THE NEW FEDERALIST PROFILE

EMMA BONINO

Who remembers Thorvald Stoltenberg? He was due to become the member of the European Commission with responsibility for fisheries. But the Norwegian people came between him and his I million kroner salary with a "No" vote in their referendum. Into the vacancy stepped Emma Bonino.

Already nominated as Commissioner for consumer protection and humanitarian aid, Emma Bonino cannot have expected the elevation to public attention that her fishing responsibilities. She has provided an acceptable public face for what is to many an unacceptable set of policies. Simply compare her performance with that of Franz Fischler, Agriculture Commissioner, if you want to see just how good she is.

But what is her background? We are entitled to ask of those who govern us what are their qualifications to hold office. Emma Bonino certainly earned hers the hard way.

Regularly elected both to the Italian and European Parliaments as a Radical Party candidate, Emma Bonino has consistently championed the causes of the weak and the vulnerable. She involved herself in the campaign for the legalisation of abortion in Italy, even to the extent of being imprisoned for her (non-violent) actions. A generation of Italian women owe her a great debt.

She has worked for an end to the causes of starvation inunderdeveloped countries, including organising the conference "I poveri non mangiano teorie" (The poor can't eat theories) and working through Parliamentarians for Global Action.

She has also been a prominent opponent of the Italian government's policies on nuclear and nuclear arms. Nominating her as a member of the European Commission was a brave choice.

And as a Commissioner, she has played a difficult hand well. Nobody is happy with the Common Fisheries Policy - declining fish stocks mean that every trawler fleet is getting smaller - but her willingness to take on her critics and her ability to put her case have marked her out as an effective performer. In consumer protection, too, she has resisted the temptation to take the easy way out and has followed successfully a more principled line. This is how the European Commission should behave.

It is hard to resist the temptation to compare her with her almost exact contemporary, the German Green Petra Kelly. Both championed radical causes: feminism; opposition to nuclear arms and nuclear power; the causes of poverty and starvation in the South. Both resorted to non - violent protest. Petra Kelly was the one who grabbed the global headlines in the past 70s and early 80s, and inspired a generation, but who gradually found herself marginalised from politics. Emma Bonino has perhaps been less flamboyant, but one senses will bring about more change of greater lasting value.

And her appearances at the UEF seminar in Milano last October and at the tribute to Altiero Spinelli in June show that she has not lost sight of the vision that drives European integration forward.

Charmingly, she has professed herself surprised at how the European Commission is not so much bureaucratic as political. She welcomes the opportunity it brings to drive forward policies and influence the world we live in. The European Union needs more like her. She will surely be a force in the years to come.