Moving politics to one side

Date: 15/05/1997

The UK's ambassador to the EU Sir Stephen Wall is too useful a chap to be dispensed with by the incoming Labour government, at least for now.

Although Wall is closely allied to the previous administration - he was ex-Premier John Major's right-hand man at the Maastricht negotiations - his Intergovernmental Conference expertise is proving invaluable as the new administration makes its mark in Brussels.

But who was that alongside the UK's new Minister for Europe Doug Henderson at a post-IGC meeting press conference in Brussels last week? No less than Paul Lever, deputy under-secretary for European affairs in the foreign office.

Lever was chef de cabinet for former British Conservative Commissioner Christopher Tugendhat and is rumoured to be keen to take over Wall's job.

Maybe that was why Lever was so prominent during Henderson's first EU visit...

Meanwhile, French European Affairs Minister Michel Barnier is refusing to let domestic political concerns interfere with the IGC talks.

As a senator, Barnier's personal future is not at stake in the current French elections and he has made it clear that he will take his seat at the IGC negotiating table as usual in the run-up to the 25 May poll, scotching rumours that he might be temporarily replaced by French permanent representative to the EU Pierre de Boissieu.