The godfather of Europe

First the Irish, then the Czechs. José Manuel Barroso is eliminating enemies of the Lisbon Treaty — setting things up for the arrival of President Blair, says Brian M. Carney

At first, the European Union’s critics had high hopes for José Manuel Durão Barroso. If Jacques Delors represented Brussels’s unbridled ambition and Romano Prodi its weakness for buffoonery and bumbling incompetence, then this soft-spoken Portuguese lawyer seemed to bring some modesty to the post of president of the European Commission. His appointment, some fancied, showed the institution was finally come of age. And, just maybe, was scaling back its centralising, federalist ambitions.

How naive that all seems now. Barroso this week stands triumphant, having browbeaten Ireland into reversing its verdict on the Lisbon Treaty earlier this month and last weekend persuading the Czechs that resistance is useless. He has done so not with charm and nuance of argument, but through a mixture of bribery, naked threats and intimidation. As a result, he can claim to rank among the most cunning and effective architects of the EU project. His success, by any standards, has been remarkable.

Consider his tactics in the last few weeks. Asking the Irish to vote again was, in itself, audacious — given there was no other reason than that he did not like their first answer. Then, two weeks before the vote, he announced a E15 million aid package for the Emerald Isle’s jobless — in particular 2,400 sacked Dell workers. Here was a form of politically directed state aid acceptable to the European Commission. The message behind the largesse was clear enough: Big Brother Barroso in Brussels would be nice to Ireland, if Ireland was nice to him.

Importantly, if the Irish didn’t like the nice Mr Barroso, they could opt for the nasty one.