"Belgian Emerges as Favorite for New Top E.U. Post" - NYTimes.com

I suppose we can all warm to this fellow, if he gets the nod, but I wonder how this will play outside of Europe, let alone within the EU. I don't mean simply how will it be received, but rather how useful will this person turn out to be in representing the interests of Europe? This all seems to be headed toward not amounting to much.