EU rifts cloud Prodi's succession
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Prodi has been president of the European Commission since 1999.
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BRUSSELS, Belgium (Reuters) -- Unhealed rifts over the Iraq war and a stalled European Union constitution are complicating the search for a successor to Romano Prodi as president of the European Commission, diplomats say.
That has prompted EU president Ireland to look outside the small circle of heads of state and government. As a result, an outsider is gaining credence as a possible compromise candidate -- Antonio Vitorino, a moderate Portuguese socialist in charge of justice and home affairs in the EU executive.
Prodi, a center-left Italian prime minister, was chosen swiftly in a show of unity in March 1999 as the first NATO bombs fell on Kosovo. He replaced Jacques Santer of Luxembourg, forced to resign in a scandal over mismanagement and nepotism.
The former economics professor had led Italy from financial profligacy to qualify as a founder member of the euro and was on good terms with Europe's Socialists and Christian Democrats.
No such consensual figure is likely to stand out when the 25 EU leaders decide at a mid-June summit on a president to head the Commission for the next five years from November 1.
"This will have to marinate for a good while. No candidate is emerging clearly," one current commissioner said.
The Commission, with some 20,000 civil servants, proposes European laws and supervises their implementation. It has extensive powers in trade, competition and market regulation and a leading say in economic, transport and environment policy.
After a center-left figure from a big country, EU tradition would call for a center-right president from a small state.
But among serving center-right leaders, Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker seem tainted by membership of the anti-war camp led by France and Germany, and are seen as too integrationist by several countries.
Britain vetoed then Belgian Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene in 1994 as too "federalist." Dehaene is still a contender.
Danish Prime Minster Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who ran a highly successful EU presidency in 2002 finalizing the bloc's eastward enlargement, has shown no desire for the job. He is probably too pro-American for the Franco-German camp, diplomats say, and his country is not a member of the single European currency.
Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel, a Christian Democrat with solid European credentials, has some backers, but France and Germany may not have forgiven his 2000 political alliance with far-right anti-immigration leader Joerg Haider.
At a time when French and Belgian leaders are trying to hold the line against local or national coalitions with the extreme right, choosing Schuessel could send the wrong signal.
Outgoing Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar has set an example of successful economic reform but alienated many by his firm backing for U.S. President George W. Bush in the Iraq war.
He also helped block agreement on a new EU constitution in December to defend Spain's disproportionate voting power. He has said he will not seek a European job.
Party politics are a complicating factor.
Several potential candidates are left-of-center, including former Finnish Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen and outgoing Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis, while most EU governments and the majority in the European Parliament are on the center-right.
Under the Nice treaty, the Commission president no longer has to be chosen by unanimity but by qualified majority vote. But in practice, the choice will require broad consensus.
Although the draft constitution stipulates that the head of the EU executive must be a former or serving national leader, Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said on starting his six months in the EU chair that he may recommend a "technocrat."
Ahern recalled that Frenchman Jacques Delors, the Commission's strongest president, was never a national leader.
Several diplomats and commissioners said Vitorino, although little known outside Brussels, seemed the best placed outsider.
A multilingual policy expert and competent administrator, he could be an obvious choice if EU leaders are looking for a low-key manager rather than a high-profile political leader.
Although a socialist, he would be proposed by Portugal's center-right government, giving his nomination a bipartisan flavor that could ease European Parliament confirmation.
Copyright 2004
Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
