Vowing to Fight Poverty, Wolfowitz Seems to Win European Support

03/30/2005

By GRAHAM BOWLEY and ELAINE SCIOLINO,
International Herald Tribune
Published: March 30, 2005

Brussels, March 30 - Paul D. Wolfowitz, the United States deputy secretary of defense and the Bush administration’s candidate to head the World Bank, said today he would pursue a “noble mission” of reducing world poverty and vowed to create a multinational team to run the bank. But he did not explicitly promise to appoint a European as his deputy, as proposed by some European nations.

In a brief visit to Brussels to assuage European critics, Mr. Wolfowitz met for a little under two hours with European finance and development ministers and appeared to win European support for his nomination to head the world’s leading development agency.

Mr. Wolfowitz, in an unusual acknowledgement of the disquiet he stirs in Europe, told reporters: “I understand that I am, to put it mildly, a controversial figure, but I hope as people get to know me better they will understand that I really do believe deeply in the mission of the bank.”

He added, “It’s a unifying mission and frankly that’s going to be fun.”

The visit to Brussels came on the eve of his expected confirmation as World Bank president by the bank’s 24 executive directors in Washington on Thursday.

Although many Europeans see Mr. Wolfowitz as an unrelenting neo-conservative and leading architect of the invasion of Iraq, leaders here have accepted Mr. Wolfowitz’s nomination at a time when they are trying to improve relations with President Bush, following Mr. Bush’s bridge-building trip to Europe last month.

In return for their support, some Europeans are pushing for a greater role in the bank as a counterweight to Mr. Wolfowitz, and are also seeking American support for a Frenchman, Pascal Lamy, as next head of the World Trade Organization.

In the meeting today, European officials underlined that Mr. Wolfowitz cannot afford to alienate a group of countries that are the single largest financer of World Bank projects.

“The management of the bank has to be strong,” said a senior French official, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue. “This is not an insult to Mr. Wolfowitz, who has perhaps not yet gathered a lot of experience in the area, but it would be good for him if he had people near him who are experts in development and in financial institutions. It’s not up to France or even Europe to choose a managing director for the World Bank, it’s up to Mr. Wolfowitz.”

Mr. Wolfowitz, trying to show that he can shift course and run the global organization that lends money and sets economic policy for much of the developing world, admitted it was important that the make-up of bank senior management reflected Europe’s status as the biggest donor. But he said the bank “also needs to reflect the full diversity of donors and recipients.”

“There’s great talent here in Europe,” he said. “There’s some impressive people in the developing world, and I’m going to need all the help I can get.”

In a brief appearance after the meeting, Mr. Wolfowitz peppered his statement with rhetoric designed to win over his European critics.

He said he was looking forward to being an international civil servant working in a diverse organization and said he believed deeply in the work of the bank. He said that helping people to lift themselves out of poverty was a “noble mission.”

He described himself as a passionate warrior - not against dictators as he has stated so many times in the past - but against poverty. He recalled his first-hand experience, working in Indonesia where he was American ambassador in the 1980’s, and as an envoy touring Asian nations devastated by last December’s tsunami.

He also stressed the transformational aspects of development, saying that “peace and freedom” were “advanced when more people can enjoy the benefits of prosperity and human dignity.”

The announcement of Mr. Wolfowitz’s candidacy drew criticism from members of the European parliament, the press, and leading non-governmental organizations, like Oxfam. In France last week, the daily Le Monde called the nomination “a new manifestation of America’s arrogance” as well as “indifference or even cynicism towards poor countries.”

The Europeans, who hold 30 percent of voting shares on the World Bank board, could have taken revenge against the Bush administration, either by rejecting Mr. Wolfowitz outright or delaying his appointment.

Instead, European leaders have signaled that they are ready to support him, however grudgingly, the latest sign of a new pragmatism toward the United States in Mr. Bush’s second term.

At a summit meeting of European Union leaders last week in Brussels, Gerhard Schröder, German chancellor, who staunchly opposed the American-led war in Iraq, indicated that European support for Mr. Wolfowitz was not warm but that Germany and other European Union nations would not stand in his way.

Speaking alongside Mr. Wolfowitz after the meeting, Jean-Claude Juncker, prime minister of Luxembourg and current holder of the European Union’s rotating presidency, repeatedly referred to Mr. Wolfowitz as the “incoming president,” in a sign that the European Union had accepted that Mr. Wolfowitz would replace the outgoing president, James D. Wolfensohn.

The French government is promoting the idea of a European deputy to Mr. Wolfowitz to sit alongside two other deputies, one from the developing world, and one from the emerging world, such as China. China’s Shengman Zhang is currently a respected managing director.

However, there are two vacancies at the managing director level in the World Bank after Jeffrey A. Goldstein, an American who was managing director for finance, and Peter L. Woicke, the German-born head of the International Finance Corporation, the bank’s private sector lending arm, recently stepped down. Ramphela Mamphele of South Africa also recently stepped down but the bank has decided not to retain a fourth managing director post.

Ahead of the talks today, Mr. Juncker, the current European Union president, said: “We have to make sure that Europeans will be represented in a better way on the managing board of the bank.” European diplomats in Brussels said this was a message Mr. Juncker carried into the meeting with Mr. Wolfowitz but that no details, and no names, were discussed.

A French government official said today that France had not yet officially proposed any formal candidates. However, the names of Jean-Pierre Jouyet, head of the Paris Club of creditor nations, and Jean-Pierre Landau, a French civil servant and tax expert, have been at the center of speculation in France.

A European Union official said there had been contact between the French government and Mr. Wolfowitz. “The vacancies do exist,” he said.

Another European Union official in Brussels said Germany’s close relationship with France meant that it was likely to step back from promoting its own interests while Paris was pushing its candidate. The official said the idea of linking German support for Mr. Wolfowitz to the German government’s bid for a permanent seat on the United Nations security council had also so far not been broached.

Under a tradition going back to the founding of the World Bank 60 years ago, the United States, the bank’s largest shareholder followed by Japan, Germany, Britain and France, puts forward its own candidate to head the institution. Europeans nominate the head of its sister organization, the International Monetary Fund.