Prodi in bid to reassert power

European Commission President Romano Prodi was today taking on EU leaders over who is really running the European Union.

In a speech designed to relaunch himself after a series of embarrassing political setbacks, Mr Prodi will insist that the Commission is in the driving seat.

And, in a sideswipe at British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s selective ‘‘mini-summits’’ for the big EU players to discuss the campaign against terrorism, he will insist on equality for all member states, large or small.

But the speech, in the Belgian city of Bruges, is unlikely to improve relations with some capitals, and particularly London.

Mr Prodi angered Mr Blair, French President Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder by complaining publicly when Britain, France and Germany held a private meeting to discuss their collective military contribution to the US-led attacks in Afghanistan.

Then Mr Prodi bizarrely boycotted an EU summit news conference because he said that Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt talked too much, and that it was difficult to get a word in edgeways.

The last straw came when Mr Prodi was not invited to another ‘‘council of war’’ over Afghanistan, in Downing Street, a week ago. It was a meeting which Mr Blair was pressed into enlarging from just France and Germany to include Belgium, Holland and Italy - but the Commission President still failed to make the guest list.

In a nutshell, Mr Prodi is feeling left out: all the key European political and diplomatic initiatives since the September 11 atrocities have been made by a few individual EU leaders, and mostly by the globe-trotting Mr Blair.

A brief official visit to Washington with Mr Verhoftstadt, and the fact that the Commission is orchestrating a package of EU anti-terrorist measures due to be approved by EU leaders next month, has not improved Mr Prodi’s Cinderella-like mood.

Smaller EU countries similarly feel that the notion of a united Europe, particularly in world affairs, is being brushed aside by a few, and that the Commission is not, in Mr Prodi’s own words, ‘‘holding the ring’’.

But Mr Blair dismisses such fears. It makes sense, he says, for groups of countries to meet separately on specific issues like the anti-terrorism military contribution, which only some in the EU are making.

The UK’s EU ambassador, Sir Nigel Sheinwald, has pitched in to, dismissing grumbles about exclusive meetings as ‘‘naive and simplistic’’.

Mr Prodi’s fight-back was agreed at talks with fellow EU Commissioners in Florence last week, and the resulting speech attempts to reaffirm his role and that of the Commission at the heart of Europe.

One Commission spokesman said the speech will point out that Commission intends to play its role as guardian of the Treaties fully, including acting as guarantor of equality in all EU member states, regardless of their size.

‘‘The President will say that the Commission will make full use of its powers and prerogatives while respecting those of the member states.’’

Mr Prodi will accuse some EU leaders of dragging their feet on EU integration, yet agreeing new laws swiftly enough when it suits them, such as in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

And he will warn that EU progress will be stifled without the ‘‘determined engagement’’ of all 15 member states.