For the inaugural stint in this high-profile function, EU citizens should expect the selection of a decent national statesman, a statesman with impeccable European credentials, a respected and experienced politician, with a genuine ability to convince his former colleagues with the right mix of technical and political skills. Blair is not that man. He is, as the Financial Times's Martin Wolf once stated, just another British populist.

So Tony Blair is being considered for the job of European Union president… If the new, improved, post-Lisbon EU is to have any credibility or integrity, it needs a different leader.