‘Donkey’ Prodi’s term of triumph and turmoil

By David Cronin

Date: 28/10/04

BACK in July 1999, Romano Prodi promised to behave like a donkey during his tenure as European Commission president, recalling the praise heaped by Leonardo da Vinci on an animal that "will die of thirst rather than drink dirty water".

It was not long, though, before this stubborn and diligent creature started suggesting it was not steered by the most politically astute instincts. Later that month Prodi made a slightly bewildering speech to the European Parliament, where he indicated that he accorded greater priority to tackling delays at airports and doping in sport than to building a lasting peace in Kosovo or revising the EU treaties.

True, he has been involved in such historical events as the introduction of the euro, the Union's expansion to ten mostly ex-communist countries and the drafting of the EU's first-ever constitution. But the general consensus among the chattering classes in Brussels is that Prodi has been weak and gaffe-prone.

There has been endless carping among journalists hungry for sound bites about his lack of communication skills. And on the occasions when he has uttered quotable remarks, he has tended to exercise more freedom of thought than his political handlers would like. His most memorable 'faux-pas' was probably when he denounced the EU's Stability and Growth Pact as "stupid", conveniently ignoring that - as Italy's then prime minister - he had signed up to these rules on budgetary discipline when they were agreed in 1997.

On foreign policy, he looked to be driven by Italian domestic concerns when he invited Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi to Brussels in 2000. He had to withdraw the invitation amid deep unease from some member states, especially the UK. Prodi had to wait until earlier this year for the political climate to change enough to welcome Gaddafi and his sprawling posse of bodyguards to the Commission's headquarters.

There was also a time when Prodi stormed off in an un-statesmanlike huff. In October 2001, for example, he broke with diplomatic tradition by refusing to attend an-end-of-EU summit press conference in Gent, in protest at the verbose multilingual remarks to which Guy Verhofstadt, the Belgian prime minister and the summit's host, was given.

In hindsight, perhaps Prodi has been vindicated for some of his more controversial comments. EU finance ministers have effectively backed his analysis of the Stability Pact by bending to Franco-German pressure to dilute it. And his willingness to bring Gaddafi in from the diplomatic cold may have been a factor in the Libyan's subsequent renunciation of weapons of mass destruction plans and his unprecedented posturing as a peace activist.

Nevertheless, Prodi has been unable to shake off the enduring impression that he has lacked vision and oomph.

There have even been signs in the past year that he has lost interest in the Commission. In the weeks preceding the European Parliament election in June, he became something of an absentee president. Instead of running affairs in his headquarters, the Breydel, he was criss-crossing Italy, trying to drum up support for the centre-left coalition of parties, the Olive Tree. As his face appeared on election posters, describing the Iraq war as misguided, it seemed he saw himself more as the leader of his country's opposition than the head of the EU executive. But as Commission spokespeople pointed out, the latter was the only official position he held.

Once he is relieved of his Commission duties, Prodi will be able to concentrate full-time on his apparent objective - ousting Silvio Berlusconi.

But in what he thought would be the last meeting with the press, on 25 October, the departing Prodi said he would have a "deep-felt recollection of the past five years". He confirmed that he would "probably" be returning to domestic politics in Italy.

On his home political stage, where he once held the office of prime minister, his communication style and political flair are likely to be more esteemed than in Brussels.

The Good

Achievements of the Prodi Commission include:

• The launch of the euro on 1 January 2001;
• the trouble-free accession of ten mainly former communist countries to the Union;
• reform of the administrative structure of the Commission, the career structure of its civil servants and its book-keeping system;
• a new strategy for the Union's borders through the European Neighbourhood Policy;
• reform of the common agriculture policy;
• putting through all major proposals under the EU's reform blueprint, the Lisbon Strategy;
• stepping up campaign against cartels.

..the bad and the ugly

Shortcomings of the Prodi Commission include:

• Poor handling of the Eurostat scandal on misuse of EU money;
• low profile in the debate over the EU constitution and on major foreign policy issues (such as the Iraq crisis);
• slow implementation of its better management commitments;
• failure to improve EU economic policy coordination;
• failing to ensure member states respect rules underpinning the single currency;
• failure to advance the Lisbon Agenda by prioritizing its targets and ensuring implementation by member states;
• embarrassing defeats before the European Court of First Instance in a raft of competition rulings questioning the EU executive's economic reasoning.

Review of Romano Prodi's term as President of the European Commission