Overworked foreign minister likely to rely on EU president, says candidate

ANDREW WILLIS

18.11.2009 @ 17:54 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – The former EU ambassador in Washington, John Bruton, believes that an overworked EU high representative for foreign affairs will need the help of the new European Council president.

Mr Bruton is a former prime minister of Ireland and recently indicated his interest in the post of council president.

• Print
• Comment article

With only a day to go until the Swedish EU presidency attempts to bang European leaders together in Brussels to agree on who should fill the two new posts created under the Lisbon Treaty, the Irish politician made the remarks at a meeting in the EU capital organised by the Centre for European Policy Studies think-tank.

Faced with a packed schedule, Mr Bruton said the new high representative could really do with "three or four other people of similar rank" to help out with the workload.

But as this is not envisaged under the Lisbon Treaty, the council president may have to do so instead, with a strong relationship likely to develop between the holders of the two posts.

"I think the busy schedule is going to mean that the president of the council, who will only be chairing four meetings a year, and you could argue will have time on his hands, may have to help the foreign minister to fill the gaps," said Mr Bruton.

The task list for the new high representative, commonly referred to as the "foreign minister," will include preparing for and chairing the regular meetings of EU foreign ministers and travelling the globe to meet world leaders.

But as a vice-president of the European Commission, the holder of the new post will also have to attend the EU executive's weekly meetings, and is likely to come under pressure from their member state capital to maintain a strong presence inside the EU executive.

"It's a very difficult job if I may say so, particularly if this person is going to be relying on scheduled airlines," said Mr Bruton on a more practical note.

A boost for collegiality?

Seasoned commission observers remark that the last five years have seen a steady erosion of the collegial decision-making process that marked the institution out in previous decades.

Instead, its recently returned president, Jose Manuel Barroso, and a number of 'senior' commissioners have made the major decisions, partially due to the increasingly unwieldy nature of the ever expanding college.

But the presence of the new foreign policy chief in the commission, with strong links to member state governments may buck the trend, suggested Mr Bruton.

"The approach of having pre-ordained decisions won't be as easy to manage, given the presence of such a person that has this additional dimension of influence," he said.

And he added that a collegial approach would be needed in the future, with major issues such as climate change increasingly overlapping a number of different portfolios.