Updated: Wednesday, 4th November, 2009 11:00am

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Bruton is the man for EU post

by John Donohoe

The former Ambassador of the European Union Delegation to the United States, John Bruton, arrived home to Dunboyne at the weekend, having spent five years representing the interests of the European Union in Washington, the political capital of the country regarded as the most powerful in the world.

It has been a busy five years in Washington, with many political, economic, trade and social issues to be resolved between the two entities that often have had different viewpoints and varying traditions.

John Bruton was never going to sit for too long on the Fine Gael backbenches following the foolish overthrow of him as leader of the party in 2001 by the supporters of the ill-fated Michael Noonan and the late Jim Mitchell. That decision turned out to be a massive mistake for the party, which was reflected in the 2002 general election result, and one from which it is still attempting to recover.

However, for the Dunboyne man, it opened up considerable other opportunities, and having worked on Valery Giscard d'Estaing's Convention of the Future of Europe to draw up a new constitution for the European Union, most of which is still in place in the Lisbon Treaty, the former Taoiseach was appointed as Europe's man in America, a role he clearly relished as a committed Europhile.

In recent months, as his role in America was coming to an end, his name was being mentioned as a possible replacement for Charlie McCreevy as Ireland's European Commissioner, with the current FG leader, Enda Kenny, his main cheerleader.

However, while he was interested in that position, the Ambassador clearly had a different European role in mind. Part of the new European Constitution he had himself worked on created the position of a new President of the European Council, an all-powerful position designed to replace the current revolving six-month presidency of the EU held by leaders of the member states.

On 5th October last, Mr Bruton asked the Irish Ambassador to Washington, Michael Collins, that if the Taoiseach considered it appropriate, he would be interested in the commissionership. Mr Bruton also asked Mr Collins to convey his interest in the presidency of the Council in the event a compromise candidate was sought. Last Friday week, Mr Bruton indicated to the government that he would be writing to the 27 European leaders to say as much. The letters were sent on Monday of last week, as the leaders were preparing to meet in summit in Brussels.

It was in a begrudging way that the current Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, responded to questions on the Bruton candidacy when arriving at the Brussels summit. Mr Cowen said the Government would support Mr Bruton if he received enough backing elsewhere in the EU. Maybe Mr Cowen didn't want to lay all his cards on the table at once, but it was left to the Foreign Affairs Minister, Michael Martin, to clean up the mess by saying that the Government would fully support the Bruton campaign.

The downside for Bruton is that he has been away from the Council of Leaders table for over a decade, so may not be as well 'got' as he would need to be for the job.

Yesterday (Tuesday) the Czech Supreme Court finally decided to ratify the Lisbon Treaty, and with their president agreeing to sign it last week, it removed the last stumbling block for the Treaty to come into force and the position to be created.

John Bruton this year marks the 40th anniversary of his first election to Dail Eireann in 1969, yet he is still a very young politician at 62. He has been a prime minister, held the Presidency of the European Council in 1996, has drawn up the workings of the present constitution and has spent the last five years representing Europe in a country where former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger once famously asked 'Who do I call if I want to call Europe?' The answer should be John Bruton.