Herman Van Rompuy, new head of the EU

Herman Van Rompuy: quirky exterior conceals sharp operator London Telegraph — During his candidacy, he was portrayed as the perfect conciliator with valuable experience as Belgium's Prime Minister of bridging the divide between the warring Flemish and Walloon communities and holding his country together. The "ideal candidate", said Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, for bring "consensus and cohesion" to a fractious EU of 27 member states. In reality, and behind his harmless, eccentric and literary persona, Mr Van Rompuy, 62, is a sharp political operator who is not above using dirty tricks to stymie his opponents. click to read complete article

New EU president wins fans in Japan -- as a poet Reuters — Herman Van Rompuy, the European Union's new president, may not be very well known around the world but he's already winning fans in Japan -- as a poet rather than a politician. Belgium's low-key prime minister is fond of writing haiku -- three-line Japanese poems of just 17 syllables -- and is building a reputation with Japanese poets less than 24 hours after he got the newly-created job. click to read complete article

New EU president raises fears in aspirant Turkey Reiuters — Herman Van Rompuy's appointment as the first European Union president provoked fears in Turkey that he might hinder Ankara's hopes of joining the bloc, with some media declaring outright that he is anti-Turkish. Turkish newspapers were quick to dig out past comments attributed to Van Rompuy that the EU's Christian values would lose vigor if Muslim Turkey were let in. click to read complete article