They both seem like reasonable appointments to me although only time will tell for sure. I'd be all for electing these officials but the reforms needed to allow that would never get through as the press would run wild with headlines of how German, French ect voters are able to vote on a position affecting the UK (even though they currently run wild with how they feel everything is so undemocratic).
I'm glad this treaty was never put to a referendum in the UK as it would surely have been rejected by ignorant people who get all their facts on Europe from the tabloids. This treaty fixes many of the problems euro-sceptics often bang on about such as reducing the size of the European commission and making the EU as a whole far more efficient. Interestingly these points are rarely mentioned in the press as they prefer running with stories about bendy banana rules.
It also baffles me how people still consider the press to be left wing. Surely no one can really consider Murdoch's empire to be 'leftist'? Or for that matter the rest of the UK tabloids? The only media I can understand to be considered 'left-wing' is perhaps the Guardian and the Independant (maybe that's because although they're not perfect they actually report the news instead of using attention grapping headlines to push their anti-EU agenda).
