Prodi plans cabinet-style ‘government’ in Brussels

Date: 06/05/1999

By Tim Jones and Simon Taylor

ROMANO Prodi plans to turn the European Commission's vice-presidents into policy strategists and draw up clearly defined portfolios in a shake-up aimed at bringing cabinet-style government to Brussels.

The former Italian prime minister, who was confirmed as Commission president by the European Parliament yesterday (5 May), is considering appointing overlords to "coordinate strategic areas" including external relations, monetary affairs, internal security and structural reform.

Sources say the remaining College posts would be carved up to reflect as closely as possible the division of responsibilities between the Commission's 24 directorates-general.

" The Commission I have in mind will have the powers, the political awareness and the will to work as a team, to work to increase efficiency and transparency and express a strong political programme," Prodi told MEPs this week.

Aides say the new president is determined to avoid creating 'Frankenstein' portfolios, such as the mish-mash of consumer policy, fisheries and humanitarian aid given to his countrywoman Emma Bonino in the outgoing Commission.

As governments await the outcome of the 10-13 June Euro-elections, capitals are holding back from naming candidates for the new Commission. Prodi has told ministers that he will accept a maximum of six Commissioners from outgoing President Jacques Santer's discredited team, but there could be as few as four.

Even though they emerged relatively unscathed from the report by the committee of independent experts which prompted the Commission's decision to resign en masse in March, Germany's Monika Wulf-Mathies (regional aid), France's Yves-Thibault de Silguy (economics), Spain's Marcelino Oreja (culture and audiovisual policy) and Denmark's Ritt Bjerregaard (environment) are under threat.

The inevitable horse-trading over Commission jobs has begun with the most intensity in Germany, where wrangles over who should be nominated for the country's two posts have put Gerhard Schröder's Red-Green coalition under new pressure.

Deputy Foreign Minister Günther Verheugen had been touted as a replacement for Wulf-Mathies, but now looks set to be nominated as Germany's candidate for the newly-created EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy. Prodi's demand for political balance in the Commission could persuade Schröder to propose Christian Democrat Matthias Wissmann as Commissioner, but only if Verheugen wins the foreign policy post.

Meanwhile, the Greens have threatened to withhold their support for Social Democrat presidential candidate Johannes Rau unless their nominee for Commissioner - almost certainly Bundestag Green leader Antje Vollmer - goes to Brussels.

French President Jacques Chirac is holding his fire on renominating fellow Gaullist De Silguy before the Euro-elections, and may opt instead for his close confidant and former European Affairs Minister Michel Barnier. Prime Minister Lionel Jospin is said to favour Pascal Lamy, the powerful chief of staff to Jacques Delors when he was Commission president and now a Crédit Lyonnais executive, over cabinet ministers Catherine Trautmann and Pierre Moscovici.

In the UK, government sources say Conservative MP Alastair Goodlad's bid for the junior British post is waning given Prodi's demand for heavy-weight political figures in his team. The Santer team's survivors are likely to be Finland's Erkki Liikanen (budget and personnel), Austria's Franz Fischler (agriculture), Italy's Mario Monti (internal market and taxation) and Neil Kinnock (transport).

In keeping with his call this week for Commissioners' private offices to "acquire a more markedly supranational structure", Prodi is expected to appoint a French or German chief of staff.

Possible names include Klaus van der Pas, head of the enlargement task force; François Lamoureux, deputy director-general for external relations; and two directors-general - Horst Reichenbach (consumer affairs) and Alexander Schaub (competition).

It now seems certain the new team will not take office until late September or early October, with the Parliament holding hearings for would-be Commissioners in early September before voting on the entire College later in the month.