Europe's feuding leaders 'refuse' to share jet

LK_Dave

So the egos are ruining running the EU. Von Rompuy a former president of a country that will in all likelihood disengage in the coming years and Barroso a student of Mao. This EU gravytrain is one huge failure and the sooner it consigned to the dustbin of history the better.

By Bruno Waterfield in Brussels
Friday June 10 2011
A feud between two of the European Union's leaders was exposed yesterday as the two men travelled in separate VIP jets on the same morning to the EU-Russia summit destination in Russia.

Rivalry between the EU president Herman Van Rompuy and the European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso, whose title is also president, over who is Europe's true leader on the world stage meant that the pair and their entourages, would not share one aircraft.

Mr Van Rompuy, Belgium's former prime minister before he took the EU post, did not offer Mr Barroso space on an aircraft supplied to him by the Belgian air force at cheap rates.

Instead, Mr Barroso was forced to charter a 15-seater plane, said to be a Learjet, at high commercial rates to carry himself, Catherine Ashton, EU foreign policy chief, trade commissioner Karel De Gucht and a group of officials to Russia.

Air Charter Service, a London-based company, estimated the cost of Mr Barroso's Brussels-to-Russia air taxi would be between €55,000 and €80,000.

Meanwhile, Mr Van Rompuy, accompanied by fewer than 15 officials, travelled in a 35-seat Embraer 135 jet, charged only at the cost of the aircraft's fuel consumption. Both planes left Brussels within four hours of each other for Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, to hold talks on behalf of the EU with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

The European Commission and Mr Van Rompuy's office defended the arrangement by saying that the EU's two most senior officials were too busy to co-ordinate their diaries and too important to travel in one aircraft.

"The two presidents, like other European and world leaders, have different working schedules and commitments and therefore different departure times," a spokesman said.

"As with heads of state and government, there are also other considerations, like security, which means that the two presidents do not normally travel together."

Martin Callanan MEP, the leader of European Conservatives, attacked a "ridiculous situation" where in-fighting was getting in the way of the most basic organisation.

Squabbling

Privately, officials admit that the Lisbon Treaty, which created Mr Van Rompuy's post of president of the European Council to give the EU a single voice at summits, has had the opposite effect by unleashing a power struggle.

"There is a titanic clash of egos over who is the most important EU figure on the world stage," said a source close to the row.

"People will ask why the EU cannot even organise its own travel arrangements. This childish squabbling will only diminish the EU's reputation."

Between 2006 and 2010, €7.5m was spent on VIP jet travel for commissioners, a bill said to have increased since the Lisbon Treaty created new posts.

To avoid the costs of charter planes for Mr Van Rompuy, Mr Barroso and Ms Ashton, at least four countries have offered to make an aircraft available, on a fuel cost basis.

But diplomats say the plan for a cut-price EU "air force one" has had to be dropped because of arguing over which president or official is Europe's most important and, thus, who would have first call on its services. Mr Van Rompuy's travel arrangements came under scrutiny last year when it was revealed that he used five official limousines to take his family on holiday. (© Daily Telegraph, London)

- Bruno Waterfield in Brussels

Irish Independent

oscarBravo

LK_Dave wrote: »

So the egos are ruining running the EU. Von Rompuy a former president of a country that will in all likelihood disengage in the coming years and Barroso a student of Mao. This EU gravytrain is one huge failure and the sooner it consigned to the dustbin of history the better.

Yeah, life was so much better when massive egos settled their differences by taking their respective countries to war with each other.


Euroskepticism is getting really, really tedious.

LK_Dave

oscarBravo wrote: »

Yeah, life was so much better when massive egos settled their differences by taking their respective countries to war with each other.


Euroskepticism is getting really, really tedious.

I'm so sorry its boring you. Your obviously happy to live under a draconian system that is sucking you dry. Well I'm not happy to be ruled by a inefficient money wasting federal government who refuse to sign off their own audit accounts. I want the EU as it is today to either reform or return to the structure of the EEC. I'm a realist and I know there will always be waste and clashes of personalities but that does not mean that I have to accept it. Those that do accept it are slaves and deserve tyrants but I won't go that easy.

oscarBravo

LK_Dave wrote: »

I'm so sorry its boring you.

Clearly not sorry enough.

Your obviously happy to live under a draconian system that is sucking you dry.

You've clearly neglected to contemplate the radical possibility that the EU isn't a draconian system that's sucking me dry. I've considered the possibility that it is, and the possibility that it isn't, and I've drawn my own conclusions from the lack of draconianism and the fact that I haven't been sucked dry. Perhaps you've been dessicated by an ancient Greek legislator; I tend to doubt it.

Well I'm not happy to be ruled by a inefficient money wasting federal government who refuse to sign off their own audit accounts.

Neither would I. Happily, the EU is neither a federal government, nor has it refused to sign off its own audit accounts (whatever that means; I've never heard of anyone signing off on an audit of their own accounts).

I want the EU as it is today to either reform or return to the structure of the EEC. I'm a realist and I know there will always be waste and clashes of personalities but that does not mean that I have to accept it. Those that do accept it are slaves and deserve tyrants but I won't go that easy.

Or you could be wrong. You might be arrogant enough not to accept that possibility, in which case there's not much point arguing with you. Wake me up when you bring an original perspective to the discussion.

melanie25

Well private jet charter has always been really popular amongst diplomats... And as much as we can get upset they will always use it... it's the status and prestige, and the efficiency that goes with it.

Sticky_Fingers

And I don't necessarily mean those mentioned in the article.


As for the story in question I while I would concur that while it is a dreadful was of money to have to charter two aircraft I wold be more concerned about how it looks to outside observers. It is in no ones best interests for the EU to look like it doesn't even have the wherewithal to know who is actually supposed to do what job.

shadowninty

IMO Barroso, as the head of the executive, is the leader.
I do think this is a silly little spat though.