A reluctant law unto herself

Ms Emma Bonino - the diminutive, chain-smoking, Italian radical - has confounded some of her staunchest critics since arriving in Brussels as Commissioner in January. "She has not turned out the hot-head everybody expected", says a seasoned member of her team. "I have had to take back everything I said about her", says an experienced official working in a rival department.

But there is one area of her varied responsibilities that is particularly controversial, and her tendency for straight talking is making it more so.

When today she announces that another Ecu 4.6m (£3.8m) in humanitarian aid is to go to refugees in former Yugoslavia, she will be making public a decision made without reference to her fellow commissioners or the European Union's member states.

In fact, nearly Ecu 800m of European taxpayers' money is distributed through 82 countries more or less at her discretion.

A near independent agent with that sort of clout within the Brussels establishment would be controversial whoever did the job. The fact that it is done by Ms Bonino makes it doubly so.

In Italy Ms Bonino built her political career on fighting the establishment. In 1975, during her activist year as a member of Italy's Radical Party, she was detained for three weeks for assisting women to obtain abortions which were illegal. When she was elected as a member of parliament she was given immunity from prosecution. Although she pressed for the immunity to be lifted, it never was. Technically she could still be brought to trial.

She was also detained in New York for distributing clean needles to drug addicts as part of a campaign for safer drug use.

Now Ms Bonino is responsible for three portfolios in the European Commission - fish, consumer affairs and humanitarian aid. But it is her pro-active style in dealing with the little-known European Community Humanitarian Office (Echo) that has raised hackles in EU capitals and in Brussels.

Ms Bonino has promoted a higher profile for Echo, packing in 15 foreign trips, including three to the former Yugoslavia, in eight months. Her publicity programme has "provoked a lot of jealousy" says a senior official, adding that "there are many who would like to see her wings clipped".

Ms Bonino is unrepentant. "Openly and without hypocrisy I am battling to give Echo a higher profile. My motivation is to give Echo the same visibility as NGOs. It is a shame European taxpayers do not know how their money is spent."

Echo's handicap is that it is not always visible on the ground because it uses the expertise of 160 NGO's with which it has "partnership agreements' and who do the work.

One of her more controversial projects has been to promote a medical aid programme in Cuba. "The project has prompted the questions: is the Commission freelancing in Cuba? Where will it use humanitarian aid next"? says an EU official.

Ms Bonino denies that she is using humanitarian aid as a political weapon to influence foreign policy. "No, I have not been tempted to use Echo as an arm of foreign policy. I have been involved in humanitarian aid for many years. I am quite clear about the difference between the two."

"Echo is not the solution. Never. We are trying to soften the suffering of victims, to save lives. But is it not enough because most of the problems have a political origin and need a political solution."

Ms Bonino says she cannot use Echo's money to influence governments because it by-passes national administrations and is channelled to victims through non-governmental organisations.

"Governments ask us to give them the money all the time. They say we know the people, we will take care of our people. This happened in Cuba too. And every time I have to explain that we have a rule, and it is a good rule", she says.

Ms Bonino accepts that a structure that allows her to "do what I like, more or less" will have to change.

The heart of the problem, according to an EU official is that "Echo was endorsed with emergency short-circuiting procedures".

"It is a classical instance of bureaucracies avoiding controls by resorting to emergencies. Then the bureaucracy extends what it means by emergency to cover a wider and wider area".

Ms Bonino and member states are negotiating. Echo's first-ever mandate, which she hopes will iron out some of the difficulties. "We need a legal base so that we know what Echo is mandated to do, in what fields and with what relationship with the council".

She hopes the council will agree to a "consultative committee" rather than a regulatory one, which will set budgets and programmes for longer term crises. She also hopes it will facilitate co-ordination between Echo's multilateral work and bilateral humanitarian projects conducted by member states.

But, she cautions, there are risks involved. "One problem is the lack of co-ordination which I want to solve and another problem is systematic approval by member states which I would like to avoid".

She insists she wants to retain control, not because of "personal narcissism" but simply because "if I decide, say Liberia, and you need the approval of 15 member states you will take care of Liberia in six months' time".

Above all she wants to "prevent the idea that because humanitarian aid is not the solution it is a waste of money. I believe saving lives is not a waste of money. Of course to prevent crises is much better, but that is not up to me and Echo".