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Updated Friday, November 20, 2009 10:17 am TWN, By Timothy Heritage, Reuters

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EU struggles to boost image on world stage

“However, I do feel very strongly that if this person is going to be the face to the outside world, that face — if he or she is known from the beginning — should stamp his or her authority as soon as possible.”

Many non-EU diplomats say they fear the Union will not resolve anything if it does not choose a well-known leader as president, a role being created under the bloc's Lisbon reform treaty to help make decision-making smoother.

They say it is not clear who will be the most important leader at meetings with the EU because they could be attended by the new president, who will head the Council of EU leaders, the European Commission president, the foreign affairs chief and representatives of the country that holds the EU presidency. The latter is an organizational role which each member state holds for six months in turn.

“The EU is complicating something that is already complicated. We don't know who we will have to speak to first at meetings,” said a senior diplomat from an Asian country. “While they are wrapped up in all this, Obama is touring Asia. The EU doesn't seem to understand.”

The focus on the jobs, and delays in securing ratification of the Lisbon treaty, have held up the appointment of a new European Commission, forcing it to operate on a caretaker basis with limited power. It should have been replaced on Nov. 1. Iceland's foreign minister said this week that this had delayed EU approval for the island to formally launch accession negotiations.

“We are finding it hard to get things done while they deal with internal matters,” said a diplomat from a Latin American country.

The EU has united as a trading power, is a powerful anti-trust watchdog and is an influential force in efforts to tackle the effects of global warming. But political analysts say internal divisions must be overcome and national leaders must start to think in global terms if the bloc, which represents 495 million people, is to turn its economic strength into political influence.

“There is a lack of unity and each country is too small to affect the world economy on its own,” said Daniel Gros, Director of the Center for European Policy Studies think-tank in Brussels.

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