Collegiality comes under fresh strain

Date: 30/11/1995

By Rory Watson

EUROPEAN Commission collegiality is coming under growing strain as its members approach the end of their first year in office.

Within a month of the row over Environment Commissioner Ritt Bjerregaard's Brussels diaries, another new member has punctured the public image of agreement and harmony President Jacques Santer has tried so hard to create.

This time it was personal remarks, and clearly prefaced as such, by Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock to a small UK audience. Kinnock used a speech last Friday to question the timing, but not the principle, of a single currency and to voice concern about the enormity of the challenge of enlargement.

Kinnock went to see Santer on Monday morning to explain the incident, and he and his entourage hoped that the issue was then closed.

But while there is a growing view that the furore was sparked off more by accident than design, Santer appears to remain in an unforgiving mood. In an extraordinary comment to a crowded Brussels press conference yesterday (29 November), the president publicly questioned the former British Labour Party leader's character.

“First of all, I would say that it is the Commission which defines its policy as a college. The president of the Commission is entitled to present Commission policy. If one member of the same college hesitates or expresses some scepticism on certain points, I can only say he does not have a strong enough personality to convince his colleagues in the college,” said Santer.

Santer later issued a hurried statement insisting he had not meant to imply Kinnock had “a weak personality”, but did confirm: “I have made it clear that remarks made by Neil Kinnock are damaging to the policy and purpose upheld by the college of Commissioners”.

The force of Santer's comments may be partly explained by his strong attachment to a single currency and the Maastricht timetable. But he has also made no secret of his distaste for Commissioners he believes are not playing as a team, or who break ranks. The three who have incurred his displeasure come into those categories: Trade Commissioner Sir Leon Brittan for trying to keep a wide-ranging portfolio, Ritt Bjerregaard for passing public comments on her colleagues, and now Kinnock.

But the latest incident clearly reveals the dilemma in which active Commissioners find themselves and raises the question whether they really can indulge in some soul-searching and speak out in a personal capacity or 'off the record' to different audiences.

“Commissioners are accused of sitting inside an ivory tower, and are told to go out and engage the public. But when you do that, you have to take head-on what people are concerned about. You must remember this was a forum of British industrialists,” explains one Kinnock sympathiser.

Ironically, while the Commission has clarified the rules on its members' outside interests and activities - but a week after promising to do so has still not published them - it has no guidelines on speeches.

These do not need to be cleared with Santer and even if a Commissioner strays into another's territory, there is no obligation to consult the colleague in question.

“There are two kinds of Commissioners. Those who stick to their policy areas and those who talk on anything. Clearly, it is a looser system than in a national government, but sometimes you would check things with a colleague. Commissioners do sometimes take policy stances in speeches without consulting the Commission. But when they go to member states, they are expected to talk on a range of issues,” explains one Cabinet member.

Public disputes among Commissioners are not new. If anything, there were more under Santer's predecessor Jacques Delors, who was often accused of springing surprises on his colleagues. Perhaps it was that behaviour which made him reluctant to clash swords with his colleagues after some of their remarks.

But this did not prevent him from rebuking former Environment Commissioner Carlo Ripa di Meana on occasions, especially when he boycotted the UN Environment summit in Rio, or former Agriculture Commissioner Ray MacSharry over a farm trade deal with the US.

As Santer seeks to put his ship back on an even keel, a new front has opened in the battle between the European Commission and one of its senior officials, Bernard Connolly.

Suspended on half pay after the unauthorised publication of his book The Rotten Heart of Europe - a highly critical review of a single currency - and involved in disciplinary proceedings, Connolly took his fight to the European Court of Justice.

Last week (23 November) judges in the Court of First Instance heard his lawyer Pierre-Paul van Gehuchten argue that the disciplinary action should be dropped and that measures be taken to stop a whispering campaign against him. A ruling is expected shortly.