ITALY FINALLY PICKS EU TWO

The Independent, saturday 29 October 1994

By Fiona Leney

After weeks of government squabbling and an unseemly wrangle with Brussels, Italy yesterday named the second of its two European commissioners, less than 24 hours before they were due to attend their first meeting.

The Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, announced that Emma Bonino, 46, a Radical deputy and passionate campaigner for women's right, would join the economist Mario Monti on the new Commission. In the next breath, Mr Berlusconi revealed that Ms Bonino would be responsable for consumer protection, while Mr Monti would receive the internal portfolio - an indiscretion likely to antagonise the President of the Commission, Jacques Santer.

Relations had already been strained by Mr Berlusconi's unprecedented demand that Brussels say which posts the commissioners would get before they were chosen. Since neither portfolio is attractive, it seems Rome is being punished for presumption.

Ms Bonino's appointment was finally decided by the Prime Minister after a string of deadlocked cabinet meetings. It was seen in Rome as a snub to his Northern League coalition partners, who had insisted on the second seat for one of their deputies. That had been blocked by the third coalition partner, the neo-Fascist-led National Alliance, which favoured a technocrat.

Into this battle strode the Radical Party, led by the civil right campaigner Marco Pannella. The Radical Party is tiny, but important to Berlusconi in these days of turmoil, since it normally votes with the government. Ms Bonino's nomination is the price for keeping it on side.