FRONT RUNNERS

Pierre Vimont

The Executive secretary-general post has been the subject of the most confident speculation in the Schuman Quarter rumour mill. The French Ambassador to the United States, Pierre Vimont, is a natural political choice for many after the High Representative position went to Catherine Ashton, an unlikely British candidate who is still relatively unknown in Paris. France is pressing for a very senior post, particularly since one of their most high-profile nationals in Brussels, Secretary-General of the Council Pierre de Boissieu, is due to leave office in the summer of 2011. However, Vimont is widely considered a fitting choice due to his extensive experience in Brussels, as a former permanent representative to the EU other postings to the Belgian capital, and internationally in Washington DC and the French Foreign Ministry.

Helga Schmid

With a career focused on foreign and European politics, Helga Schmid appears to have the classic background for one of the secretary-general jobs. Currently the director of Policy Unit of the General Secretariat of the Council, she previously worked as director for the Council’s Policy Planning and Early Warning Unit under Council Secretary-General Javier Solana. Schmid had a distinguished background in the German Foreign Ministry, including a posting to their Washington DC Embassy before launching her Brussels-based career. As a German, her appointment would be an appreciative nod to the EU’s major cheque-writing member state. As a woman, hiring Schmid would back up Ashton’s repeated promises to aim for some gender, as well as geographic, balance in the EAS.

Mikołaj Dowgielewicz

Also tipped for one of the secretary-general positions is Poland’s Europe Minister Mikołaj Dowgielewicz. He worked in the European Parliament as an advisor to former European Parliament President Pat Cox, as a Commission spokesman and in the cabinet of the Vice-President of the European Commission, Margot Wallström. Although he has experience in each of the three main institutions, his career is considerably less extensive than the other two names on the shortlist for the three top jobs and his appointment would therefore be likely to invite criticism that his passport holds more weight than his CV. Despite this, few other Central European names have been circulated anywhere near as widely as that of Dowgielewicz, making him a front runner.

ALSO IN THE FRAME

David O’Sullivan

An Irish name surfacing increasingly often for one of the senior jobs, if not necessarily a secretary-general post, is O’Sullivan’s. He is a former secretary-general of the Commission and head of cabinet for Romano Prodi, now the director-general of DG Trade, where Ashton when trade commissioner highly appreciated his professionalism. The European Commission would love having someone of O’Sullivan’s calibre with such a firm background in their institution highly placed in the EAS.

Robert Cooper

Currently European Commission foreign affairs and security policy director with an extensive European affairs background, including working at the British permanent representations to the EU and foreign affairs experience in Tokyo and Afghanistan, Cooper’s CV makes a strong argument for inclusion on the shortlist for one of the senior positions. However, being British, he is unlikely to join his compatriot Ashton at the very highest, secretary-general, level of the EAS without inviting protests of geographic imbalance among Western as well as Eastern member states.

Stefano Manservisi

Another former Prodi Head of Cabinet, Italian Stefano Manservisi is also tipped for one of the more senior jobs. He is a ‘Commission man’ and as the director-general of DG Development since 2004, he would notably bring aid assistance experience to the EAS. As a development heavy-hitter, he could also help reassure those who fear that Ashton’s vision of ‘soft diplomacy’ would involve using development as a political tool rather than pursuing aid assistance independently from political concerns.