Brussels diary

At Nato a wave of nervousness has greeted the arrival of the new secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, a man so renowned as a control freak that, during his time as Danish premier, the contents of the prime ministerial fruit bowl became a national joke. When interviewing him journalists noticed how, before eating a grape, Rasmussen would carefully select and then polish it several times on his jacket before popping it in his mouth. Rasmussen’s war on germs extends to cutlery, which he often wipes on a napkin before use—even in the smartest of restaurants. And the new Nato secretary general is said to avoid touching lavatory door handles.

Though Nato’s cleaners will be under greater pressure than ever before, anxiety is highest in the organisation’s press service. Rasmussen was the first Danish political leader to employ a spin doctor and is bringing at least one communications aide with him. He has long thought that Nato needs to sharpen its presentation and was getting involved even in the era of his Dutch predecessor Jaap De Hoop Scheffer (whose regime was so low-key that he won the nickname “De Hoop-less”). Denmark funded the Nato internet television channel natochannel.tv, which Rasmussen launched alongside De Hoop Scheffer.

It is a fair bet that natochannel.tv, which dispenses images of troops and weaponry in Afghanistan, will start transmitting more pictures of the alliance’s secretary general in commanding poses. As prime minister during his country’s presidency of the EU in 2002, Rasmussen allowed a Danish documentary-maker behind-the-scenes access to private meetings and events. Several politicians emerged from the resulting film looking less than impressive, the leading casualty being Per Stig Møller, the foreign minister, who was shown being summarily overruled by his prime minister during discussions.

Jacques Chirac, then the French president, was also furious after being surprised when the camera crew were allowed access to restricted areas at a summit. One person did, however, appear to be very much in control in the film, with never a hair out of place: Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

ASHTON FIGHTS BACK

With the threat to her job out in the open, Britain’s trade commissioner, Catherine Ashton, is fighting back. As Manneken Pis reported last month, Shriti Vadera, a close ally of Gordon Brown, is a rival for Ashton’s post as commissioner. But Ashton, who proved a wily leader of the House of Lords, is not going to give up without a fight. She has told Gordon Brown that she is not going back to the Lords in a party capacity; it’s either another term as a commissioner or nothing.

Ashton is hoping to chalk up the odd success on the trade dossier and hopes are high that a deal with South Korea, which eluded her predecessor, Peter Mandelson, could finally be struck later in the year. Its fate still hangs in the balance because, while the Germans have dropped their opposition, the Italians and French are not yet on board. But Ashton has taken advantage of the fact that Mandelson, was, to put it politely, not universally popular. Her strategy has been simply to do what didn’t come naturally to Mandelson: be nice to people. She hit it off with Ron Kirk, the US trade representative and the two have solved one longstanding transatlantic dispute (over hormones in US beef) while agreeing to disagree on others (like the Boeing-Airbus case). By contrast Mandelson’s relations with two of the three US counterparts with whom he dealt ranged from phone-slamming (Robert Zoellick) to mutual distrust (Susan Schwab).

More importantly, Ashton gets on with her boss, José Manuel Barroso, the European commission president. Barroso will have a crucial say in her future because he will negotiate with Brown over the portfolio offered to the next British commissioner. If he was amenable to keeping Ashton at trade but wouldn’t offer another candidate such a good post, that would strengthen Ashton’s case considerably. Right now Barroso faces an anxious few weeks because the European parliament has yet to vote on his second term as president. And who better to turn to for help than an expert in parliamentary management with links to the troublemaking centre-left? “Cathy is being very helpful to Barroso,” said one Eurocrat, “and Barroso’s a clannish sort of politician.