Brussels diary

Brits are overrunning the EU
January 20, 2002

Prodi's angels

There literally are angels watching over Romano Prodi. On a recent visit to his office, your correspondent was struck by the magnificent Renaissance friezes on either side of the room. "The president," as his aides have taken to calling him, explained that his office was so appallingly depressing that a sympathetic visitor from the national gallery in Rome offered to loan him some pictures. The first offer-a lively scene of a decapitation-was felt to send the wrong political message, so instead, Prodi opted for the angels.

The commission president certainly needs something to cheer him up. In the past month he has taken a battering from the European press, with everyone from the Frankfurter Allgemeine to the FT to Le Monde, lining up to denounce him for incompetence. Expansion, a French news magazine, added to the sense of embattlement in Prodi circles by polling a selection of EU correspondents on the effectiveness of the 20 commissioners-Prodi came last. (His compatriot, Mario Monti, came top.)

Under the circumstances, Prodi is surprisingly upbeat. He accepts that he has occasionally put his foot in it, but is sticking to the idea that history will vindicate him over the big issues-EU enlargement, the necessity for democratisation and further integration and the idea of moving the responsibility for EU foreign policy into the commission. Although Prodi himself is too tactful to say so, his aides reckon that much of the ire directed against him is a result of his decision to upgrade the powers of the commissioners and downgrade the power of the permanent civil servants in the commission. Some, however, will admit that Prodi has mistimed many of his interventions into European debates. And there is still a little quiet muttering, even among Prodi loyalists, that their man is too reliant on a cadre of highly idealistic Italian aides: "nice guys, but politically hopeless," is one verdict. Of course, the rest of my far-reaching discussions with President Prodi on the future of Europe must remain top-secret. Particularly since I can't remember much of what he said.

Brits speak but do not decide

The appointment of David Galloway, a Scot, as the new spokesman for the council of ministers will only add to French paranoia about the EU being taken over by British officials. Galloway's appointment means that both major Brussels institutions now have British chief spokesmen-the commission's man is Jonathan Faull. Faull's team of spokesmen is also heavy on Brits, reflecting the demand for native English-speakers. Of the 23 commission spokespeople, six are British, more than any other nationality.

But spokespeople-alas-are just that. Take a look at the real decision-making jobs and the idea of British domination melts away. In the EU's growth areas-internal and external security-there is a German bias. The head of Europol, the new European police force, is J?rgen Storbeck, and the chief of the EU's new military staff is General Rainer Schurwirth. Don't count the French out either. They may well take a number of crucial positions in the body that is running the EU's new constitutional convention. This will be particularly so if the job of president of the convention goes to Valery Giscard d'Estaing. Still, if present trends prevail, it will not be long before Europol, the military staff and the convention appoint British spokespeople.

Germans to the borders

An atavistic fear of Germans running EU security may be behind the cool reception in some countries to the recent commission proposal that the EU establish border police to guard its frontiers. The idea is that too heavy a burden will fall on relatively poor countries, like Poland-which will form the new frontier after enlargement-so why not give the job to newly unemployed German border guards? The Poles can think of plenty of reasons why not. First, they think the suggestion of EU frontier police implies that they and other applicants are not up to the job. Second, as one Polish diplomat puts it, "we're just not ready for the idea of Germans patrolling our frontiers."

Where's the FCO?

Meanwhile, back in London, who is really running Europe policy? Recent officials from other European countries visiting Blighty have come away with the impression that the foreign office, under Jack Straw, is being sidelined in favour of officials working in Downing Street. One European ambassador, who ushered his prime minister into a meeting with Tony Blair, found the British fielding a team of ten-only one of whom, Nigel Sheinwald (Britain's permanent representative in Brussels), was a foreign office person.

The father of euroscepticism

Talking of Nigel Sheinwald, this correspondent worries about the future political views of his son, who has been packed off to Eton. There is an interesting pattern of British officials in Brussels sending their children to Eton, only to find them emerging as virulent Eurosceptics. Boris Johnson, MP, columnist and Old Etonian, is the son of a former Tory MEP and pro-European; and Charles Moore, the Telegraph's editor, is the offspring of a former official at the European Parliament. How long before young Master Sheinwald joins the UK Independence Party?