The petition is simple enough:
We, European citizens of all origins and of all political persuasions, wish to express our total opposition to the nomination of Tony Blair to the Presidency of the European Council.
That petition was launched in early 2008, when the Lisbon Treaty, which creates it, was supposed to be ratified, and Blair started lobbying for the job via a behind-the-scenes press campaign. With the Irish rejecting the Treaty, that became moot for a while, but since their more recent approval of a slightly amended treaty last week, the Blair propaganda machine has restarted working, and our petition has become active once again.
We got a 50% increase in total signatures in just a couple weeks, and have now launched a press campaign to get more.
The petition explains why this is relevant to you in the US as well:
The Treaty of Lisbon provides for the new post of President of the European Council, to be elected by the Council for a mandate, renewable once only, of two and a half years. Under the terms of the Treaty: "The President of the European Council shall chair it and drive forward its work" and "shall ensure the preparation and continuity of the work of the European Council". Further, "The President of the European Council shall, at his level and in that capacity, ensure the external representation of the Union on issues concerning its common foreign and security policy"¹.
The future President of the European Council will therefore have a key role in determining the policies of the European Union and its relations with the rest of the world. This first Council Presidency will also have a major symbolic weight for both citizens of the European Union and for the image of the Union in the rest of the world. In this perspective, we believe it is essential that the first president embodies the spirit and values of the European project.
In a nutshell, the person will be both an ambassador and a symbol of Europe, but with a largely behind the scenes official role at building consensus between the various European heads of governments represented in the European Council.
Thus our press release:
ANTI-BLAIR PETITION TAKES OFF
Tony Blair has yet to make a formal claim on the EU Presidency. But the success of an online petition shows that his prospects are already fading.
[ Paris, 12 October 2009 ] Since talk of Tony Blair for the presidency of the European Council began again in July with the announcement of the British government's backing, the organizers of the Stop Blair! online petition (http://stopblair.eu) have been forced to reactivate the site as thousands of signatures have flooded in. The former PM is not even officially candidate for the new position, but the Irish "Yes" having placed the Lisbon treaty in a position to be quickly ratified appears to have fired the starting gun for his campaign -- setting off a wave of popular and official opposition.
Though British press articles claim that Mr Blair is practically assured of victory, continental EU media remain unimpressed. Other candidates discussed are past and present prime ministers like Felipe Gonzalez, Jan Peter Balkenende and Jean-Claude Juncker, or former Irish president Mary Robinson. Neither is it clear that either the French President or the German Chancellor have made up their minds to support Mr Blair. The chair of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the French National Assembly and a prominent member of Mr Sarkozy's party, Axel Poniatowski, speaking on French radio last week, underlined the obstacles of Blair's role in the invasion of Iraq, and the fact that the UK under his leadership had failed to join either the euro or the Schengen area. Germany, meanwhile, has never been favourable to a "big" presidency of the European Council.
"We see reports that countries like Belgium, Sweden, Austria, Luxembourg and Greece are unenthusiastic," said John Evans, StopBlair! coordinator at European Tribune, which launched the petition. "Small EU countries have no wish to get steamrollered by an autocratic representative of the major countries. And it's clear, from thousands of comments made on the petition site and elsewhere, that people across Europe identify him as much more pro-American than pro-European. Tony Blair raises hackles."
While a shadowy campaign in the British press attempts to give his appointment an aura of inevitability, Tony Blair remains a long way from the post.
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Online since 2005, European Tribune (http://www.eurotrib.com) is a leading current affairs discussion site with a network of editors and contributors from all over Europe and further afield. Contact us at etg@eurotrib.com
Feel free to sign the petitition as well, even if you're not European, and to pass the link to your friends!