Editing William Hague (section)

====Proposal of elected EU presidency====
[[File:Meeting with Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova (8489868406).jpg|thumb|Hague, [[Carl Bildt]] and [[Radosław Sikorski]] meeting [[Vlad Filat]], [[Prime Minister of Moldova]], February 2013]]
In June 2011, Hague dismissed [[Tony Blair]]'s vision for an elected-head of the [[European Union]] by insisting that member states have more pressing priorities than further "constitutional tinkering". Hague made clear his view after Blair argued that a directly elected President of Europe, representing almost 400m people from 27 countries, would give the EU clear leadership and enormous authority. In an interview with ''[[The Times]]'', Blair set out the agenda that he thought a directly elected [[EU President]] should pursue, although he conceded, there was "no chance" of such a post being created "at the present time". Asked about the former Prime Minister's call for further European integration and the creation of an elected-President, Hague suggested that Blair may have been thinking of the role for himself. "I can't think who he had in mind", Hague joked, further adding on a serious note: "Elected presidents are for countries. The EU is not a country and it's not going to become a country, in my view, now or ever in the future. It is a group of countries working together".<ref>{{Cite web|date=9 June 2011|title=William Hague dismisses Tony Blair's vision of European Union presidency|url=http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2011/jun/09/william-hague-dismisses-tony-blair-european-union-presidency|access-date=31 October 2021|website=The Guardian|language=en|archive-date=4 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211104141748/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2011/jun/09/william-hague-dismisses-tony-blair-european-union-presidency|url-status=live}}</ref>