Front runners emerge for top-level positions

Date: 06/03/1997

By Rory Watson

A DUTCH-German partnership is being carefully assembled to take over the top echelons of the European Commission as the current Secretary-General David Williamson prepares to stand down later this year.

Williamson's deputy over the past decade, the polyglot Dutchman Carlo Trojan (55), is emerging as the strongest internal candidate to become only the third holder of the post in the past 40 years.

Bonn is keen to see a German official in the top reaches of the Commission, but acknowledges that since it already holds the secretary-generalship of the Council of Ministers, the chances of one of its nationals succeeding Williamson are slim.

But Trojan's promotion would leave the way open for the German government to champion the cause of Bernhard Zepter as the new Commission deputy secretary-general.

Before returning to Bonn to become head of the foreign ministry's European policy department, Zepter was one of former Commission President Jacques Delors' personal advisers.

Williamson, who took over his current role in 1987 and will be 63 in May, is keeping people guessing about the timing of his departure, but has let it be known that he feels ten years in the post is sufficient.

“The Germans are very keen to push Zepter and the Dutch want the deal by the Amsterdam summit in mid-June. That is when Williamson's formal retirement and the identity of his successor are likely to be announced,” said one insider.

But a number of hurdles still have to be negotiated.

The Spanish government has tried to gain an early advantage in the race by letting it be known that it would be supporting the long-serving Spanish Director-General for regional policy Eneko Landaburu for the post.

A former Socialist member of the Basque parliament, Landaburu (49) has been in his present job since 1986 and is one of the Commission's most respected and experienced directors-general.

But with senior appointments determined as much by national and political balance as by ability, Landaburu's chances will be adversely affected by the fact that Spaniards already hold the secretary-generalship of NATO and the presidency of the European Parliament.

There is also a strong feeling that since the post has been held by France and the UK for the past 40 years, it may now be time for it to pass to one of the Union's smaller members.

The ultimate fate of a Trojan/Zepter ticket will depend heavily on France's response to the idea and on the identity of the first president of the new European Central Bank (ECB).

From the Commission's earliest days until 1995, a Frenchman has occupied at least one of its two pivotal posts. Emile Noël was secretary-general until 1987 and, after his departure, the hugely influential Jacques Delors remained Commission president for a further eight years.

Many believe that Paris would like to recreate those days and the names of France's EU ambassador Pierre de Boissieu and senior Commission official François Lamoureux have been whispered, but have so far failed to attract much support.

One of French President Jacques Chirac's main objectives is to ensure that the first ECB president is French and he may try to use the Commission secretary-general post as a bargaining chip to that end.

But Dutch central bank governor Wim Duisenberg, who will take over as president of the European Monetary Institute later this year, also has his sights on the new ECB post and enjoys the support of several fellow bank governors.

Given the nature of EU trade-offs, few bookmakers would give good odds on both Dutchmen reaching their target.