Merkel says nein to President Blair

Tony Blair's plans for a good life after Downing Street have been going well so far - the £5m book deal, the big-bucks meet-and-greet sinecures with international corporations. But his plan to get himself installed as President of Europe - a job that has opened up under the EU's controversial Lisbon treaty - is running into opposition.

In particular, the Germans are set against it. "There was surprise in Berlin when Blair's name came up so soon," a European ambassador told the Guardian. "His track record on EU matters is not so great. There is unease about a Briton at the top in that job. And then personally with Blair, there's the Iraq thing."

Sources close to the German Chancellor Angela Merkel confirmed that, although she likes and admires Blair, she feels he is not a good enough European to deserve the role. "He made a lot of fine speeches about Europe but, essentially, stood on the sidelines when it came to concrete steps forward," they said.

Blair can expect solid support from France - it was President Sarkozy who first promoted him for the job - and from Italy if his old summer holiday host Silvio Berlusconi wins back the premiership in the upcoming election. But elsewhere, there's clearly a Stop Blair campaign developing. A senior EU official in Brussels told the Guardian: "The feeling here about Blair is that he never stuck his neck out for Europe. All the political risk he took was transatlantic, always towards Washington, never for Europe. His chances are dim. Merkel is against."

Whether there will be tears at the Blair's Connaught Square home if he is denied the presidency is open to conjecture. The job, yet to be fully defined at a meeting of EU ambassadors next month, is expected to pay about £200,000 a year - peanuts compared with Blairs' earnings at JP Morgan and Zurich insurance, both of which consultancies he would probably have to give up.