Irish vote sends Tony Blair racing to EU presidency

European leaders led by Angela Merkel of Germany and Nicolas Sarkozy of France will act swiftly to make the EU’s reform charter a reality after Ireland’s Yes vote, despite the lone resistance of Vaclav Klaus, president of the Czech Republic.

The strong endorsement of the Lisbon treaty by the Irish after eight years of divisive attempts to rewrite the EU’s rule book, has sparked the jockeying for position over the plum jobs that it creates, with Tony Blair now a clear favourite to become the first permanent EU president.

The posts of president of the council and that of a new foreign policy chief with enhanced powers are among the biggest changes under the treaty. But the appointments will not be made in isolation. Who gets what will be intricately linked to the share-out of portfolios in the new European Commission, which will be strongly debated in the coming weeks.

“In the end, it will be one large package which attempts to give every member state something to boast about,” said an EU official.

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