If I Were In The EU Leadership

There is a rare gem of a politician and leader who may be lost to premature retirement or even resentment. Tony Blair, the innovative, courageous and combative British Prime Minister, is on his way out. Having helped to create New Labour and led the party to three successive general elections, he has bowed to voter-bashings over the Iraq misadventure to announce that he would not stand in the next election. Heir-apparent and prime minister-in-waiting Gordon Brown, his soul mate and finance minister of 10 years, is warming up. Rightly so.

The media is agog with news, gossips, theories and conspiracies about the goings-on within the government and the party at large for and against the early departure of Tony Blair. No matter. May it all end sensibly and sensitively. Both the party and its leader need that. The country must get its due.

As we have seen over the years and around the world, Bill Clinton and Tony Blair are good leaders with their fair share of human failings and trajectories. Clinton is now doing so much good around the globe, like Jimmy Carter before him, and Nelson Mandela out of office. I see Blair in that mould. Except that we need a different way of utilising his immense talent and boundless energy. A way that preserves his legacy and friendship with his party and successor. He is also still young, to boot. Yes, a creative and new way.

If it were possible, he should be the next UN Secretary General. No chance, I hear. And I can understand. The best job for him now is something I suggest is begging to happen: Help the EU transform Europe. Give it any title you like, the kernel is that Europe needs an extra-ordinary intervention package for the new millennium. Using former national leaders has served it well. In Tony Blair, it should reap the same. I think he can help Europe restructure, redesign, retool and reposition over the next five years.

As Transformation Czar, he will bring commitment, courage, content and competitiveness to the block. He will help secure the UK's full embrace of the EU, especially with Gordon Brown in charge. I believe that he can sell the New Europe to the younger generations of Europeans, and help other member states see the need for urgent reforms. And the gains therefrom.

The world needs the EU for balance and security. The EU needs to wake up to the challenges of this millennium in all aspects of its ways and means. No choice. The embattled EU Constitution needs a new salesman. That man, I strongly suggest, is Tony Blair.

If I were in the European Union Leadership, I would move to get Blair out of the way of any acrimonious parting of ways with his party, and whisk him to Brussels with his reputation still in place, so he may serve a wider mandate on a unique world stage. Neither Europe nor the United Kingdom should waste Tony Blair. No!