EU President takes office as Lisbon Treaty enters force

The EU's first President Herman Van Rompuy and its new foreign affairs chief took office yesterday as the Lisbon Treaty came into force, amid concerns at such low-profile leaders for the new Europe.

"Today EU citizens are heading into a new era," said Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose nation retains the old-style rotating European Union presidency until the end of the year.

"Today is the first day for a more efficient, more modern and more democratic EU, for all citizens," he added in a statement as the treaty, which had a long and difficult gestation, finally took effect.

Mr Van Rompuy, already on a tour of European capitals, made more of a low-key entrance into new Europe.

Speaking in Slovenia, one of three stops yesterday, he said his "key words will be continuity and coherence".

Later in Milan he promised to "listen carefully" and "take into account the interests and sensitivities of everyone."

He will certainly do more listening than orating until the new year, keen not to step on the toes of the Swedes.

Mr Van Rompuy, who was previously Belgium's Prime Minister, told journalists in Ljubljana that he would not make any political statements until 2010.

However, the softly-softly approach has not prevented him declaring himself a "European federalist", while assuring he is "not a fundamentalist", a comment bound to send shivers down eurosceptic spines.

Doubts remained that President Van Rompuy and Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton, a British peer and formerly EU Trade Commissioner, were the dream ticket to lead Europe and stand shoulder to shoulder with the likes of the United States and China.

Europe's first President will be "more of a 'chairman President' than a leader President'," said Thierry Chopin of the Robert Schuman Foundation think-tank.

Indeed it may suit some of the bigger EU member states not to have a political heavyweight presiding over them.

The treaty, drawn up to replace the aborted EU Constitution, is designed to boost the bloc's global standing and streamline the institutions which represent half a billion people in 27 countries.

"The Treaty of Lisbon puts citizens at the centre of the European project," European Commission President José Manuel Barroso said in a statement.