EU - together - substance over glamour: Herman Van Rompuy - First European President and Catherine Ashton - First EU Foreign Chief

Herman Van Rompuy and Catherine Ashton - together - substance over glamour

EU-Digest

Herman Van Rompuy - First European President

The leaders of the 27 member states European Union elected their first full time President and Foreign Policy Chief, in a Vatican style election process last night. The choice was definitely substance over glamour and a break with EU politicians like Blair, Balkenende and others, who had supported the US Bush administrations' military campaigns around the world. Based on these premises, a broad experience and strong leadership qualities, Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy was chosen as EU's first full-time president. Born in October 1947 in Brussels, Van Rompuy was educated at the Jesuit Sint-Jan Berchmans College in central Brussels, then studied philosophy and economics at the Catholic University of Leuven. Before entering politics, Van Rompuy worked at the Belgian central bank from 1972 to 1975. He served as deputy prime minister and minister of budget from 1993 to 1999. He won high reputation for his work on dramatically driving down the country's pubic debt. After his party's defeat in the 1999 Belgian general election, he became a member of the Chamber of Representatives. In 2004, he was designated Minister of State. As a senior member of the Christian Democratic and Flemish (CD&V, previously called CVP), Van Rompuy was elected as the president of the Chamber of Representatives in July 2007. In December 2008, he was appointed prime minister of Belgium, succeeding Yves Leterme. Since taking office last year, the prime minister has showed great skills in resolving conflicts and brought political stability to the linguistically divided country.

Catherine Ashton - First EU Foreign Chief

During the same special EU summit, EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton from Britain was chosen as EU Foreign Policy Chief. Ashton was born on March 20, 1956 in Upholland in Lancashire, from where she takes her title, Baroness Ashton of Upholland. From 1983-89 she was Director of Business in the Community, and established the Employers' Forum on Disability, Opportunity Now, and the Windsor Fellowship. She chaired the Health Authority in Hertfordshire from 1998 to 2001, and became a Vice President of the National Council for One Parent Families. In 1999, she became a life peer. She was made Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for Education and Skills in 2001, and then Parliamentary Under-Secretary in the Department for Constitutional Affairs and subsequently Ministry of Justice with responsibilities for human rights, freedom of information and equalities. She became a Privy Councilor in May 2006. She was appointed Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Council in Gordon Brown's first Cabinet in June 2007. As well as Leader of the Lords, she took responsibility in the House of Lords for equalities issues. In October, 2008, she was nominated to replace Peter Mandelson as the Britain's European Commissioner in Brussels, and was approved by the European Parliament.