EU COMMISSIONERS:MINISTER OF State for European affairs Dick Roche has expressed an interest in succeeding Charlie McCreevy as the Irish representative on the European Commission.
“If I was offered the commission job I would be honoured to take it. I’ve spent the last 35 years working on European issues,” said Mr Roche yesterday ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.
Mr Roche, who has served as European affairs minister on two occasions, is understood to covet the job. However, he faces an uphill battle in persuading Taoiseach Brian Cowen to appoint him as it would prompt a byelection in his Wicklow constituency.
The slim Government majority in the Dáil makes the promotion of any sitting TD a risky option for Mr Cowen. Asked about his prospects of getting the job, Mr Roche told journalists that he “wouldn’t bet on it”.
Other potential Irish candidates for the job include: Pat Cox, who is heading the Ireland for Europe referendum campaign; former Fianna Fáil minister Maire Geoghegan-Quinn, who sits on the European Court of Auditors; and former taoiseach John Bruton, who is EU ambassador to the US.
Several member states have chosen their nominees for the commission and several more nominations are expected in the days following the likely re-election of Jose Manuel Barroso on Wednesday. Mr Cowen is unlikely to nominate a candidate until after the Lisbon referendum, which, if ratified, would enable all member states to retain their commissioner.
A No vote in Ireland would create a legal problem for the union as EU rules state that the number of commissioners must be less than the number of member states by 2009.
Mr Roche said this was a key reason why Irish people should vote in favour of the treaty.
“I don’t know how many commissioners there would be, but it would be a much smaller commission than we have now,” said Mr Roche, who dismissed comments from Swedish prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt that the best contingency plan in the event of a No vote was to appoint 26 commissioners and one high representative for foreign affairs.
In his briefing to EU foreign ministers, Mr Roche said the Lisbon campaign was progressing positively but that there was no room for complacency.
He said there was a lot of interest “in the corridors” from colleagues on the decision by Declan Ganley to rejoin the referendum campaign.
He dismissed Mr Ganley’s argument that rejecting the treaty would benefit the Irish economy. “People who have a track record of job creation in Ireland and people who know about the Irish economy take a diametrically opposed view to that put forward by Mr Ganley,” added Mr Roche.