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Tomorrow night, the European Union leaders will meet in Brussels to choose the first president of the European Council. The front-runner, Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy, has been getting the commentators talking.

with Herman Van Rompuy and says the appointment of a European federalist will make Britain reconsider its membership of the EU:

"A greying, bespectacled figure who makes even John Major look glamorous, Mr Van Rompuy's friends admit that one of his selling points is that no-one has ever heard of him and he can thus pose as a compromise choice."

prefer Belgian Herman Van Rompuy as European President; he thinks Tony Blair doesn't deserve the role because he failed to convince the public that membership to the EU was a good idea.

that the presidency of Europe is not being decided by the public:

"No matter who emerges triumphant from the cosy horse-trading, the new president will be on a collision course with the British people.
"In the bitter clash that's sure to come, our political class, Tory and Labour alike, will rue the day they cheated us out of our referendum."

argues that the president doesn't matter much anyway as he or she will have limited power.

there is a dearth of female candidates for European Presidency but warns against a political culture of putting women in a political job just to look pretty without wanting to hear her views.

EU correspondent for the Economist that there is a big part of Europe who just want the world to go away and that's the part of Europe who don't want Tony Blair to be an international figurehead for them.

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