete opposite to what Europhobes have been claiming for years.

The fact that the elected leaders of the 27 member states chose low key, conciliatory candidates in Herman van Rompuy and Cathy Ashton, rather than "traffic stoppers", shows that it is nation states who control the direction of EU- and that this will still be the case after the Treaty of Lisbon enters into force.

Ashton and van Rompuy will go about their jobs quietly but effectively, encouraging consensus but communicating only what has been agreed by all. There will be no overbearing egos or self promotion.

The question is, why would sneering Daily Mail columnists and UKIP-types criticise them for this? Would they rather the Council have a President like Blair, someone who would seek to overshadow national and European leaders, and create an all powerful post of "European President"?

Sadly, I fear these people are simply mocking for the sake of it, and attempting to cover up the fact that these two posts will make Europe and Britain much more visible and effective on the world stage.

I encourage everyone to look beyond this cynical and self serving propaganda, and assess these appointments in relation to Britain's interests.

Yours sincerely,

Graham Watson MEP

Member of the European Parliament for South West England and Gibraltar