Jury is still out on Prodi Commission

Date: 16/03/2000

This week marks the first anniversary of the crisis which forced the Santer Commission to resign in disgrace. Simon Taylor looks back at the events of the past year and assesses the performance of President Romano Prodi and his team since they took office six months ago

AS ROMANO Prodi marks the first anniversary of the Santer Commission's resignation, critics have questioned whether he has really managed to exorcise the ghosts of his predecessor's administration.

Like Jacques Santer before him, Prodi is facing accusations from the European Parliament that his team has failed to deal quickly and effectively enough with past cases of wrongdoing. His public spat with the EU Ombudsman over the Commission's plans for giving the public access to internal documents has sullied his pledge to bring greater transparency and openness to the administration. And impressions of his presidency to date have been dominated by a series of blunders such as his decision to invite Colonel Gaddafi to Brussels without consulting EU leaders first.

But Prodi has, without doubt, managed to put a great deal of clear water between his administration and Santer's regime in the six months since his team took over the running of the Commission.

Despite the threats from the Parliament's budgetary control committee to withhold approval for the 1998 accounts because of slow progress in tackling past irregularities, the chances of a clash with MEPs which ends in political meltdown are slim. Even if Prodi does not find a way to pacify the committee, the worst the Parliament is threatening is to demand a special investigation into the Commission's handling of key cases of alleged maladministration and fraud.

Commission officials appear unfazed by the assembly's sabre-rattling, and Prodi's spokesman Ricardo Levi is quick to stress that MEPs have so far been highly supportive of the new Commission's attempts to address the failings brought to light by the Santer crisis.

"This Commission has proved not only that it has paid great attention to the outcome of the crisis and the important documents from the committee of experts, but it has also acted accordingly and taken a long list of decisions from the first day which involve major changes," he says.

There can be no doubt about the will and energy that Prodi and his new team have put into tackling the legacy of the Santer era. Although the plans tabled by Vice-President Neil Kinnock in his White Paper on internal reform will take several years to implement - and could still be pushed off course by EU governments keen to achieve reform on the cheap or staff unions waging a last-ditch battle to defend their members' perks and privileges - Prodi and Kinnock have managed to get member states to sign up to a raft of internal changes which would have been unthinkable a year ago.

These have included ending the national flagging of key posts, wrenching the top agriculture job away from the French for the first time since the EU executive was set up and radical changes in the way Commissioners, their advisors and departmental officials interact.

Prodi also secured a key commitment from members of his team that they would resign if he asked them to, reducing the chances of a single Commissioner who disgraces the institution using his or her domestic political weight to hang on to the post, as former French education and research chief Edith Cresson did. That pledge has yet to be tested, but it could hold the key to the long-term fate of this Commission.

Kinnock has also tabled proposals for what amounts to a revolution in financial controls, seeking to introduce a system of devolved decision-making to create the 'culture of responsibility' which the committee of wisemen found so lacking in the previous administration.

In the main, the criticism levelled at Kinnock's plans - albeit mostly by the staff unions - is not that he has been too conservative in trying to shake-up the administration but that he is trying to go too far, too fast.

While most observers agree that Prodi and his team have struck the right balance in their handling of the reform process so far, the president's call for a rethink of the respective roles of the Commission and national governments - which he has rather opaquely termed 'European governance' - has raised eyebrows, prompting accusations that he is simply trying to reinvent the wheel by reviving the stale old debate about subsidiarity.

But Levi rejects this, insisting that it does mark a significant break with the past and citing the example of EU competition law, where the Commission has proposed returning power to member states to deal with smaller or purely national cases.

"Redefining respective roles of competition authorities at European and national levels is in no way giving up the Commission's role in fundamental competition cases," he argues. "It is the opposite. It is the only way the Commission can continue to work effectively as the watchdog of the markets. We do not want to build a 100,000-strong bureaucracy invading national competences. We only want to do things which can be done best at European level."

Put this way, Prodi's approach makes a lot of sense. If there is anything which justifies the Commission's existence in an era where EU governments are prepared to cooperate extensively on a range of issues from security to justice and home affairs, it is to devise new areas and ways for member states to work together more effectively.

But there is much less consensus over whether Prodi is right to insist that it is the job of the Commission president to provide Europe with the political leadership he believes is currently missing. His critics say it is this which has created the impression that he is gaffe-prone, floating ambitious policy initiatives which later have to be reined back in the face of opposition from other Commissioners or EU governments.

Within the Commission's corridors of power, the chief accusation levelled at Prodi is that he relies too heavily on a small team of advisors, is out of touch with the 'real world', and is therefore prone to shooting from the hip and leaving his officials to pick up the pieces.

Levi insists, however, that his boss is simply carrying out his duty by launching bold initiatives. "The Commission has taken full responsibility, living up to its role as the engine of European integration by putting on the table big themes like enlargement and institutional reform irrespective of the fact that a general consensus had not been reached," he argues.

Prodi's spokesman also categorically denies that the president has been forced into embarrassing climb downs on a range of issues. He is, for example, adamant that EU governments are increasingly supporting the Commission's call for a broad agenda for the current round of Union treaty-reform talks - even though the Portuguese presidency, which is chairing the negotiations, said last week that there was little enthusiasm for going further.

Levi says that the fact that this issue is still being discussed demonstrates the wisdom of Prodi's approach. "If the Commission had not made the point about a larger agenda for the Intergovernmental Conference, it would have closed the subject down and you would now be confronted with reopening the agenda in the light of events in Austria," he insists.

He also argues that his boss scored a notable victory with his call for a firm date to be set for enlargement, and not the humiliating defeat reported by the media. "When we came we said we wanted all countries in the same group and we wanted a date, not for each country but for the process. Now we have 1 January 2003 as a date when we are committed to making a final and binding decision on enlargement," he says.

Finally, Levi insists that history will vindicate Prodi's claim that his overtures to Gaddafi will contribute to better relations with a key player in Middle East politics. "The president was offered the prospect of Libya making an unprecedented step to re-enter the international community. It is reasonable for a major politician to see if it is bluff or reality," he says. "The conclusion was that the fruit was not ripe to be picked, but should we face a situation in future where Libya makes the commitments we have asked, the discussions will prove to have been helpful."

While many observers would dispute this interpretation of events, it is true that Prodi has stuck his head above the parapet on a number of issues without it getting this shot off altogether. The jury is still out on whether he has been wise to do so, but one thing is already clear: he is no Santer Mark II whom EU government leaders can push around.

Major feature. In the week marking the first anniversary of the crisis which forced the Santer Commission to resign in disgrace, author looks back at the events of the past year and assesses the performance of President Romano Prodi and his team since they took office six months ago.