Posted on 06/27/2004 10:38:51 PM PDT by Pikamax
Blair's Man to Take over European Commission
By Geoff Meade, Europe editor, PA News in Brussels
The credentials of the compromise candidate for President of the European Commission have been questioned just hours after his name was confirmed by Irish premier Bertie Ahern.
The nomination of Portuguese prime minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso has won a wide consensus in EU capitals and will be put forward formally at a mini-summit in Brussels tomorrow night.
The move should end weeks of wrangling – including a bitter clash between Tony Blair and French President Jacques Chirac – over who should replace Romano Prodi at the end of his five-year term at the top of the Commission in October.
Mr Ahern, who has been acting as head-hunter for the job during Ireland’s EU presidency, said yesterday there was “overwhelming” support from heads of government for Mr Barroso.
The Prime Minister, in Istanbul for a Nato summit, welcomed an appointment which should now be little more than a formality. “I am sure he would do an outstanding job,” he said of Mr Barroso.
But the leader of Europe’s centre-left, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, suggested Mr Barroso was being picked just because he is from the centre-right – which guarantees backing from a majority in the centre-right leaning European Parliament – and because he is a man no-one can disagree on.
In a letter to Mr Ahern, Mr Rasmussen questioned whether the Portuguese leader, one of the least-known figures on the European political stage, is the appropriate choice in the wake of disastrous euro-elections and widespread euro-apathy.
Mr Rasmussen, who recently took over from former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook as head of the Party of European Socialists, said: “It’s High Noon. Europe needs a capable and qualified leader of the Commission.
“This is also a fundamental precondition to begin closing the gap between ordinary citizens’ worries and the European Union’s political line.”
His letter went on: “We have to widen the choice beyond right-wing candidates only. It is more important for Europe to find the right person for this position, rather than somebody from the right at any price.”
Anything less than the broadest backing in the European Parliament will make life difficult, said Mr Rasmussen.
“No single political group in the Parliament commands a majority that would allow it on its own to provide the necessary support for the Council’s nominee.
“In this rather complex political situation, the support of the European socialist members in the European Parliament will be essential to ensure that the new Commission and its President have the necessary political support to fulfil their duties.”
He added: “The real job to be done in Europe now is to closely connect European politics and institutions to ordinary people’s hopes and everyday concerns. The future President of the European Commission will be among the key figures to achieve this.”
EU leaders have already cast around amongst politicians across the spectrum, but hot contenders either refused the job or could not find wide support in EU capitals
Luxembourg’s prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker was in the first category, while EU Commissioner Chris Patten and Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt were in the second, and have since withdrawn their names.
Mr Rasmussen said the Commission president must have, among other qualities, “strong communication skills to reach out to citizens across the EU” and “a proven capacity for boosting support for the European project”.
Otherwise “it will be extremely difficult to convince European socialists that they should support the nominated candidate during ratification procedures in the European Parliament”.
Mr Blair is backing Mr Barroso partly because he supported Britain and the US in the Iraq war. During the build-up to the conflict, Mr Barroso allowed the mid-Atlantic Portuguese Azores islands to be used as a venue for talks between President George Bush, Mr Blair and the then Spanish premier Jose Maria Aznar.
Mr Blair also regards the 48-year-old Portuguese premier – an admirer of Margaret Thatcher – as an economic reformer, and, crucially for the UK, not in the federalist camp of EU leaders.
Translation: We have to institutionalize dependency in the form of the EU to perpetuate the institution.
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