The following are editorial opinions from newspapers from around the world which may be of interest to Royal Gazette readers.

International Herald-Tribune, Paris, on the European Union's new leaders

The initial reaction across much of Europe to the selection of Herman Van Rompuy and Catherine Ashton to the new top positions in the European Union was, basically, Who? Their relative anonymity, as well as the almost routine manner of their selection, were especially striking after years of heated debate over whether the EU should have a strong president and foreign minister.

The battle included bitter referendums, disputes and leaks — many of the most recent swirling around Britain's Tony Blair as the sort of charismatic leader who could raise the EU's profile in international affairs. In the end, the EU did what it always does — it took the safe, non-threatening route. Which, apart from being inevitable, is not bad.

Mr. Van Rompuy, who will fill the new office of president of the European Council, is a center-right, Haiku-writing politician who has been prime minister of Belgium for less than a year and is little known outside his country. Mrs. Ashton, formally Baroness Ashton of Upholland, who becomes the first high representative of the European Union for foreign affairs and security policy, is a Labour politician from Britain who has served as European commissioner for trade for the past year and is little known even in her own country. ...

Leading the EU is basically a process of consensus-building, and here both Mr. Van Rompuy and Mrs. Ashton have fairly solid credentials. A veteran of Belgian Christian Democratic politics, the low-key, ascetic Mr. Van Rompuy was tapped by Belgium's King Albert II last December to heal a serious rift between the Flemish and French-speakers. To a great extent he did (leading to no small anxiety in Belgium over what will happen when he moves on next month).

Mrs. Ashton, for her part, was credited with steering the Lisbon Treaty, intended to streamline and strengthen the EU, through a hostile British House of Lords, and she has won considerable respect in her current EU trade job. These achievements, of course, do not amount to a wealth of experience on the world stage, and the debate over how strong the EU's leadership should be will rage on. But that debate is really over how much power its members are willing to cede to Brussels. So far they've preferred to remain a relatively loose coalition, and that requires leaders more adept at coordinating and cajoling than at summiteering. Mr. Van Rompuy and Mrs. Ashton seem to fit the bill, and we wish them well.