Pointless Position?

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-27646218
I'd rather they had a big push to find and accountant bent enough to sign off the accounts! What does the "president" actually do? I mean I've barely heard a peep out of rumpy pumpy. I tend to agree with this chap:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqovTGjYjM4

[New Judge]

It's strange why European politicians often bear uncanny resemblances to celebrities of yesteryear. This bloke, Jean-Claude Junkers88 or whoever (whom I feel sure nobody outside Luxembourg had ever heard of until today) is a dead ringer for Peter Sellers. France's M. Hollande could be a stand-in for Phil "Sgt Bilko" Silvers. David Cameron, of course, is the perfect reincarnation (though not quite so bright) of Plum Wodehouse's Bertram Wilberforce Wooster especially when played by the late Ian Carmichael. However, all by the by.

Hermann Van Rompy-Pompy, whom Mr Farage so famously derided, is not the President of the European Commission. He is the first full-time President of the European Council. This is (yet another) position chosen by Euro Maniacs in private and therefore he is not elected directly by the citizens of Europe.

However, it seems the recent European elections wee not the waste of time many of us believed they were:

"EU leaders traditionally choose the Commission head on their own, but under new rules have to "take into account" ."

Wow! they now have to "take into account" (but are presumably free to ignore entirely) the results of the European parliamentary elections.

The President of the European Commission (present incumbent one Jose Manuel Barroso) is an enormously powerful post. He or she is responsible for allocating portfolios to members of the Commission and can reshuffle or dismiss them if needed. It is the Commission that determines the EU's and the Commission alone is the only body that can propose EU laws).

So we must all wait and see what shady deals are done over agreeable dinners at various "summits" on the continent before we are told who is to head the outfit that frames upwards of 75% of our laws.

[New Judge]

^^^
(It is the Commission that determines the EU's policies and legislation...