EU president to get jet... So Tony might finally get his 'Blair Force One'

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The proposed full-time EU president is to be given a lavish private jet and his own palatial official residence, it emerged today.

The new leader will also be able to appoint a "cabinet" of 22 advisers, under expensive new plans being considered in Brussels.

It could mean that Tony Blair - the current frontrunner for the new post which comes into effect next year - could finally get the "Blair Force One" he was denied as prime minister. The terms of the new president were discussed at a secret "working dinner" held on Tuesday between José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, and EU ambassadors, the Telegraph reported.

Current proposals suggest an EU presidential team up to 22 people - nine more than the cabinet Mr Barroso presides over.

Other EU member states have urged that the new president be granted an official "White House" style residence worthy of his status.

Also, as with the U.S. premier, some diplomats have argued the new "President of the Council" will need an Air Force One-style jet to ferry him around the globe.

And under French plans the new figurehead would play a key role in forming a a NATO-like European defence "vanguard group" of up to eight countries.

One diplomat described the talks at Tuesday's dinner as "very informal". No notes were taken.

But the Conservatives attacked the talks, held before the EU treaty has been fully debated and ratified at Westminster.

William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary, told the Telegraph: "This shows how deeply undemocratic this whole process is.

"Crucial questions about the EU are being decided and Parliament, let alone the British people, is being kept in the dark.

"Ministers must now come clean about what they've been up to as the treaty is scrutinised in the Lords."

Open Europe, the Eurosceptic think-tank, said that the launch of informal negotiations about the role of the new president highlighted "contempt for the public".

"EU politicians claim that the Lisbon Treaty will make the EU more transparent and accessible to voters, but this latest example of secretive horse-trading shows that if it ever does come into force it will be business as usual in Brussels," said Paul Stephenson, its spokesman.