Yesterday, Declan Ganley, founder of Libertas, met with EU President (see 3. below) and supporter of democracy Vaclav Klaus at Prague Castle.
As far as I can make out, the EU has not one but 4, or possibly 7, Presidents, depending on how you count:
1. President of the EU Commission Jose Manuel Barroso (former PM of Portugal) 2004-9
2. President of the European Parliament Hans-Gert Pöttering 2007-9 (German MEP since 1979; highly decorated lawyer and writer; leader of the centre-right European People's Party 199-2007 - the dominant political party grouping in the EU - mainly Christian Democrat.)
3. President of the European Council = Head of Government (Chief Minister) or Head of State (currently President Václav Klaus ) of that country (currently Czech Republic) being the 6 monthly (4.) President of the Council of the European Union = designated government minister(s) = currently: 5. Alexandr Vondra (leading Czech politician),
6. HSH Prince Karl Johannes Nepomuk Josef Norbert Friedrich Antonius Wratislaw Mena von Schwarzenberg (that's one person) and
7. Jan Kohout (from Jan - June 2009 when Sweden takes over - Presidency countries already decided until June 2020). (5.,6. and 7. all successive Czech Foreign Ministers)
source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_the_European_Commission
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_the_European_Parliament
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_People%27s_Party
and links therefrom
(trying to sort this out from EU sources is virtually impossible!)
The UK government pages on this are helpful
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Governmentcitizensandrights/UKgovernment/TheUKandtheworld/DG_073418 or
http://tinyurl.com/p33eap
and states:
The Lisbon Treaty: President of the European Council
The Lisbon Treaty, signed in December 2007, aims to make the changes needed for the EU to work more effectively. One of these changes is to create a permanent, full-time President of the European Council.
The full-time president will be a politician chosen by the leaders of the member states. The president will serve for two and a half years, instead of a country taking charge every six months. This change should provide more continuity.
(No mention of the Irish rejection of the Lisbon treaty!).
If you would like to see greater transparency in EU politics and want to find out more about what the main UK parties' positions are and whether you should give your vote to Libertas on 4th June, try the independent 'votematch' website's questionnaire - takes a few minutes, fun to do and is very revealing!
http://www.votematch.co.uk/
Do the survey, then follow the debates from 'debatewise' for more information. (http://www.debatewise.info/) - supported by both Tony Benn and Boris Johnson!
Yorkshire & The Humber Libertas candidates
These are your Libertas candidates for the Yorkshire and The Humber region:
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