Quadriga # Europe's New Leadership - a Missed Opportunity? # 27.11.2009

With the Lisbon Treaty, the EU intended to simplify the ground rules for the 27 member states, so that Europe would have "one face and one voice." And the heads of state and government reached agreement surprisingly quickly - they shunned all risk and earned international ridicule in return. Britain's EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton is to become the bloc's foreign minister, while Belgian Prime Minister Herman van Rompuy was nominated for the position of Council President. They're two unfamiliar names, even for many insiders. The outcome has been an object lesson in how the EU works and what its current possibilities are.