EU leaders together for start of First World War centenary

The leaders of the 28 EU countries took a few hours off bickering over who should lead the European Commission to remember the day, 100 years ago, when the First World War began, taking 16m lives in just four years.

They stood shoulder to shoulder, those who were once friend and foe, ally and enemy in the town of Ypres that was raised from the ashes to make its tourism livelihood from the graveyards of Flanders fields.

They walked to the Menin gate — a long archway covered in the names of the war dead who were never found — most tense and silent in the afternoon sun.

Each stood in front of their national flag — most of which did not exist in 1914 when the world went to war over the rights of small nations and the hope of independence for many.

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them”, read Herman Van Rompuy, representing the EU

After ‘The Last Post’ and ‘Ode to Joy’, a flurry of blood red paper poppy petals rained down on the leaders from the circular openings in the archway.

On the way to the town ramparts David Cameron — something of a pariah now among EU leaders who want to get on with electing Jean-Claude Juncker — stopped their progress to point out the name of his granduncle on a wall.

Mr Van Rompuy said that, as a person, he would “prefer to keep silence here, thinking of those forever silenced in these fields”. But, as EU president, he had to remind them about how Europe marched to the abyss, sleep-walked into a war a full 100 years after the previous pan-European war.

German chancellor Angela Merkel looked particularly touched. She was the most recognised by the small crowds of Flanders citizens gathered in Ypres to watch the leaders walk the few hundred yards to the Menin Gate.

The walk back to where they begin discussions over dinner on what they want the EU to do for the next five years was a more relaxed affair. It was obvious that, even before they sat down, they were back to business. Mr Cameron with Ms Merkel, Mr Hollande with Ms Merkel, the Dutch with the Swedes.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny remained tightlipped about who he will send to Brussels as Irish Commissioner. He had a first talk with Mr Juncker last Saturday.

There were a number of portfolios that would be of particular interest to Ireland, he said.

Earlier, former Europe Minister and Fine Gael TD Lucinda Creighton said she and her alliance would be bringing a bill to the Dáil to have any nominee come before the Oireachtas for scrutiny — and she believed it would be better if the person chosen were not a member of the Oireachtas or the cabinet.

“Ireland needs someone with the skills, a heavy hitter, like John Bruton”, she said on her way into the European People’s Party meeting of which she is still a vice-president — a post she got when Mr Kenny resigned two years ago.