Newsgroup: it.politica
Titolo: E' NATO  BEL PIRLA.COM DEDICATO A PRODI

             World News from TIMES
 
 
 
October 26, 2004
Romano Prodi, the European Commission President, at the European Union's
headquarters in Brussels yesterday. He chairs his final commission meeting
today (THIERRY MONASSE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)
 
 
Battered Prodi waves goodbye
by Rory Watson and Anthony Browne
 
 
AFTER five years at the helm of the European Commission, Romano Prodi bade
farewell yesterday. He talked up his achievements, but critics declared him
the “worst president in the history of the EU”.
The former Italian Prime Minister, who chairs his final commission meeting
today and officially stands down at the end of the week, held a cocktail
party for journalists and told them: “These have been important years for
me. They were difficult at the beginning, but I gained more satisfaction as
the years went by. We had a strong policy from the beginning. I leave this
heritage to my successor.”
 
Speaking in the reopened commission HQ, the Berlaymont, which took 12 years
to refurbish, he said: “We had to deal with important challenges such as
enlargement and the constitution, and we reformed the Commission
internally.”
The expansion of the European Union to embrace much of Eastern Europe on May
1 this year is widely seen as a huge success. It entrenched democracy and
free markets in eight unstable former communist states, and peacefully
reunited the Continent after the divisions of the Cold War.
The simultaneous launch of the European single currency in one day across
twelve countries in January 2002 — the largest logistical exercise since the
Second World War — is also seen as a triumph.
Under Signor Prodi, the Commission also paved the way for Turkey to start
negotiations to join the EU, prodding the country into human rights and
democratic reforms.
But Signor Prodi, a former economics professor, was frank about his main
failure — the inability to reform the rigid and stagnant economies of the
EU. The so-called Lisbon agenda, aimed at closing the productivity gap with
the US and making the EU the most competitive economy in the world, was “a
big failure”, he said.
EU analysts insist that his failings go further. Charles Grant, the
europhile director of the Centre for European Reform think-tank, said: “He
has been the most unsuccessful president in the history of the EU. He’s
failed to co-ordinate the work of his commissioners as a team. As a former
prime minister, he was too grand to get into the nitty-gritty of dossiers,
and sailed over the surface.”
Graham Mather, president of the right-leaning European Policy Forum, said:
“He’s shown no understanding of the market-opening and foreign policy
agenda. He’s shown no intellectual leadership, and has been prone to many
gaffes.”
The process of EU enlargement, and preparations for the euro, were begun
well before Signor Prodi came to power.
 It was on his watch that the Growth and Stability Pact — the treaty that
upheld the euro — collapsed as France and Germany failed to curb huge budget
deficits. Many of his individual commissioners are widely judged to have
been excellent. They include Chris Patten in external affairs, Günter
Verheugen in enlargement, and Mario Monti in competition. But many of the
Commission’s successes are attributed to them rather than their boss.
Signor Prodi was appointed President when the Commission of Jacques Santer
resigned en masse after a corruption scandal.
He came to power saying that his priority was to purge the EU’s institutions
of fraud, but last year it emerged that millions of euros had vanished
without trace into secret bank accounts opened by the officials of Eurostat,
the EU’s statistical agency.
The other main count against Signor Prodi is the haemorrhaging in public
support for the EU. The Commission’s surveys record Euroscepticism across
the Union. The turnout at the European elections last June was a record low,
with fewer than one in two voters bothering to go to the polls.
Nor is there any longer a “big project” to drive the EU forward. “The EU is
perceived to be in a pretty ghastly state. The Commission has lost its sense
of purpose,” Mr Grant said.
Signor Prodi is particularly proud of having seen through the negotiations
that led to the EU’s first constitution. agreed by member states in July. On
Friday, Signor Prodi’s last day in office, it will be signed by 28 heads of
state in Rome. However, it has prompted referendums on the constitution in
11 countries, some of which could deliver a “no” vote, sparking a
Continent-wide political crisis.
Tomorrow, the European Parliament will vote whether to approve the new
Commission, and most of the main political groups are insisting that they
will not. If Signor Prodi’s successor, José Manuel Durão Barroso, the former
Portuguese Prime Minister, fails the vote, he will not be able to take
office next week and Signor Prodi will have to stay on as President of a
“caretaker Commission”.
Signor Prodi, who hopes to return soon to Italian politics, said: “I really
hope that will not be the case.” He is not alone.
 
 
 
 
 
 
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                    Il 24 Giu 2005, 15:42, LEGIONARIO PAD...@Lega.Lega ha scritto:
Prodi ha lasciato la Commissione Europea ottenendo una standing ovation di
10 minuti. Non hanno applaudito i servi di Forza Italia.
Il grande Prodi è riuscito ad allargare la Comunità e a far varare una
Costituzione ancorchè da lui criticata in quanto troppo timida, ma comunque
un accordo da cui partire per avanzare.
Oggi Barroso è nei guai e non pare avere il carisma di Prodi per sistemarli.
Prodi era avversato dagli Inglesi che non vogliono uno Stato Europeo. Questo
dimostra la grande capacità di prodi sulla strada di una effettiva Unione.
