By Eric S Margolis/New York

Henry Kissinger once sarcastically asked who he should call in Europe if the world caught fire.

At the time, the European Union had no chief executive – and still does not.

That has been the EU’s problem since birth. The EU’s power and identity were fragmented between its vast Brussels bureaucracy, the European parliament in Strasbourg and Brussels, the EU Council, and national governments.

Now, after a long, excruciating process of tightening governance and revising rules that culminated in the 2007 Treaty of Lisbon, the 27-member EU is finally ready to name a powerful president of the EU Council. 

However, the EU is having trouble finding the right candidate. Many EU member state leaders or senior bureaucrats are so bland and faceless that Europeans cannot even name them.  

Unfortunately, Europe’s most popular politician, Barack Obama, already has a job.

But just in time for Halloween, Britain’s perennially smiling former prime minister, Tony Blair, has risen from the political grave and been haunting the European Union.

Britain’s current prime minister, Gordon Brown, is urging Blair be named EU president. So, discreetly, is Washington. Blair remains a hero in the US for ardently supporting its foreign wars. 

The glib Blair is light years ahead of many other European politicians when it comes to name recognition, profile, and media glitz. Compared to Blair, the other candidates being considered for the EU presidency, look like zombies.

But Blair is also widely despised, even hated, in much of Europe and Britain. He still bears the curse of George W Bush, on whose lap Blair sat for so long, wagging his tail.

Blair acted as a mouthpiece and facilitator for Bush’s brazen aggression in Iraq. He betrayed his Labour Party, and left Britain looking like an American colony.  

Clare Short, a highly respected former British Labour cabinet minister and MP, summed up Blair:   

“Blair’s craven support for the extremism of US neoconservative foreign policy has exacerbated the danger of terrorism and the instability and suffering of the Middle East.

“He has dishonoured the UK, undermined the UN and international law and helped to make the world a more dangerous place.

Why Blair decided to facilitate Bush’s illegal acts remains a mystery. Political contributions from neoconservatives may have played a role.

In the end, Blair got a lot of British soldiers killed for nothing – not to mention huge numbers of Iraqis and Afghans - and made his nation an enemy of the entire Muslim world. 

Britain’s Labour Party shot a poisoned arrow into Blair’s back last week. Former home secretary Charles Clarke warned Blair would wreck efforts to restore frayed British-EU relations. Britain’s Conservatives warned of “war” with Europe if Blair became its leader.

Off in Brussels, the head of Social Democrats in the EU Parliament warned his bloc would veto Blair for “turning his back on Europe over Iraq”.  Bush’s war against Iraq, bitterly opposed by western Europe, may not have gone ahead without Blair’s fulsome support. 

Germany’s re-elected Chancellor Angela Merkel and France’s President, Nicholas Sarkozy, had reportedly favoured Blair, who has spent a lot of time fawning on these kingmakers. 

But a senior Merkel aid just leaked that she could not bear “listening any more to Mr Flash”. Sarkozy, seeing Blair sinking, just abandoned his candidacy. So, au revoir Tony.  

 Nor have Europeans forgotten how Blair thwarted efforts to bring Britain into the Euro zone or integrate its defenses with the EU. 

Blair continued Britain’s traditional strategy of undermining European unity while pretending to be a friend and supporter. Many called Blair a Trojan Horse for a US intent on keeping Europe weak and divided. He came to symbolize the French stereotype of two-faced Britain as “Perfidious Albion”.

The three leading candidates for the EU presidency are Luxembourg’s capable Prime Minister, Jean-Claude Juncker; Dutch PM Jan Balkenende; and former Finnish MP, Paavo Lipponen.

A triple yawn.  But boring in politics can be a virtue. Most Swiss can’t name their federal president, yet Switzerland runs like a…Swiss watch. Maybe a competent plodder is just what Europe needs. It certainly does not need any more of the Mr Flash.