Brussels: non-plussed about Gordon Brown

31 May 2007

Brussels waits for Gordon Brown with bated breath. Whereas Tony Blair is known in the capital of Europe for promising much but delivering little, the PM-in-waiting is considered boorish and truculent, writes Stephen Gardner. Brown has shown little interest in building relationships with counterparts from other countries, and rarely attends meetings of finance ministers, prefering to send Treasury Secretary Ed Balls. When the prime minister-in-waiting has a European idea he briefs selected hacks in London, leaving other capitals to find out from the wires. Some of these ideas have left Brussels wondering if Brown is being mischievous, provocative or simply ignorant. Last year, he proposed an independent European competition panel. Bewildered officials pointed out that, er, the European Commission is already an independent competition authority, and to remove this would cut away one of its main powers. More recently, Deputy Balls made a speech saying EU spending, especially on agriculture and on economic development for the less well-off member states, should not necessarily come from the EU budget. Such a renationalisation of EU funds would severely curtail the Commission's role and is hardly likely to gain support from the more solidarity-minded member states. But for the United Kingdom there would be at least one advantage: avoiding those embarrasing (and growing) fines from Brussels for monumental farm payment management cock-ups. A version of this article was originally published in Private Eye.

 

< Prev		Next >