Hard man in energy hot seat

Date: 09/11/00

Has the Commission warned the Russians who they will be dealing with in the new working group on energy strategy announced last week?

President Romano Prodi has selected François Lamoureux, head of the Commission's energy and transport directorate-general, a man once described as a combination of “Ayatollah, Pol Pot and Count Dracula” because of his abrupt and provocative style.

But Lamoureux certainly knows his stuff when it comes to energy policy, and that is what counts. Notably, he successfully negotiated the early closure of one unit of Lithuania's Ignalina nuclear power plant despite protests from Vilnius that shutting down the Chernobyl-type reactor would devastate local industries which relied on affordable power supplies.

Perhaps Lamoureux's counterpart on the new working group, Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko, should watch out.