A Bit Of Rompuy Pumpy

We now know who the EU's first president is going to be. It's Belgium's Prime Minister, Herman Van Rompuy. There's also going to be a new EU foreign policy chief, in the form of Britain's Cathy Ashton. Better-known candidates for the top job, such as Tony Blair, faded out of contention as the EU's 27 leaders got together to decide who should get the positions.

These jobs have been created as part of the Lisbon Treaty, which has now been ratified by all 27 member countries. The idea of them is to help the EU interact in a more effective way with the rest of the world. In future, instead of a mishmash of different signals from the various national leaders, we should all get a clearer idea of what the EU's view on a particular topic is, whether that's trade or a humanitarian intervention. Or at least that's how it's supposed to work.

But you'll notice that neither Mr Van Rompuy or Baroness Ashton are household names. Mr Van Rompuy wasn't even elected Belgian Prime Minister, he was appointed by the king to try to solve a constitutional crisis. For her part, Baroness Ashton has never been elected to anything, and until today was not even the most famous person in her family (her husband is the YouGov pollster Peter Kellner).

On the face of it, it does appear strange that the EU should select such little-known political figures to be its leaders. It's hardly going to impress the Americans, the Chinese or anyone else. But the main reason is simple, the leaders of the different countries don't want to give up any of their power if they can avoid it. A high-profile figure such as Mr Blair would have quickly dominated the EU's international activities, using his contacts in foreign capitals to take control of the union's external policy. Mr Van Rompuy and Baroness Ashton are much more likely to do what they're told, particularly by the leaders of France and Germany, who blocked Mr Blair's candidacy. Expect EU foreign policy to be set primarily in Paris and Berlin, rather than Brussels.

Merkel Wins Despite The Recession

Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel has won a second term in office. Not just that, but the scale of the victory of her CDU party means she'll be able to rule the country in a coalition with another right-leaning party from now on. For the last four years she's been forced to share power with the centre-left SPD, but after that party suffered its worst post-war election result, Frau Merkel doesn't need them anymore.

On the face of it, this is a big surprise. Governments are supposed to lose elections when times are hard, as has happened in the US and Japan lately. To not only win, but win by a bigger margin, is a remarkable achievement for Frau Merkel and the CDU. So what's going on?

Well, the recession's been just as bad in Germany as anywhere else, so it's not that. Rather, it seems to be a personal vote of confidence in Frau Merkel's confident but low-key leadership style. She was once criticised for being too dull and too provincial (she grew up in the old East Germany), but her pragmatic, sensible shoes approach has gone down well with voters during these difficult times. She also achieved the notable success of making sure German carmaker Opel was sold by General Motors to her preferred bidder, the Canadian firm Magna, which could help save German jobs in the long run.

Curiously, a similar sort of pragmatic approach hasn't done Gordon Brown much good in recent months. But then, in contrast to Frau Merkel, his personal reputation appears shattered beyond repair with most British voters. Don't expect him to be able to match Frau Merkel's achievement in next year's general election.

Merkel Makes Her Mark

Following yesterday's compromise deal on climate change, there's been further agreement between the leaders at the G8 summit in Germany. This time it's Africa that's going to benefit, to the tune of 30 billion quid to fight AIDS, malaria and TB. It all doesn't go far enough of course, but then the nature of these problems means it's never possible to go far enough. The fact the leaders have decided to go as far as they have is all down to the summit's host.

This week's winner has undoubtedly been Chancellor Angela Merkel. While Putin and Bush may have taken all the headlines in the lead-up to the summit, as they indulged themselves in a bit of old-fashioned Cold War nostalgia, she's the one who's focused on trying to get something reasonably solid out of the talks. Much as Tony Blair did at Gleneagles two years ago, she's acted as the G8's conscience, and made sure of agreements of sorts on the important issues.

Chancellor Merkel's one of the newer G8 leaders, and with the even-fresher faced Nicolas Sarkozy and Gordon Brown she'll be at the centre of shaping the way Europe and indeed the world works in the next few years. With Putin and Bush both on their way out in the next 18 months, that trio has an opportunity to become a driving force behind genuine progress on things like aid and tackling climate change. And for all the promises Ms Merkel has secured this week, it'll be results that count.