Estonia nominates president for top EU posts
(TALLINN) - Estonia's President Toomas Hendrik Ilves has joined the race to become the European Union's first president, or its foreign policy chief, Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said Thursday.
Ansip told reporters he had informed Sweden, which is currently at the helm of the EU, that he was nominating Ilves for either of the jobs created by the bloc's Lisbon Treaty.
A special summit is to be held in Brussels next Thursday to name the first holders of the two key posts.
Ilves, 55, was born in Sweden to parents who fled the World War II-era Soviet takeover of Estonia.
He was raised in the United States, and later worked in Germany for Radio Free Europe, beaming broadcasts to illegal listeners behind the Iron Curtain.
In 1993, two years after Estonia's independence from the Soviet Union, he joined its diplomatic service. He later became foreign minister and helped kickstart a drive to join the EU in 2004.
A centrist Social Democrat, Ilves was a member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2006, when he was elected Estonia's head of state.
The current favourite for EU president is Belgium's Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy.
Other names mentioned include Dutch Prime Minister Peter Balkenende, former Latvian president Vaira Vike-Freiberga and British ex-premier Tony Blair.
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