Carving up the EU top jobs – should you care?

Am on the Eurostar heading for the Brussels carve-up of top jobs.

Word last night from the Blair camp was that their man has pretty much given up on getting the presidency of the European Council.

Word from Paris and Berlin that they see the job as an internal affairs post dealing with issues like the EU budget makes it easier to handle – that was never the job TB was interested in.

So after 5pm, 27 of, by definition, the most power-crazed and crafty individuals in all Europe will begin an arduous multi-handed game of multi-dimensional chess.

They want to dish out the president and foreign policy jobs plus the new Commission. There will be some reserve card surprise names in some leaders’ back pockets, but if the leaders don’t see the presidency as anything more than a chairing role should you care?

The French and the Germans have made it clear they do not want this to drag on beyond this summit and add a final sorry chapter to the history of a treaty that has been years in the making and unmaking.

The UK is after a major economic portfolio in the Commission and can be expected to wave that as a diplomatic triumph when all this concludes.