(Herman Van Rompuy)

Herman Van Rompuy was appointed the first ever “President of the European Union”, the unelected leader of Europe was relatively unknown outside of his home country of Belgium. Herman’s speech went on to say “2009 is the first year of global governance”, proclaiming a global government (the G20) is in place to address the global economic situation. While paying homage to each European country’s culture, overall, the President as expected gave a speech in which he claimed the European Union was of benefit to every member country and not a “zero-sum game” (a game with a winner and a loser).

The appointment of the new President of the European Union comes on the heels of more Euroskeptic countries winning seats in the European Union. In a recent election, the UK Independence Party (UKIP) won 13 seats in the European parliament with 16.5 percent of the vote, making them the third largest political party in the United Kingdom’s EU elections, only behind the Labour and Conservative parties.