A mover and shaker

Date: 14/03/1996

PASQUAL Maragall has overseen a dramatic change in the fortunes of Barcelona during his lengthy tenure as mayor. His admirers now hope he will weave similar magic over the youngest EU institution, the Committee of the Regions (CoR).

Two years old this month, the advisory body of local and regional authority representatives has had difficulty establishing itself on the EU scene.

It has attracted more attention for the controversy over its recruitment procedures than for its shaping of Union policy.

Next week, 55-year-old Maragall, a Catalan Socialist, looks certain to be elected president of CoR for a two-year term. Elevation from his current post as first vice-president will not only offer a chance for the committee to enter a new era, but also confirm the growing involvement of cities in pan-European activities.

“He is a natural European. He is a Mediterranean, yet he also has very good contacts in northern Europe. He is highly qualified, has definite charisma, is outgoing, affable and easy to talk to,” says one of his admiring colleagues.

Like New York, Barcelona's traditional image has changed out of all recognition. Maragall has been mayor for the past 13 years and, armed with a doctorate on “urban land prices”, played a key part in changing the city. He used preparations for the 1992 Olympic Games to help realise his plans to modernise the city and turn it into one of the most energetic in Europe.

A keen cyclist, one of his proudest achievements is the building of the 40 kilometres of cycle tracks which criss-cross the city in a bid to improve the urban environment and reduce the horrendous traffic jams.

In sharp contrast to politicians who focus their attention on the national scene, Maragall is one of a growing number who sees a natural advantage in leap-frogging that arena to forge an alliance between city halls and local authorities across Europe. His new CoR hat will be an addition to the several he already wears.

Since December 1991, Maragall has been president of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR), an umbrella organisation of 41 national associations in 26 European countries. He is a founding member of the Eurocities network and Barcelona is one of six southern European cities - the others are Toulouse, Montpellier, Valencia, Palma and Zaragoza - which now cooperate on tourism and infrastructure strategy.

One of the keys to Maragall's success is an efficient network of support staff. From their Barcelona city hall power base, individual members of his team have specific responsibility for liaising with the different European organisations of which he is a member. Their input is essential to ensure his agenda runs smoothly and every Friday they fill a special briefcase with memos and dossiers for their boss to read over the weekend.

It is the same team which ensures his diary is full and every moment put to good use when he comes to Brussels. His working days are long and appointments are fixed with key players on the European scene ranging from European Parliament President Klaus Hänsch to Commissioners Monika Wulf-Mathies, Manuel Marín and Martin Bangemann.

To date, however, Maragall has kept a relatively low profile in the CoR, partly due to the extensive range of his other activities. But he has already told close colleagues that, while they should not expect miracles, he intends to make changes.

An early indication of his ability to stamp his own style on the advisory body will emerge in the relationship he establishes with outgoing president, French centre-right politician Jacques Blanc.

The president of Languedoc-Roussillon in southern France has imposed an autocratic style on the Committee over the past two years. He has listed a series of demands - designed to ensure him a pivotal role when he steps down - as the price for supporting Maragall's presidential bid. Blanc is still waiting for Maragall's response.

Anticipating a new style, one CoR member predicts: “I think general working practices will be more transparent and better organised. At the moment they are not as democratic as they should be. Quite a lot of decisions are taken towards the end of meetings when many members have already left. Maragall is a democrat and transparency, given recent scandals in Spain, is important to him and uppermost in his mind.”

Asked to encapsulate the styles of the two men, one senior official had no hesitation in concluding: “A discussion with Maragall is a joint discussion. In a discussion with Blanc, you tend to sit and listen.”

Maragall has already provided evidence of his leadership style in the CEMR where he has instituted the practice of regular bimonthly meetings of senior local government officials. “He is determined to raise the profile of local and regional bodies, and would like to see them granted the same authority at European level as they enjoy nationally,” explains one official.

Before entering politics, Maragall followed an academic career, studying in Barcelona, New York and Paris, and holds degrees in law and economics.

His academic background stood him in good stead when he was appointed in 1993 to the post of local government expert on the high-level group on the information society chaired by the head of Olivetti, Carlo de Benedetti.

Despite his low CoR profile, Maragall made an early impression when he and the other members arrived for their first meeting in Brussels exactly two years ago.

“He came across as a mover and a shaker and a very accomplished politician. In contrast to many of the others who appeared harmless and inoffensive, he stood out as a senior player. If he puts his mind to something, he is a very difficult man to stop,” confirms one source who remembers those early days.

Maragall wasted no time in demonstrating his linguistic and political skills. In the absence of interpreters for one of CoR's early meetings, he took on the role himself, switching effortlessly between Spanish, French, English and German.

After canvassing support behind the scenes, Maragall deftly sidelined another Socialist front-runner, Scottish councillor Charles Gray, to become the party's champion for a senior post in the newly-created CoR.

Gray himself treats the whole episode as water under the bridge. He has great respect for Maragall and has made it clear he will be happy to collaborate with him in whatever way is the most appropriate.

Some members, however, still harbour resentment at the way the Barcelona mayor negotiated a backroom deal with Blanc when the CoR was formed. Under the arrangement, Blanc would assume the first two-year presidency, and Maragall the second.

“The Socialists had originally decided that the first CoR president should be a Socialist. But Maragall argued it would be more important to have the presidency during the Intergovernmental Conference. That surprised us, but obviously he had another agenda,” recalls one source.

That agenda, suggest critics, revolved around Spanish general elections, which were eventually held earlier this month. Maragall's reasoning, they maintain, left him the option of falling back on the CoR if Spanish Socialists were badly mauled in the elections, or holding out hopes of a senior government position if they were successful.

Maragall is undoubtedly proud of his Catalan origins - he comes from a well-established upper middle class Barcelona family. His father, Jordi, is a lawyer and senator and his grandfather, Joan, was one of the major poets of the early 20th century.

He is a Socialist first and foremost, and does not share the flame of Catalan nationalism held by his political opponent Jordi Pujol, leader of the Catalan nationalist party which rules the region and regards the Socialist hold over Barcelona as a thorn in its side.

Despite the low esteem in which the Socialist party was held nationally, Maragall convincingly saw off an attempt by Pujol to unseat him in last year's local elections.

Pujol, however, got the better of his rival when the Spanish delegation to the CoR was selected two years ago. The 21-strong team, which included Pujol and Maragall, contained 17 regional representatives and just four mayors.

Securing the CoR presidency next week will be a form of sweet revenge for Maragall.