Bearing the Precious Burden of Enlargement

It's been one of the most difficult months of Günter Verheugen's career.

Since the Irish gave the go-ahead for EU enlargement in October, the fifty-eight year old has been working round the clock to try to secure a peace deal in Cyprus, find a way forward for Turkey's candidacy, keep Poland's financial expectations in check and persuade reluctant EU members that for forty billion euros, they're getting enlargement on the cheap.

Even as the enlargement project was poised to enter the final stages in Copenhagen, Commissioner Verheugen was still at it - urging participants to show political courage and strong leadership. European expansion must take place "now or never", he told German television. "A failure in Copenhagen or a delay could have serious effects on public opinion in the future member states."

The jewel in the crown

For Verheugen, the Copenhagen summit represents his greatest achievement as enlargement commissioner. "Nothing more can go wrong," he says. "When it's all over, I'll feel an enormous sense of relief."

This is about as close to sentimentality as Verheugen gets. Even after succeeding in closing what looked like an impossible gap between the member states and accession countries ahead of the Copenhagen meeting, the Commissioner was insisting that it was still too soon for celebrations.

Nor is Verheugen inclined to take all the credit for creating an expanded Europe. "It's a structure made up of many thousands of individual bricks," he says. Verheugen sees himself as an architect, but not a miracle-worker.

Challenges

In office for four years, Verheugen has complained that his is a lonely job. That's hardly surprising, given that he's spent more time on the road, travelling between the EU candidate countries and the fifteen member states, than back home in Brussels.

But the white-haired, thick-spectacled Verheugen has no doubts about what he's doing. The peoples of central and eastern Europe must be welcomed into the family of European democracies, he says, in order to close a historical chapter during which they were persecuted by oppressive totalitarian regimes.

Maintaining enthusiasm for the European project within the EU as well as in the candidate countries has been one of the biggest challenges Verheugen has faced as Commissioner. He's had to work hard to convince EU members that the accession countries are doing their best to implement reforms.

All the while, Verheugen sees that the candidate countries are losing patience, and they're no longer prepared to accept membership at any price. He's issued a stern warning to Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary to keep their demands in check, saying "the EU isn't an automatic teller machine. You don't just stick in your membership card and expect money to come out the bottom".

Getting EU members to agree on the hefty enlargement budget has been just as difficult. Verheugen has appealed to the member states to show more generosity, pushing the benefits he argues will come from an expanded European economic zone and new export markets.

A party man

Verheugen's skills in diplomacy have been developed over a long political career. Born in Germany in 1944, just before the end of WWII, he studied history and worked for a short time as a journalist before entering politics. He became federal party manager of the Liberal Democratic Party (FDP) at the age of thirty-two. Five years later, having helped the FDP achieve its best result ever in national elections, he switched to the Social Democrats (SPD).

It was a difficult time for Verheugen. The son of a small-town banker, he was not welcomed by some in the SPD, who never forgave him for his prior allegiance to the Liberal Democrats. Nevertheless, in 1993, Verheugen became the SPD's federal party manager, an important step in his political career.

The chance of a lifetime

After Gerhard Schröder's election victory in 1998, Verheugen had hoped to get the job of Defence Minister in his new cabinet. Instead, he was sent to Brussels as foreign policy advisor, and a year later took up the post of EU Commissioner responsible for enlargement.

Verheugen has described the move as a "chance which only comes along once in a lifetime... to do something that has a lasting impact and affects the lives of entire peoples".

Probably the biggest test of Günter Verheugen's career - the question of Turkey's membership - still lies ahead. Even if he succeeds, it's unlikely that he'll be around to see it happen. His term in office ends in 2004.