EU: There is a lightness in Romano Prodi's step these days as he says goodbye to Brussels and relishes taking on Silvio Berlusconi back home. He spoke to Denis Staunton.
Romano Prodi looks uncommonly cheerful these days, as he prepares to leave Brussels next week for a renewed career in Italian politics. He is relishing the challenge of taking on his old adversary, Silvio Berlusconi, but feels a little melancholy about leaving the European Commission after five years as its leader.
Mr Prodi's stock in Brussels is high at present and he admits that he was surprised last week when politicians from all parties queued to praise him in the European Parliament.
Meanwhile, his successor, José Manuel Barroso, has seen his honeymoon come to an abrupt end before he even takes office and runs a real risk of seeing his entire Commission rejected by MEPs next week. Mr Prodi displays no trace of schadenfreude as he observes Mr Barroso's troubles and suggests that nothing can prepare a politician for the role of Commission president.
"Nobody understands this job before being inside here. I knew all the aspects that you can know from outside - all the powers, the duties. But to know how this body works, you have to be inside. For me, it was a great surprise how complicated, how delicate this toy is. But this is why it's so fascinating, because it's not a government. It's not only an executive body because it also proposes legislation. It's not a legislative body because it cannot legislate alone," he said.
When Mr Prodi agreed to take the job in 1999 following the resignation of Jacques Santer's Commission, EU leaders rejoiced that Europe was about to get a strong, wise leader for the start of the new century. Here, after all, was the prime minister who had enabled Italy to qualify for euro membership, a cultivated academic with a brilliant knowledge of economics, who spoke French and English.
Within a year, the same leaders who had welcomed Mr Prodi so enthusiastically were muttering that he was incompetent, disorganised and too quick to pick a fight with national governments. Mr Prodi admits that, in the early months of his term in office, he disappointed even some of his natural allies.
"By nature, I am a slow learner. I never take an initiative or make a declaration if I am not sure of the direction. So I found myself criticised by people who were disappointed that I sometimes gave the impression that I didn't have a clear idea in front of me. I was still organising all the details of my actions. I probably gave the impression of not having a clear strategy," he said.
Mr Prodi blames the British press for some of the decline in his reputation but suggests that much of the criticism he attracted was motivated by resistance to his project to make the Commission more political. He maintains that Commission officials resented a change in the organisation's internal culture, which saw commissioners becoming more assertive in the face of the bureaucracy.
"The clear message was that the commissioner is in charge and the director-general is a very highly-skilled person for the administration," he said.
Mr Prodi's determination to play a more overtly political role may have led him into confrontations with national governments and annoyed some senior Commission officials. The greatest damage to his public image was caused, however, by his tendency to make frank statements about delicate political issues, statements that were often reported as gaffes.
Mr Prodi insists that, in the case of most of these so-called "gaffes", he was not only speaking the truth but has been vindicated by subsequent events. He identifies three interventions that caused him particular grief: his call for the EU to cultivate closer ties with Libya, his description of the Stability and Growth Pact as "stupid", and his interview with The Irish Times after Ireland's rejection of the Nice Treaty, when he said that EU enlargement was possible without the treaty.
The entire Western world has now embraced the Libyan leader, Mr Muammar Gadafy, and everyone in the EU agrees that the Stability Pact needs to be overhauled. Mr Prodi says he does not regret his interview with The Irish Times either.
"No, because it was a really intellectual exercise to say you can't stop enlargement in this delicate political situation. Politically, it is too important for the future of Europe. That was the real message given to The Irish Times. It was true . . . Maybe I was imprecise or too shocking but this was a political message. We have a mission and we have to get it," he said.
Ireland's initial rejection of Nice caused the first serious crisis of Mr Prodi's term in office but the Irish presidency earlier this year was the highlight - with the completion of EU enlargement and the negotiation of the constitution.
"The Irish presidency was paramount in my presidency. I remember it with nostalgia and gratitude . . . You demonstrated that a small country could lead Europe, even in the difficult debate on the constitution. This was not only message for Ireland. This was a message for all European states that are not big," he said.
The constitution will make it easier for groups of countries within the EU to co-operate more closely on policy issues and Mr Prodi expects such groups to form in the enlarged Europe. He is concerned, however, that any such enhanced co-operation must be truly open to all member-states.
"Now clearly we have a moment in which Europe must digest all the changes, because we have done maybe too much. In this digestion there will be a moment in which the circumstances will push for more speed. In that moment, reinforced co-operation will be needed. If that is done by many countries, it will go smoothly. If it is done by a group of countries who give the impression that it is exclusive, it will be a disaster," he said.
Mr Prodi returns to an Italian political scene that is polarised, hoping to unite the fractured Left in opposition to Mr Berlusconi. If he becomes Italy's prime minister again, he promises "deep change" in his country's relationship with Europe.