High representative-in-waiting?

It was at the EU summit in Brussels on 29 June 2004 that government leaders designated Javier Solana as EU foreign minister-in-waiting. That was in the days when people still dreamed that the EU constitution might come to pass. The reform treaty has downgraded the job to ‘High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy'. But Solana has thrown off his earlier mid-term blues and, it seems, is looking to be the first wearer of the two hats of EU foreign minister and vice-president of the European Commission. So what chance of a European Council designating him high representative-in-waiting? It seems that Solana has the support of Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, and possibly even of Gordon Brown, the UK prime minister, who sees Solana as a good Atlanticist. But it seems that he faces greater difficulty in winning over Angela Merkel, the German chancellor. Christopher Heusgen, formerly of the Council secretariat, now Merkel's adviser, must be looking on with interest.