What a protracted exit! Rumiana Jeleva has finally gone. The surprise was that it took so long. The Bulgarian foreign minister was ready to throw in the towel and generally renounce politics directly after her disastrous hearing last week, but was persuaded by fellow members of the centre-right European People’s Party to stay.
The EPP, it seems, was willing to overlook her obvious incompetence in the hearing in favour of grabbing the moral highground for the way the session was conducted. Instead of focussing on her weak policy answers, they looked at the fact that Eva Joly, the head of the development committee in charge of the three-hour hearing, allowed a bit of a free-for-all during the first 50 minutes, where questioning largely focussed on Jeleva’s unclear financial interests.
The EPP then compounded the situation by obviously looking for payback from another political party, choosing the Socialist Slovak commissioner Maros Sefcovic to take the fall – although Sefcovic seems to have emerged unscathed from his hearing on Monday.
Neither did the EPP’s decision to prop up Jeleva after her hearing do Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso any favours. Several editorials today have criticised Barroso for not learning the (Rocco Buttiglione) lessons of 2004 and withdrawing his support from Jeleva. Left wing and green MEPs have had a field day talking about how politically deaf Barroso is.
But I am not sure what he could have done in his situation. After all Jeleva was the foreign minister of a member state. Could he really have jumped in with both feet and agreed she was useless – before the parliament’s development committee had even pronounced on her? To what end exactly?
His letter of supposed support on Friday was not particularly supportive. By leaving out any mention of how she performed in her hearing and underlining obliquely that he has no intelligence service to look into her declaration of financial interests, it was clear he had abandoned her. It was only a matter of time before she went.
Nobody comes out of last week’s events smelling of roses. But the Bulgarian government looks the worst. How did Rumiana Jeleva become foreign minister of the country in the first place? And why did Sofia then foist her upon Brussels when apparently they had another woman candidate with substantial policy experience all along?
#1 by Apparently on January 20, 2010 - 3:04 pm
Apparently Jeleva was well accepted not only in Bulgaria but in EPP where she holds vice-presidency, how this could happen? Such incompetence… yet same things happen everywhere but im not sure only Jeleva to blame, what about the baroness?
#2 by Denis O Buachalla on January 22, 2010 - 1:02 am
This appears to have the hallmarks of a set up right from the beginning. The European Parliament had to be seen to exercise their muscle and have their pound of flesh. Jeleva was the perfect bait to be thrown to the wolves….This is the typical Brussels politics of creating a trade for a trade off in another area……there are a lot of constitutional isssues that have to be handled very carefully in the opertation and establishment of the External Action Service….National Parliaments can not afford to opt out in the scrutiny of the Service.
#3 by David Harpe on January 24, 2010 - 10:03 pm
I am in the United States, where Ronald Reagan was elected twice, and George W. Bush was elected twice. Both administrations were riddled with incompetence and corruption. They have also left a lasting legacy in 5 of the 9 members of the Supreme Court. Even the Obama administration has way too many of these problems. I would love to be in a country where there are just a few incompetent officials.