The paper clip, 20 November

Herman Van Rompuy, Belgium's prime minister, will be the president of the European Council, Catherine Ashton the EU's high representative for foreign and security policy, the EU's leaders decided last night. It is a selection that, naturally, dominates papers across Europe.

The front page of La Libre Belgique has a picture of Van Rompuy with the simple headline “Yes!”. An editorial proclaims: “Yes, he can!” But a columnist in De Standaard says that Van Rompuy will be no European equivalent of Barack Obama. Le Soir's commentator says that, despite the honour done to Belgium, the line-up to lead Europe – Van Rompuy, Ashton and José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission's president – is hardly an inspiring one.

La Libre says Belgium is torn between pride at the honour that Van Rompuy has been chosen and sorrow at losing him from the national government.

De Standaard predicts that Yves Leterme will return to the office of prime minister, with Charles Michel, who is currently the minister for development, taking over as foreign minister. That is also the view of Le Soir.

Svenska Dagbladet writes that Fredrik Reinfeldt can, after having cancelled breakfast at the European Council, order a champagne breakfast at the hotel instead and say: “We did it!”

Unusually, both the liberal Guardian and the eurosceptic tabloid Daily Mail have the same headline, declaring that last night's top jobs summit to be a “great EU stitch-up”. The Daily Mail's gloss on the summit is “low-profile Labour crony is made EU foreign minister – so a fanatical Belgian federalist can become president”. The Sun describes the choice of Van Rompuy as “a humiliating rejection” for former prime minister Tony Blair, while the elevation of Ashton to the post of foreign affairs representative was the UK's consolation prize.  The Times writes that there was “a palpable sense of deflation in Brussels” last night because the two people lack stature.
 
The British papers report that Ashton is a surprising choice. The Daily Telegraph and the Sun focus on her experience in the House of Lords as an unelected junior minister, dismissed by the Sun as “six uneventful years”. The Guardian writes that she has won “strong support and great affection in Brussels” from her year as the European commissioner for trade.

Werner Faymann, the social democrat chancellor of Austria, thinks that Ashton is “a particularly good choice”, writes Die Presse. Faymann had been part of a panel of European socialists who proposed the centre-left candidate - Ashton - after a meeting in the Austrian EU embassy yesterday afternoon.

“Who is that?” was how Romano Prodi, a former president of the European Commission, greeted Ashton's appointment from Washington, according to Die Presse. Prodi said that Massimo D'Alema, the man who succeeded him as Italy's prime minister on his move to Brussels in 1999, would have made an excellent foreign policy chief.

In a commentary, Der Standard writes that the worst-case scenario has come to pass and that the “weakest conceivable duo” had been appointed. The Geneva daily Le Temps is more positive and points to the unquestionable European convictions of the new EU leadership. Denmark's Politiken tries to understand who the new EU leaders are, with one commentator saying that the appointments show that the member states do not want the new posts to be anything. El País writes that the EU has appointed two unknowns. In an editorial, the paper writes that with the appointment, the EU has become much greyer. El Mundo writes that the unknowns will have grand titles but little real power. An article in Die Welt describes the appointments as “the lowest common denominator”.

Libération says that the choice of persons to fill the two senior posts shows “that Europe has lowered its ambition”. The piece quotes French President Nicolas Sarkozy saying that he had wanted a “strong president” of the European Council such as Tony Blair. Sarkozy said that he believed Herman Van Rompuy would be able to “negotiate well” on behalf of the EU and rejected suggestions that he was a “last resort”.

Le Monde reports that Michel Barnier, a former foreign minister of France, is expected to get the internal market portfolio including financial services in the next European Commission. The article says that Barnier will get the dossier in exchange for French support for Ashton as the high representative for foreign policy. Le Figaro writes that Sarkozy said that Michel Barnier would get “important responsibilities” in the next European Commission without specifying which job he was seeking.
 
The Irish Times leads its coverage with US President Barack Obama's official welcome of the appointments. Die Welt reports that Obama has congratulated the two appointees to the senior EU jobs, saying the decision would make the EU a “stronger partner”. The piece also quotes German Chancellor Angela Merkel saying the appointments were “compromise decisions”. Süddeutsche Zeitung carries a piece describing Van Rompuy as “an experienced mediator” and Ashton as a “sympathetic baroness”. A comment piece says that petty considerations prevented the EU choosing the best qualified candidates for the jobs.

Le Monde's profile of Ashton describes her as “discrete”, “consensual” and a quick learner.  Le Figaro carries a piece on Ashton which quotes an unnamed British diplomat saying “she's not [Winston] Churchill”, the UK's wartime leader.

A commentator for Gazeta Wyborcza headlines his piece “No fireworks, common sense prevails” and writes that the choices are “reasonable. Yes for Europe and for the Polish.” A commentator for Dziennik laments the decision by EU leaders not to follow a Polish proposal – to require the candidates to present the case for themselves publicly.

Like many papers, Hospodárské noviny has a profile of Van Rompuy, headlining his nickname as the “watchmaker” – or master-craftsman – “of compromises”. Hungary's Népszabadság is another with a profile, one that explores the qualities that Van Rompuy brought to his job as Belgium's prime minister. Le Monde's profile calls him a “joker in the European pack”. Berlingske Tidende puts much focus on Van Rompuy's education in philosophy and that Ashton is what many wanted: a woman.

Der Standard points that none of the EU's most important posts has gone to a candidate from central or eastern Europe; the most prominent EU office-holder from the region is Jerzy Buzek, president of the European Parliament.

Last night's selections will remove one of the question marks hanging over the composition of the next European Commission, as Ashton will also have a seat in the Commission. Berlingske Tidende writes that with only three member states left to nominate their next European commissioners, José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, has said that he expects at least two of them to be women. Denmark's Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen is widely expected to appoint Connie Hedegaard, the climate and energy minister, but Eva Kjer Hansen, the environment minister, and Bertil Haarder, the education minister, have also been mentioned.