Stubb made Finland's new Foreign Minister

Following on swiftly from Jens Peter Bonde’s announcement that he will step down in 2009, it has now been revealed that Alexander Stubb will resign as an MEP with immediate effect to become Finland’s Foreign Minister.

While Bonde was one of the longest serving MEPs, Stubb, who sits in the EPP group, was only elected in 2004 but swiftly made an impact with his never ending enthusiasm, championing of the EU and his desire to see Britain really engage more with the EU (his wife is from Britain).

Stubb quickly became one of the most recognisable faces around Parliament and his website still gives you some insight into how he doesn’t follow the nerdish stereotype attributed to some of us on the Constitutional Affairs committee.

I’m sure Alex will do an excellent job in his new role and I’m confident he will not make the same mistake as his predecessor who was forced to quit after the Finnish papers discovered he sent 200 texts to a member of the Scandinavian Dolls erotic dance troupe, most of which were apparently quite keen to forge international relations of some sort or another.