If Haiku Herman's the EU pointman, what's the point?

PARIS - "Who do I call if I want to speak to Europe?" Henry Kissinger once reputedly asked.

The barb famously deflated the European Union's craving for greatness on the world stage. After all, how could a federation of nation-states aspire to superpower status when it had neither a president nor a government to represent it?

Well, Mr K, it's time for you to eat your words. For Europe, bolstered by a revolutionary new treaty to overhaul its messy decision-making, this year gave itself a single voice.

Its 27 nations boldly came together, naming a statesman to represent the half billion souls of the world's greatest trade bloc, a colossus that reaches from the Arctic Circle to the Mediterranean, from the Atlantic to the Black Sea.

So if ever Washington, the Kremlin or Beijing want to call Europe, there's a man who will take your call: Haiku Herman, that's who.

Okay... Barack Obama, Dimitry Medvedev and Hu Jintao, I can see you floundering at this point, so let me give you a little help.

Your European pointman is someone called Herman van Rompuy, a balding, bespectacled, mild-mannered 62-year-old centre-right former Belgian Prime Minister with a perpetually surprised look on his face.

Other than an ability to pen verse in Flemish that mimics the syllabic structure as Japanese poetry, Van Rompuy's fame is based on his ability to navigate the grey waters of Belgian politics, using endless patience, backroom deal-making and consensus.

But his greatest asset is that nobody hates him and nobody feels threatened by him, and this makes him ideal for the top EU job.

It took the EU's members years of struggle to complete and ratify the Lisbon Treaty. In so doing, they gave themselves the chance of naming a heavyweight who would plant the 12-gold-stars-on-blue flag of Europe on the world landscape.

Instead, in a spectacular act of sabotage, its leaders went for a low-profile consensus candidate - someone who would yield to national capitals rather than kick their butts.

"We are all Belgians now," the Economist headlined witheringly.

The federalist dream has once more been squished by the power of the nation-state, where political careers are still forged.

There was similarly bad news on Europe's hope of reviving its relationship with Washington after the eight-year nightmare with George W. Bush.

At a Nato summit on the borders of France and Germany, Obama spoke sweetly about wanting to revive the Atlantic alliance but said and did no more. He left French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown confused and rather humiliated at his lukewarm response to their overtures. Sarkozy seems particularly miffed.

Mark Leonard, executive director of a new think-tank, the European Council on Foreign Relations, says Europe should understand that its disappointment has deep roots.

"Over the past half century, Europeans have been infantilised by America - whether in the form of Atlanticism or anti-Americanism," he says.

"Today's Washington is less focused on Europe and forges its own policies with other powers, which may not always be in tune with European interests."

The year ended catastrophically for Europe's vision of leading the world to a lower carbon future at the UN summit in Copenhagen.

Yet the EU could only sit back impotently as the heads of the United States, China, India and Brazil and other emerging powers sat around a table on December 18, gutting a draft accord of almost every important figure.

European environment ministers have launched an emergency assessment to try to understand how Europe became sidelined at the critical moment.

"After years of struggle for the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty and its promise of renewed political vigour for the EU on the international scene, Europe has so far failed to live up to its expectations," says Joris den Blanken of Greenpeace, in words strangely echoing those of Henry Kissinger. "If it wants to save the world from a climate crisis, the EU must put an end to its leadership crisis first."