Euroville

CONFIDENTIAL

Briefing for: President of the United States (POTUS)

From: United States Mission to the European Union, Brussels

Mr President – What follows is the briefing note you requested about the alarming proliferation of “presidents” in the European Union institutions, exacerbated by changes introduced in the so-called “Lisbon (Portugal) Treaty”.

Overview:

The Lisbon (Portugal) Treaty creates an all-powerful “President of the European Council” (POEC).

This is additional to the existing roles of “President of the European Commission”(POCO) and “President of the European Parliament” (POPE). There is also a “rotating” President-in-Office of the European Council (PORC).

This is the same “European Council” as mentioned in the first paragraph. However, we observe no matching rotating “President-in-Office” of either the Commission or Parliament. Thus, the “Council” is the only EU institution with a rotational element in its presidential structure.

There is also a “President of the Committee of the Regions” (POCE) and a “President of the Economic and Social Committee” (PESC), two EU institutions operating quietly in the background. These two Committees (not real committees as they are not subordinate parts of a bigger entity) are nothing to do with the 22 committees of the European Parliament, which are subordinate but nevertheless have their own “presidents”.

There is also a “president” for each of the Parliament’s political groups, from which the membership of its committees is drawn. The Parliament has a “Conference of Presidents”, presided over by POPE. At any one time, therefore, about 30 members of the Parliament can lay claim to the title of “president”.

We have studied relations between POEC, POCO, POPE, PORC, POCE and PESC, and can see no equivalence whatsoever to the status of POTUS.

Assessment:

In light of the above, we endorse the decision of POTUS not to travel to Madrid for an EU-US summit. Given the expanded “presidential” hierarchy in Europe, such a visit now would only serve to diminish and devalue further the title of POTUS.

POTUS would meet with POEC, POCO and PORC, and possibly also POPE.

It is no secret that POEC and PORC are fighting over who would be first to shake hands with POTUS, a matter which has become the defining issue in a power struggle between POEC and PORC. At all costs, POTUS must avoid playing their game, particularly as we cannot advise which hand POTUS should shake first.

We need more time to reach considered conclusions as to the purpose and relative values of all these presidential positions, and the many others we have uncovered.

For instance, the European Court of Justice has a “President” as does the European Court of Auditors and the European Central Bank. Other EU-related bodies using the term include the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market and the Community Plant Life Variety Office. The term “president” seems to be accorded to anyone of even marginal authority in the EU system.

Unlike our own system, there is little appetite in Europe for terms such as “Speaker”, “Governor” or “Chairman”. The idea of, for example, US Senate and House Committee leaders being titled “Chairman”, to ensure clear (downward) separation from the Head of State, is unfamiliar.

This confusing focus on “president” status in Europe is blamed on the French language, which uses the term for both “President” and “Chairman” in political life. Without the French influence, the vast majority of EU positions carrying the term “president”, would, in English, be reduced to “chairman” or something less.

The French language is also blamed for the plethora of EU committees often termed “commissions”, causing confusion with the status of the European “Commission”, which is not a committee.

Recommendation:

The Kissinger question, “Who do you call in Europe?” should have been answered by the Lisbon (Portugal) Treaty. It was not.

Until a clear EU chain of command can be identified, we conclude that POTUS should avoid any contact, by phone or in person, with anyone from Europe bearing the title “president”.

However, in the unlikely event of an urgent need for POTUS to engage personally at EU level in the near future, we strongly advise, with the deepest respect, that POTUS does not attempt the 90-degree bow he performed in front of the Japanese emperor last November.

This would give whichever of the European “presidents” POTUS was bowing to a false sense of his place in the world at a time of severe identity crisis for them all.