Brussels stalwart returns

Date: 11/04/1996

A familiar face will be back in Brussels within weeks - Stanley Johnson, former Euro MP, former Commission official, part-time author, poet and full-time environmentalist, is returning as European affairs director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

Johnson's credentials are impeccable. He spent most of his time as a British Tory MEP campaigning on environmental issues and was directly responsible for the ban on EU imports of goods made from seal products.

Late last year, Johnson demonstrated his support for animal welfare issues by turning up on the picket line outside the Charlemagne building when the use of leg-hold traps by the Canadians was on the Council of Ministers' agenda.

His presence there was no surprise. Johnson drafted the original legislation proposing a ban on such devices and has campaigned vigorously against the Commission's U-turn in the face of transatlantic opposition.

Johnson is also one of a rare breed of authors who have chosen the EU institutions as the backdrop for a novel. Among his literary works is The Commissioner, an everyday story of Euro-folk in which the UK Commissioner (Johnson's foresight extends to there being just one per member state) finds himself in “a battleground of political bureaucrats and big businessmen”.

But Johnson's career has not been without its hitches.

One of his proud, but private, claims was that he was elected as the Conservative Euro MP for East Hampshire and the Isle of Wight without ever setting foot in part of his constituency - namely, the Isle of Wight.

Unfortunately, he didn't keep the fact private enough. Indeed, he revealed it as an interesting item in an interview, confiding: “Actually, old boy, the only time I've ever seen the Isle of Wight was from a liner bound for New York out of Southampton.”

His local paper was not so amused and trumpeted the fact across its front page. Johnson made amends by paying a very high-profile visit to the island and promising that he would serve it well during his time in Strasbourg.