For an Irish head of government, the European Council summits in Brussels are as big as it gets. Sure, you might get to address the UN, but so do 200 other world leaders and nobody pays much attention to it anyway.
The EU is different; there’s real power there. Sitting at the conference table with 28 (soon to be 27) leaders taking decisions that affect the lives of 500 million people, while representing the interests of your own five million or so – that is the apex of political leadership for an Taoiseach.
And even if the EU seems remote to many of its citizens, that’s a problem of perception, not of reality.
Of course, the notion that all the EU states are equal around the table is an illusion – Varadkar doesn't have as much say as Angela Merkel does. But the EU still does many important things by unanimity and most things by consensus. Varadkar's presence at the table gives him a voice and the chance to do politics.
At his first summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, he seems to have thrown himself into the process with some enthusiasm. At his post-summit press conference, he detailed with delight the meetings he had with the various European leaders, both in the council itself and the various bilateral meetings on the margins.
“It’s an interesting experience being at a European Council meeting for the first time,” he told the fuller-than-usual press conference. “Essentially, over two days, we met for about 12 hours, and that included meeting over lunch and dinner.
Opportunity
"So there's an opportunity to meet everyone. I think I met every prime minister in Europe over the last two days, so it's an opportunity to begin a relationship with lots of new people."
Part of him seemed quite boyishly thrilled by this. “It’s very informal, it’s unlike the Council of Ministers meetings. Because it’s just politicians in the room. There are no officials there. It’s done on first-name terms, and it’s actually very dynamic.
“The Council of Ministers tends to be people reading out statements to one another – this is very different. It’s people talking about a document in front of them and making changes to the document, changing the language and wording and the meaning without reference to officials or advisers.
“So I really felt that the elected politicians were in control – which isn’t the way you necessarily feel all the time in politics. There are also very frank exchanges as well between heads of government. People don’t speak in riddles. People were very frank in terms of their views on things and where there were differences of opinion, there were differences of opinion.”
Much curiosity
If the new French president Emmanuel Macron was very much the star of the show at the Brussels summit, Ireland's new leader was the subject of much curiosity from foreign press and officials. What's he like? they all asked. It's a question it takes a while to answer.
By all accounts – including his own – Ireland’s new Taoiseach took to the leaders’ stage in Brussels with some relish. But Varadkar knows he will be judged not on how much he is enjoying the process, but by the results he produces for his country.
The tension between British prime minister Theresa May and the rest of the EU leaders simmered away at the summit, occasionally bubbling to the surface. If the Brexit talks turn sticky, Ireland could be left in a very exposed position. Varadkar might not enjoy Brussels so much then.
