Newcomer to Brussels was blooded by BSE emergency

EU: As he announced his decision yesterday to leave Brussels after five years, David Byrne compared his experience as a Commissioner to driving a Formula One car - with thrilling, but hair-raising, ups and downs.

"I never expected to be involved in a job like this. I suppose I'm an accidental politician in many respects," he said.

Mr Byrne arrived in Brussels in 1999 as a relatively inexperienced politician and an unknown quantity for most of the public, having served just two years as Attorney General. His portfolio appeared unpromising - a new responsibility for Health, along with a ragbag of other duties, ranging from food safety and animal welfare to consumer protection.

Within months, however, Mr Byrne became one of the most familiar faces of the Commission on European television screens, propelled to fame by his role in managing the BSE crisis that swept the continent in 2000.

BSE was a disaster for many farmers and undermined popular confidence in the safety of the food we eat. Mr Byrne's task was to ensure that the necessary measures to eliminate the disease were undertaken, while reassuring consumers that the measures could guarantee food safety.

For months, the Commissioner and his staff thought of little else, working 18-hour days and travelling the continent for meetings with farmers, scientists, officials and consumers. Mr Byrne emerged from the experience exhausted, but with his reputation enhanced as an effective policy-maker and a persuasive communicator.

In response to the BSE crisis, Mr Byrne led moves to establish a European Food Safety Agency, which is now operating in Brussels but will move to the Italian city of Parma next year.

If BSE made Mr Byrne's name in Europe, his most passionate engagement has been in the campaign to stop people smoking, introducing directives to curb tobacco advertising and impose bigger and more frightening labels on cigarette packets. He also persuaded the Commission to back a reform of the tobacco-growing sector in Europe to encourage farmers to move towards cultivating other crops.

"I had a full conviction in relation to tobacco. I had no doubt and I also believed that this was something that had to be sold hard to the public, particularly young people. What I wanted to do was to blunt the power of the advertising of tobacco.

"I wanted to stop them creating this image, that cool image of tobacco, for kids. We've done that and we're trying to build the opposite image," he said.

Mr Byrne tends not to intervene at Commission meetings on issues that are outside his portfolio, although he has kept a close eye on matters of concern to Ireland, including this year's decision that Ryanair's arrangement with a Belgian airport was against state aid rules.

The most controversial policy Mr Byrne has pursued concerns genetically modified organisms and his announcement yesterday came as the Commission authorised the marketing of a genetically modified sweetcorn in the EU, ending a six-year moratorium on new GM foods.

Mr Byrne has consistently argued that his role has been to ensure food safety while giving consumers the information they need.

"I don't promote GM food. I have no ambition, one way or the other, whether people eat GM food or not," he said yesterday.

The Commissioner's critics maintain, however, that he has moved close to advocating the authorisation of such foods, more persuaded by producers' claims than by the fears of environmentalists.

After yesterday's decision, such concerns will soon be behind Mr Byrne.