The EU’s first President, Herman van Rompuy, officially took office today as the bloc’s reforming Lisbon Treaty entered into force, the Daily Telegraph reports.
Baroness Catherine Ashton at the same time became the European Union’s foreign policy chief – a post dubbed “EU foreign minister”.
The 27 EU heads of state and government chose van Rompuy, who was the serving Belgian Prime Minister, for the top jobs at a summit this month after much behind-the-scenes horse-trading. The …

Italy’s Foreign Minister Franco Frattini proposes the creation of a European army after the “new Europe” takes shape at this week’s EU summit following the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty, The Times reports.
Frattini said that the Lisbon Treaty had established “that if some countries want to enter into reinforced co-operation between themselves they can do so”. This was already the case with the euro and the Schengen accords on frontier-free travel, and could now be …

Latvia and Finland are theoretically prepared to support Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves for the President of the European Union, Estonian media reports.
Latvian Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis said that Ilves is an honourable candidate for the unelected EU presidency.
Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen said today that Finland is ready to support Ilves as the EU President.

The European Union will hold a special summit on 19th November to decide the new top jobs of EU President and foreign policy chief, the BBC reports.
The appointments will be made by the leaders of the 27 member states, by a qualified majority vote.
On Monday Sweden’s Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said he was half-way through consultations with the governments on their preferred candidates.
Under the Lisbon Treaty, the President of the European Council will be appointed …

Foreign Secretary David Miliband rejected the chance to become European Union’s foreign minister, the BBC reports.
Miliband told the head of the European socialists’ group he was not interested in the job, and friends have indicated that he “sees his future in British politics”.
BBC’s political editor Nick Robinson said Miliband had rejected the lure of high office in Brussels for the uncertainty of life in a Labour…

Conservative MEP and leading eurosceptic Daniel Hannan resigned as Tories’ European legal spokesman only two months after taking up the post in protest at his party’s stance on the Lisbon Treaty, the Daily Telegraph reports.
Hannan became the Tory spokesman on legal affairs in the European Parliament in September.
Last night Hannan said that he would be returning to the back benches in order to campaign for direct democracy that will see power in the hands …

Conservative leader David Cameron promised today that never again will powers be transferred from the UK to Brussels without a referendum, like it has happened with the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty.
Cameron said that all future treaties would be put to a public vote as he outlined his new European policy after ruling out a referendum on the Lisbon treaty, the BBC reports. He also promised a sovereignty bill if the Tories…

The Conservatives last night formally conceded that their campaign to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty had failed, the Daily Telegraph reports.
Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague admitted that after the treaty was yesterday ratified by Czech President Vaclav Klaus, the party had no option but to abandon their attempts to force a vote on what is effectively a European Union Constitution.
Instead, Conservative leader David Cameron will today attempt to explain how an incoming Tory …

Czech President Vaclav Klaus signed the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty today, Reuters reports.
Klaus was the last EU leader to ratify the treaty and his signature, coming after the top Czech court cleared the pact, means the bloc of nearly half a billion people can pick its first-ever long-time president and a more powerful foreign representative.
“I signed the Lisbon Treaty today at 15:00 (local time, 2pm GMT),” Klaus said.
Earlier today, the Czech constitutional court ruled that …

The Czech constitutional court has ruled that the Lisbon Treaty is in line with the constitution, clearing the way for President Vaclav Klaus to sign it, the BBC reports.
The Czech Republic is the only EU member yet to ratify the treaty, and the decision removes one of the last hurdles for its passage.
The eurosceptic Klaus, who was awaiting the court’s decision, has said he will not further oppose the treaty. If he signs, that would pave the way for the treaty to come into effect throughout the EU on 1st December.

Conservative leader David Cameron signalled that a Conservative Government would be unable to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty once it is ratified, the Daily Telegraph reports.
Cameron said that once the document is endorsed by all 27 EU members, it will “not be a treaty” and will instead be part of European law.
Only the Czech Republic is still to ratify the treaty, which will create a new European President and end British vetoes in more than 50 areas of EU policy. However, the Czechs are likely to sign later this month…

Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer said yesterday that his country would ratify the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty by the year’s end if the text gets a go-ahead from top judges next week, the Daily Telegraph reports.
The treaty cleared a major hurdle yesterday as the EU agreed on an exemption to it as a final condition by eurosceptic Czech President Vaclav Klaus, the last EU leader holding out on signing the text.
The Czech Republic is the …

Think-tank Open Europe say that the Lisbon Treaty will hasten the creation of a “European surveillance state”, the Daily Telegraph reports.
Open Europe said that the ratification of the controversial treaty will see powers over home affairs and justice policy “almost totally shifted to the EU level”. That will allow the creation of new EU-wide systems to monitor citizens’ private lives and movements, they added.
If the Treaty takes force, individual member-states’ ability to veto new EU-wide measures …

Czech President Václav Klaus, who is the last hurdle to full ratification of the Lisbon treaty, has made a final attempt to derail the agreement, The Times reports.
In a submission to the Czech constitutional court, which will decide tomorrow whether the treaty is compatible with the country’s constitution, Klaus has suggested that it should be subject to a referendum. He attacked the EU notion of “shared sovereignty” as a contradiction that effectively means a loss of …

Czech President Vaclav Klaus is satisfied with an EU proposal that meets demands he made for an opt-out on the bloc’s Lisbon Treaty, the BBC reports.
Klaus wanted an opt-out from the Charter of Fundamental Rights which covers EU citizens’ rights. He was concerned the charter could allow property claims by Germans expelled from Czechoslovakia after World War II to circumvent courts.
“The president… received the Swedish presidency’s proposal which is a response to his request related to …

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband has become a surprise contender for the new post of EU foreign minister as an anti-Blair bandwagon gathers pace, The Times reports.
While the possibility of ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair becoming the new president of European Union has dominated debate in Britain, a growing number of EU capitals have been quietly focusing on the merits of Miliband.
No one in Europe believes that both of the prestigious new posts created in the …