Schröder Gives Backing to Wolfowitz Nomination

Financial Times ^ | March 21 2005 | Andrew Balls and Bertrand Benoit

[West Coast Conservative]

Gerhard Schröder, the German chancellor, on Monday said he would support the nomination of Paul Wolfowitz as new head of the World Bank, in effect ruling out any concerted European opposition to his appointment.

European officials have complained in private about President George W. Bush's nomination last week of the US deputy defence secretary and about the lack of proper consultation on the matter.

Academics, development experts and campaign groups have protested about Mr Wolfowitz's nomination and lack of opposition from Europe.

Mr Wolfowitz is expected to be confirmed at a World Bank board meeting on March 31.

By convention, the US and Europe divide the top jobs at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, whose boards they dominate.

There has been little opposition to Mr Wolfowitz from the developing countries on the bank's board, in contrast to last year's controversial appointment of Rodrigo Rato at the IMF.

“It's good custom that the US has the right to propose a nominee,” Mr Schröder said in a television interview.

He said he had talked to Mr Bush shortly after the nomination was made public and assured him Germany would not seek to undermine it. He said critics would be “perhaps positively surprised” by Mr Wolfowitz's future performance.

While other German officials have expressed concern, Mr Schröder's conciliatory approach underlines Berlin's wish not to antagonise the US after a tentative rapprochement earlier this year, following their bitter dispute over the Iraq war.

Germany is also courting US support for its bid to secure a permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council.

Similarly, while French officials have been irritated by the nomination, diplomats say that Paris is unlikely to want to antagonise Washington at a time when it was pushing its own nationals for jobs at international institutions, including the head of the World Trade Organisation.

The UK last week was the first European country openly to back Mr Wolfowitz, though Gordon Brown, chancellor of the exchequer, has called for the US to discuss the appointment with developing countries.

The European Commission on Monday confirmed that Mr Wolfowitz had agreed to meet Louis Michel, development commissioner. World Bank staff raised concerns about the selection process, Mr Wolfowitz's role in the Iraq war and his credentials for the job, with James Wolfensohn, the bank's outgoing president, last week. Mr Wolfowitz told Dow Jones news agency: “I am not there to re-fight the war; I am there to get on with a different job. They will find me open-minded and capable of understanding difficult and complex arguments.”

[wideawake]

There has been little opposition to Mr Wolfowitz from the developing countries on the bank's board

That's very interesting, considering that all those fighting Mr. Wolfowitz's appointment claim to be speaking for those countries' interests.

[truth_seeker]

Pragmatism trumps rhetoric.

Rhetoric trumps honesty.

Whatever power, influence a nation held, is quickly pissed away, if before appointment, the nation disses the soon to be appointed.

They don't like Wolfie, but dare not say so.