European Union's New Leaders
2009-11-20 9:42
The European Union has filled its two high-profile job vacancies. Yesterday, Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy was named as president, while Britain's Catherine Ashton will be the new foreign policy chief.
Both are well-qualified for their new posts.
Van Rompuy got the most support from France and Germany to be the president of the EU Council.
As Belgium’s prime minister for only a year, he proved to be a sharp and efficient operator.
He won high praise for bringing Belgium's long-divided Flemish and French-speaking communities closer together.
Ashton spent the past year serving as the EU's trade commissioner. Although she had relatively little experience in foreign affairs, she earned a reputation as being an astute negotiator.
In her time as trade commissioner, Ashton has been key in bringing the United States and India together, starting a round of world trade talks.
Ashton has also brokered the EU's largest foreign trade agreement. It's a 150 billion dollar deal with South Korea, solving two of the EU's hardest to manage trade disputes.
