High-profile ‘withdrawals’ leave president’s post open

By Dana Spinant

Date: 24/06/04

"I AM NOT available for this function anymore. I want, as prime minister, to continue working for the modernization of my country." This was how an embittered Guy Verhofstadt announced at the end of last week's EU summit (17-18 June) that he was withdrawing from the race for the presidency of the European Commission.

In reality, the Belgian prime minister was forced to pull out from the race, diplomats say, faced with the threat of a vote on his candidature that would have shown how little support he had among his colleagues.

With the two rival candidates - Verhofstadt and Chris Patten, the commissioner for external relations - unable to muster the required majority, pressure was mounting on the Irish presidency to organize a vote on their candidatures.

"This would be a manoeuvre to make Verhofstadt withdraw: he can't take part in a vote, as he would be embarrassed to see how little support he would garner," one Italian official commented at the summit. Italy was siding with the UK against Verhofstadt.

While Verhofstadt's rejection prompted a Belgian diplomat to regret that "the choice of the president of the European Commission is made in Washington" (suggesting that the Flemish Liberal was rejected because of his opposition to the war in Iraq), other officials commented that it might indicate a weakening in Franco-German influence on the EU.

"He [Verhofstadt] is the candidate of France and Germany. As we can see, this does not mean much nowadays, as the UK can muster the support of so many new member states," a French official said.

One diplomat who followed the negotiations described the "to-ings and fro-ings in the summit's corridors": "Verhofstadt walks out of Bertie Ahern's office after a tête-à-tête meeting. Makes a few steps along the corridor. He stops, looks at the ceiling, goes back to Ahern's office and comes out again one minute later, watching the floor," he said.

"One cannot say that he did not try his best."

Officials attest that intense behind-the-scenes pressure was put on Jean-Claude Juncker, the prime minister of Luxembourg, to accept the job. During the last hours of the summit, Juncker, the only candidate unanimously backed by his colleagues, was twice involved in so-called confessionals (bilateral meetings usually held with the prime minister of the country holding the presidency).

He first had a trilateral meeting with Jacques Chirac of France and Gerhard Schröder of Germany, and just before the summit came to an end he met the two together with Bertie Ahern.

While Juncker's refusal to accept the job still remains a mystery for most of his colleagues, a diplomat from Luxembourg commented there was a "touch of arrogance in the broadly expressed astonishment that he cannot prefer to remain prime minister of the Grand Duchy instead of becoming Commission president".

But a Spanish diplomat close to the negotiations pointed out that Juncker's refusal to accept the job on the grounds that he had promised his citizens before the recent national elections that he would remain prime minister, might be explained if he did not like the job description of the Commission's president anymore.

"He saw what happened to the last two [Commission] presidents, what difficult situations they were dragged into and how they got their hands dirty with management problems," he said.

"With the final [constitution] text cutting back on the Commission's powers on financial matters, including on the Stability [and Growth] Pact, he has no illusions as to what the job would be like."

In the final hours of the summit, three names were under discussion, as the Irish presidency was still hoping to announce an accord on a successor to Romano Prodi: Javier Solana (opposed by centre-right leaders because he is a Socialist and is already lined up for the job as EU foreign minister); José Manuel Durão Barroso, premier of Portugal, (unpopular because he organized a meeting before the Iraq war with US President George W. Bush and his European allies on the Azores) and Michel Barnier, until recently European commissioner for regional policy and institutional reforms. Now the French foreign minister, he is also likely to be rejected, on the grounds that there are too many Frenchmen in top positions in the EU - Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, Pierre de Boissieu, deputy secretary-general of the Council of Ministers, and Jean Lemierre, president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Diplomats involved in the talks indicate the list of candidates currently discussed by Ahern with his counterparts is limited to a few names: Irishman Peter Sutherland, former director-general of the World Trade Organization and a commissioner in the early 1980s, Michel Barnier and Javier Solana.

Irish sources were adamant that Ahern would only convene a new summit next Tuesday (29 June) if he felt an agreement was within reach. A short gathering of government leaders should, they say, only confirm the appointment of a successor for Prodi and not engage in lengthy haggling.

Feature looks at who will become the next European Commission President, and the challenges of the job.