The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburg have come up with a profile of a future EU president. Suitable job candidates should have the stature of a prime minister or head of state.

According to the profile, the future president should have experience in the European Council and be an international political heavyweight. He or she should be an EU devotee, but be prepared to listen to individual member states.

The position of president will be created if the Lisbon Treaty comes into force, which looks increasingly likely since the Irish referendum ‘yes’ vote at the weekend.

Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende is increasingly being touted for the job of president. Indeed, during the recent budget debate, opposition critics of Mr Balkenende suggested that he had his mind more on a future job as EU president than on his present one as Dutch prime minister.

EU information website EurActive.com recently quoted an unnamed “leading Dutch source in Brussels” as saying that Mr Balkenende “definitely wants the job” and is conducting a “very subtle lobbying campaign” to be in the running. According to EurActiv.com he could count on the backing of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. However, on Friday Mr Balkenende denied that he was a candidate for the post.

Up to now, the only official candidate is former British prime minister Tony Blair. But other names that keep cropping up as possibilities are the prime ministers of the two countries which have come up with the candidate profile along with the Netherlands – Luxemburg’s Jean-Claude Juncker and Belgium’s Herman Van Rompuy.

On Monday the Benelux foreign ministers presented their presidential profile proposal to the country that currently holds the rotating EU presidency, Sweden.