EU trip marks start of presidency campaign

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern began a three-day trip to EU member countries yesterday, which is generally seen as the start of his campaign to become the president of the European Union next year.

While the new post of permanent president depends on whether Ireland and the other member states ratify the Lisbon Treaty, politicians have already begun putting their names forward for the job.

Mr Ahern’s first stop was Ljubljana, capital of Slovenia, which holds the six-month EU presidency until the end of June.

A tête-a-tête, scheduled to last 10 minutes, continued for more than an hour and led officials to cancel the official meeting of delegations with an agenda of issues of interest to both. They continued their meeting over a working dinner after calling on the president Danilo Turk.

Today the Taoiseach addresses the permanent council of the OSCE in Vienna where the Finns hold the chair. The OSCE is the world’s largest regional security organisation, whose 56 members include all EU member states. He will call on the Austrian President Heinz Fischer and meet the Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer. He has a 15-minute tête-a-tête scheduled with the chancellor before they hold a joint press conference.

Tomorrow morning Mr Ahern flies to Warsaw where he will meet the Irish-Polish business community before having a private meeting with Prime Minister Donald Tusk. He may also call on Polish President Lech Kaczynski.

The post of EU president will be for a two-and-a-half-year term, renewable once, and the person selected will have the job of organising the agenda for the EU leaders’ meetings four times a year and of representing the EU generally.

It is expected the job will go to a current or former prime minister. However, there is likely to be a lot of horse trading for this and three other jobs to be filled at about the same time — commission president, high representative for foreign affairs and the ECB president.

Mr Ahern’s advantages are that he is from a small country that is part of the eurozone; that as taoiseach he would be sitting at the table when the decision is made; and that he ran a good presidency when it was held by Ireland in 2004.

On the other hand, if the Lisbon Treaty is passed the European Parliament will have a much greater say, and the fact that Fianna Fáil is not a member of the two large groups — the European People’s Party (Christian Democrat) and the Socialists — would be a big disadvantage as they tend to divide out the posts between them.

The outcome of any report from the Mahon Tribunal may have an influence on whether he would be considered by his colleagues. While a negative report might not deter them, the European Parliament will have to approve the choice of member states.

Bookmaker Paddy Power ranks Mr Ahern third at 5-1 behind ex-British PM Tony Blair (2-1) and Luxembourg PM Jean Claude Juncker (3-1).

Publicly French President Nicholas Sarkozy has said he would support Mr Blair for the post, but not everyone believes the French or other countries would support Mr Blair because of his support for the Bush administration and the Iraq war.