Posted on 06/29/2004 6:00:24 PM PDT by 1066AD
Paris exacts a price as EU chief is named By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Brussels (Filed: 30/06/2004)
Portugal's free-market prime minister was named as the next president of the European Commission last night, but only after France and Germany insisted on control of economic policy in return for their support.
José Manuel Durão Barroso, a Thatcherite reformer and supporter of the Iraq war, will take over from Romano Prodi in November, assuming that he is confirmed by Euro-MPs later this month. At a special summit of European Union leaders, Javier Solana of Spain was re-appointed to run the foreign policy machinery, military staff headquarters and the new anti-terrorism agency, as well as the 60,000-man rapid reaction force.
José Manuel Durão Barroso Mr Solana, a former Nato secretary-general trusted on both sides of the Atlantic, is expected to become the EU's foreign minister in 2006 if the European constitution is ratified.
Mr Barroso, 48, a Maoist turned conservative lawyer, emerged from near obscurity last week after a long list of candidates were vetoed by one EU faction or another, or refused to accept the poisoned chalice of the commission chief.
Chancellor Gerhard Schröder damned him with faint praise. "Europe is always about finding compromises," he said. Tony Blair described Mr Barroso as the "right person", a reformer and "a believer in the alliance with the United States". President Chirac called him "a competent man" who could handle the job.
Germany and France had requested guarantees that Mr Barroso would offer them key economic portfolios once he began assigning jobs to the 25 commissioners, one from each country.
Berlin is demanding the creation of a new economic post, earmarking it for a Schröder loyalist committed to the Rhineland corporate model.
Even though Germany has slid down the EU growth tables - with per capita income well below Ireland, Denmark, Holland, Britain and France - Mr Schröder insisted that his country merited "special responsibility for economic policy".
Frits Bolkestein, the Dutch commissioner, said the Germans wanted to install "a poodle" to do their bidding, giving warning that it would be "terrible" to put one of Europe's least-reformed countries in charge of restructuring.
Paris is targeting the powerful job of competition commissioner. The competition boss is a feared figure, wielding powers to impose vast fines, launch dawn raids and seize files without a judicial warrant.
One EU diplomat said letting Paris take over the dossier would be tantamount to "putting the fox in charge of the henhouse". Downing Street is angling for the job of single market commissioner with the former Cabinet minister Peter Mandelson the favourite.
The post covers taxation, financial rules, which are crucial to the City of London, and the task of breaking down cross-border barriers to the service industry.
Mr Barroso will be in charge of 20,000 Eurocrats, a modest number that disguises the real reach of commission power.
Most of the day-to-day execution of EU policies is carried out by civil servants in the 25 states, while the elite fonctionnaires draft laws, rules, and grand strategy. The commission has the sole "right of initiative" to propose legislation.
Despite its enormous clout it has been going through a protracted crisis since the mid-1990s.
Unable to shake off its reputation for sloppy management and fraud, it has seen power ebb away to MEPs, EU ministers and, above all, EU ambassadors, the real viceroys who run Brussels.
Mr Barroso sought to avoid ruffling feathers yesterday, promising to make the EU "stronger, more cohesive and just," and to "find compromises".
Hopefully the EU will make France surrender like Germany did....wouldn't it be a hoot to see France surrender to Latvia? :)
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