LONDON: Former British premier Tony Blair may have been rejected as EU president, but the snub leaves him free him to pursue his dizzying array of activities—not least making money, experts said yesterday.

Blair, Middle East envoy since leaving office two years ago, will almost certainly “bounce back” and take another major international role, they said.

The 56-year-old was at one stage frontrunner for the new European Union job, but was dropped in favour of low-profile Belgian premier Herman van Rompuy, chosen for the new EU job in Brussels on Thursday night. “I think it will be something of a relief,” Professor Richard Whitman of the respected London thinktank Chatham House said, citing two reasons. “The first being the consequences which it would have had for him financially, in terms of loss of earnings... but the second reason would be that he wouldn’t have had anything like the freedom to speak his own mind.”

Hours after leaving Downing Street in June 2007, Blair was named envoy of the so-called Middle East Quartet, representing the United States, European Union, Russia and United Nations. But while spending a reported 10 days a month in the region he has developed a vast number of other projects, among the most high-profile of which have been promoting inter-faith dialogue.

While those activities make little cash, he earns handsome sums from clients including JP Morgan Chase and Zurich Financial, and commands huge fees on the global lecture circuit.