Archive for October 2013
Get Me Toniblir!
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| Tony. |
There are a few countries
where the history books might be written with a more positive spin; one is, you
might have guessed it, Albania. Blair remains a very popular figure amongst
Albanians for his role in protecting ethnic Albanians in Kosovo by
orchestrating the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999. There are apparently
numerous children in Albania’s capital, Tirana, called Toniblir.
It would seem appropriate
then that Blair has been hired (free of charge) by the Albanian government to
help advise it on EU accession strategy and lobby European officials and politicians
on its behalf. EU accession is a policy priority of the recently elected,
modernising, centre-left government of former basketball player Edi Rama. This
month, the European Commission recommended that Albania be given the green
light to open EU membership talks.
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| Blair explains how large his fee would normally be. |
In the words of Rama
himself: “Our party is very much inspired by and connected to the vision and
way of thinking about things of New Labour and Tony Blair”. This, I would
suggest, is more of a reference to Blair’s brand of third-way politics than an
underlying hunger to affect regime change in faraway lands.
EU enlargement policy is
not what it was however. The conditionality dial has been turned up to max and
a pervasive skepticism pervades the subject that is in sharp contrast to the
feel good ‘return to Europe’ riff of 10 years ago. Albania is going to need all
the help they can get.
Blair is nevertheless a
busy man with, at last count, 467 other clients’ needs to attend to. Not to
mention his role as UN Middle East peace envoy. He does however have an excellent
track record on promoting EU enlargement. As UK Prime Minister he exerted
maximum British influence to drive enlargement through amid the skepticism and
caution of other member states, such as France. Other times it was semi-accidental.
One anecdote goes like this: on a visit to the Romanian Parliament in 1999,
Blair was advised by his diplomatic advisors to offer Romania something in
return for their strong support in the Kosovo intervention; Blair stands up at
the podium and, off the cuff, announces Britain’s support for Romanian
accession to the EU – turning British policy on its head in a sentence. This
speech is credited as being a crucial moment in Romania’s road to accession in
2007.
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| Blair shares wisdom. |
Like a hitman brought back
from retirement to do one last job, Mr. Rama might be hoping that Mr. Blair can
pull off a coup and land Albania a seat at the table in Brussels. Unfortunately
for Edi, Tony’s stock in Brussels isn’t what it used to be. A large part of
Europe’s political establishment consider Blair a war criminal for his role in
the invasion of Iraq 2003, a key reason for his failed attempt to land the job
of EU Council President.
Good luck Toni!