John Bruton tells LARA MARLOWEin Washington why his spell as EU ambassador was one of the happiest in his career and how he would be loath to turn down a similar opportunity in future
AMBASSADOR JOHN Bruton and his wife Finola will leave Washington next Saturday, after five years representing the European Union. Whatever happens in the coming months, Bruton (62) will not be idle. When your CV includes stints as taoiseach and as a highly successful representative of the EU, you don’t stay unemployed for long.
In the past week, I’ve heard it suggested in various conversations that Bruton should become Ireland’s next EU commissioner, the first president of the European Council under Lisbon Treaty rules, or president of Ireland.
But when I ask Bruton what he wants to do, he laughs that inimitable, hearty laugh and says: “It would be presumptuous of me to offer any order of preferences in regards to those matters.”
Has anyone contacted him about these positions? Has he discussed them with Irish or EU officials? Bruton evades the question with good humour. “I have immensely enjoyed serving the European Union,” he says. “And if an opportunity were to arise at any stage in the future where I could serve the EU again, I would be very loath to turn it down, because this is something in which I deeply believe.”
But, as he notes: “The opportunities are in the hands of others.”
In other words: will the Irish Government and Brussels seize the opportunity to exploit Bruton’s European passion and experience to the fullest? Or will he be lost to the private sector?
Bruton describes the new post of high representative for common foreign and security policy – Europe’s future foreign minister – as “a very difficult job, a demanding job” because the person will be his country’s commissioner, as well as chairing foreign affairs council meetings and travelling a great deal.
Bruton doesn’t think the first president of the council should be a high-profile politician. (Tony Blair has been endorsed by several leaders, including Taoiseach Brian Cowen.)
“My own sense of it is that it’s going to be more a job for someone working behind the scenes to forge consensus, bearing in mind that the decisions of the European Council are all taken on the basis of consensus,”
Bruton explains.
“It’s a cliche, but it’s not untrue that in politics you can achieve almost anything, so long as you let someone else take the credit.”
Bruton refuses to comment on Fine Gael’s high opinion poll ratings, Labour leader Eamon Gilmore’s popularity, or Enda Kenny’s proposal to abolish the Seanad. “I’m not really in a position to go into Irish politics, Irish political issues. I’m not in Ireland, and one can’t judge.”
But his brother, Richard, is deputy leader of Fine Gael. “He’s well able to look after his own matters,” Bruton chuckles.
His 1994-1997 stint as taoiseach, and these five years in Washington, were the happiest periods of his past 40 years in politics, Bruton says. “I loved being taoiseach. It was a terrific job . . . I enjoyed it immensely. It was more stressful than being an ambassador, and more responsible in certain ways because actually the buck did fully stop with you. But I’ve loved this job, because it’s given me the opportunity to work for something I really believe in.”
Washington “is where all the currents of political interests converge,” Bruton says. “The place to be an observer politically is in Washington.”
He has visited 45 US states, held one-on-one meetings with more than 250 Congressmen. The country’s “boundless optimism” and Americans’ readiness to profess religious belief are characteristics that most impressed him.
Before Bruton arrived in Washington in November 2004, EU-US relations were strained by the Iraq war. Bruton gives George W Bush credit for engaging with the EU as an institution in his second term. “But on a lot of policy questions there still was quite a gap,” he adds. “President Bush’s policies on climate change, on the Middle East peace process, on multilateral issues generally, were not the same as those of the EU countries.”
Under President Barack Obama, Bruton continues, “policies are ones that Europeans instinctively, and I believe correctly, identify with more. He’s prepared to try talks with Iran. He’s prepared to say that if you’re to have two states in former Palestine, you can’t have one state continuing to build more settlements in what little is left for the second state.
“He’s been prepared to go for a new relationship with Russia. He’s prepared to do all the sort of things that we think should be attempted.”
Bruton wants the Irish to make more of an effort to understand how Europe functions, and he wants them to take greater pride in the union. “Irish people have made a far more than proportionate contribution to making the EU a success.
“It’s our achievement. Europe isn’t out there,” he says, gesturing towards a vague horizon. “Europe is here,” he adds, clutching his hand to his heart. “Donegal is part of Europe!” Americans “don’t make a distinction between the European Union and the member states,” Bruton says. “I’d be asked questions about the Muslim population in France, about the Baltic states and their relationship with Russia, about Spanish politics . . .”
Bruton’s work as ambassador has been informed by his understanding of history. For example, he explains in detail how the American Revolution precipitated the French Revolution, how France and America are the only two western countries who are “rationalist constructions” – based on ideas rather than tradition and feeling – hence their belief that they should be a model for others.
In modern times, Bruton continues, “The greatest European rationalist project is the European Union. That is the project that is the truly great, active, constructive statesmanship.”
And unlike the French and American revolutions, the European project has been achieved without violence.
“In the creation of the European Union, not a single person has died,” Bruton says.
"This is a union that has been created entirely voluntarily, without even the slightest tragedy. We need to infuse the EU with the same sort of enthusiasm that Americans have for the American way, and that French people have for une certaine idée de la France."