BRUSSELS, Sept. 8 (UPI) -- After a series of recent spats, Brussels has shown how seriously it views smoother relations with Washington by inviting former Irish Prime Minister John Bruton to become the European Union's ambassador to the United States.
In a statement issued Wednesday, the European Commission -- which runs the EU's fledgling diplomatic service -- said it hoped Bruton's appointment would lead to a "further strengthening of EU-U.S. ties and to deeper mutual understanding in this indispensable partnership."
Ties between the world's two largest economic blocs have been strained in recent years due to differences over Iraq, climate change, genetically modified crops, chemicals policy and the International Criminal Court. A series of high-profile trade rows have also soured transatlantic relations.
Welcoming the commission's decision, Irish Premier Bertie Ahern said: "The appointment of a person of John Bruton's stature to the Washington post is a clear assertion of Europe's commitment to strengthening the EU-U.S. relationship."
Unlike in the United States, where ambassadorships are often political appointments dished out to the president's friends and fundraisers, EU envoys have traditionally been career civil servants plucked from the upper echelons of the commission. The current EU Ambassador to Washington Gunter Burghardt, who Bruton will replace in November, has been a European official for over three decades.
If Bruton's appointment is confirmed by EU governments, as expected, the Irish parliamentarian will become the first ambassador to be head-hunted from outside the ranks of the Commission. He will also become the first former prime minister to represent the Union's interests overseas.
"The problem the Commission found was that bureaucratic appointees didn't carry enough weight on Capitol Hill," says Conor Sweeney, Europe Editor of the Irish Independent. "But with his Irish charm, John Bruton should be able to open doors in Washington."
The 54-year-old former barrister, who was first elected to parliament at the tender age of 22 and was premier from 1994-1997, is certainly no stranger to the United States. When Ireland held the rotating EU presidency in 1986, he represented the bloc in meetings with then president Bill Clinton. He has been a guest lecturer at Princeton University, the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Yale University and the Catholic University of Washington. He was also chosen to head a task-force on improving relations between the EU and the United States in 2003.
Despite Bruton's close ties to the Beltway elite, it would be a mistake to paint the Fine Gael politician as an American cheerleader in the mould of British Prime Minister Tony Blair or Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi. "There is no question of him turning native," said one Brussels observer, adding: "He is more pro-European than Atlanticist."
A key member of the body that helped draft the EU's first Constitution last year, Bruton is as close as it gets in Ireland to an out-and-out federalist. He is in favor of the EU playing a more muscular role on the world stage. "Europe must be able to act globally, if it is to prosper locally," he wrote in a recent pamphlet. He also supports directly electing European Commission presidents and scrapping national vetoes over sensitive policy areas.
Bruton, who will have 80 EU officials working under him in Washington, is not the sort of man likely to do an impromptu Irish jig on St. Patrick's Day or belt out Irish ballads over a pint of Guinness in a smoky pub. The son of a wealthy landowner, he is described by political analysts as a "patrician Tory," because of his aloof, intellectual manner and social conservatism.
However, he is likely to be more popular with the Bush administration than Burghardt, the current EU ambassador who is due to step down in November. In a recent interview with the Brussels-based European Voice newspaper, the German official lashed out at the "them and us" doctrine pushed by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy Paul Wolfowitz. "We have to understand that nobody wants to hear the kind of Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz hard-line language again -- the talk of 'one part of history was written by others, the rest of history will be written by us.' It upsets people."
Burghardt, who represents a secular organization staunchly opposed to the death penalty, also hit out at the Christian right's grip over foreign policy. "The neo-conservative foreign policy school has had a kind of missionary zeal; it believes its agenda is one blessed by divine providence," he added. "This reborn Christian element can always be found in any mix of American policy articulation but it has never been there in such a highly concentrated form before."
Democratic candidate John Kerry would not "surround himself with neo-conservatives in this highly concentrated way," according to Burghardt. "And a second Bush administration might not want to do so either. It might want to take a turn by reaching out to permanent alliances."
Whether Bruton's tenure is a success or failure partly depends on who wins the presidential election on Nov. 2. A Kerry victory would certainly make the Irishman's job easier, but the new EU envoy can take some comfort from the fact that a second Bush presidency would unlikely to be as antagonistic as the first.
