Outside the Beltway

Many EU Representatives Snub Wolfowitz

Robert Garcia Tagorda · Wednesday, March 30, 2005 · 4 comments

Here’s a tip: if you’ve publicly expressed skepticism about a political nomination, and the nominee actually makes an effort to address your concerns, the least you can do is lend an ear.

Most of the EU Cast Miss Wolfowitz ‘Audition’ (FT)

Paul Wolfowitz, the US nominee to head the World Bank, on Wednesday gave what one minister described as “a positive signal†by making a flying visit to Brussels to help alleviate European concerns about his appointment.

However, as he boarded his United Airlines flight back to Washington just five hours after landing, Mr Wolfowitz might not have felt so positive about the European turnout.

Only seven out of the 25 European Union member states were represented by a minister or secretary of state at Wednesday’s meeting. This was in spite of the fact that EU finance ministers had insisted on holding such an audition before Mr Wolfowitz’s expected election as World Bank president in Washington on Thursday.

Granted, such meetings tend to be more theatrical than substantive.

Nonetheless, one official described the poor turnout as “a fiasco†and “truly humiliating considering that we [the EU] supposely had serious concerns that we really needed to discuss with him and that, perhaps against expectations, he did bother to show upâ€.

Indeed.