Nicci Smith in Brussels and Tom Walker
636 words
15 August 2004
The Sunday Times
News 22
English
© 2004 Times Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved
FRENCH officials in Brussels turned on President Jacques Chirac last week after the country was awarded only the humble portfolio of transport in the new European commission.
The French were piqued that both Britain and Germany emerged with more influential roles which were chosen by Jose Manuel Barroso, the new president.
Barroso, the former Portuguese prime minister, asserted his independence by appointing economic liberals to senior positions and putting ability and experience above pressure to share out the best jobs among the biggest countries Peter Mandelson, the British commissioner, was given trade, one of the four top economic jobs. The others went to Neelie Kroes, the former Dutch minister who will preside over competition policy, to Charlie McCreevy, the departing Irish finance minister who will work on internal markets, and to Joaquin Almunia, of Spain, the monetary affairs commissioner. Gunter Verheugen, Germany's commissioner, was given the enterprise and industry portfolio.
By comparison, Jacques Barrot, 67, the French commissioner, fared badly, despite the consolation of being named as one of the commission's five vice presidents.
Some French officials blamed Chirac for sending the little-known former labour minister to Brussels instead of keeping his predecessor, Pascal Lamy, in place.
One even suggested that with Chirac's backing, Lamy, a Socialist, could have become president of the commission. "This is shameful of Chirac," said the official. "We could have had a good French president -instead we are nearly forgotten."
Chirac, a spirited champion of French industry and agriculture, was said to have been angered by the extent of Lamy's support for the liberalisation of international trade and decided to replace him with Barrot, a close friend and political ally on the centre-right.
Under the headline, "France loses its influence in Brussels", an article in Le Figaro newspaper yesterday by Francois Loncle, the vice-president of the Socialist party, said: "The new composition of the commission underlines the rapid decline, the eradication of France from the European stage."
An editorial in the same paper lamented that "the new Europe dear to the American Donald Rumsfeld has carried the day". Le Monde quoted a commissioner as saying Barroso had rewarded countries that supported the Iraq war.
Barrot was at a disadvantage for the top jobs, however, because of his poor command of English. "If Chirac thinks that just being French is still sufficient to get the important posts then he is totally out of touch," said one disenchanted French diplomat.
Mandelson will step into Lamy's shoes and showdowns with Chirac and the powerful French farming lobby are regarded as almost inevitable.
French farmers have long relied on a substantial share of the EU's annual Pounds 2.17billion export subsidies. At recent talks of the World Trade Organisation in Geneva, however, Lamy promised to eliminate the EU's export aid and Mandelson is expected to push this policy through.
Analysts say that France will now have to exert its influence through high-ranking civil servants in Brussels.
French resentment aside, Barroso's swift appointments were welcomed across much of the EU. He assuaged the fears of new member states that they would be relegated to the sidelines by giving Lithuania's commissioner, Dalia Grybauskaite, control of the commission's financial programmes and budget.
Peter Guilford, a former commission spokesman and now director of a Brussels lobbying firm, said the French president had only himself to blame for the outcome.
"Chirac appoints a yes man and France gets a dud portfolio," he said. "If common sense prevailed then Lamy would have stayed, but Chirac is more visceral than most. It's parochial. Europe is a mighty project but run along grubby small town political lines."
© Times Newspapers Ltd, 2004