After listening to the song We Are One marking the finale of tonight’s Berlin Wall celebrations, European leaders will head for dinner to fight over the top jobs in the European Union of 27 nations made possible by the events of 1989.
The back-room politicking over the EU’s first president and foreign minister, far removed from voters, may seem an unsavoury contrast with the lofty hopes for a democratic and unified Europe unleashed 20 years ago on the same spot.
But it was EU leaders who gave themselves the power to choose their own president in the Lisbon treaty, an agreement driven by the need to streamline EU business after the accession of the former Iron Curtain countries. The discussions are being led by Fredrik