AFTER five years at the helm of the European Commission, Romano Prodi bade farewell yesterday. He talked up his achievements, but critics declared him the “worst president in the history of the EU”.

The former Italian Prime Minister, who chairs his final commission meeting today and officially stands down at the end of the week, held a cocktail party for journalists and told them: “These have been important years for me. They were difficult at the beginning, but I gained more satisfaction as the years went by. We had a strong policy from the beginning. I leave this heritage to my successor.”

Speaking in the reopened commission HQ, the Berlaymont, which took 12 years to refurbish, he said: “We had to deal with important challenges such as enlargement and the constitution, and we reformed the Commission internally.”

The expansion of the European Union to embrace much of Eastern Europe on May 1 this year is widely seen as a huge success. It entrenched democracy and free markets in eight unstable former communist states, and peacefully reunited the Continent after the divisions of the Cold War.

The simultaneous launch of the European single currency in one day across twelve countries in January 2002 — the largest logistical exercise since the Second World War — is also seen as a triumph.

Under Signor Prodi, the Commission also paved the way for Turkey to start negotiations to join the EU, prodding the country into human rights and democratic reforms.

But Signor Prodi, a former economics professor, was frank about his main failure — the inability to reform the rigid and stagnant economies of the EU. The so-called Lisbon agenda, aimed at closing the productivity gap with the US and making the EU the most competitive economy in the world, was “a big failure”, he said.

EU analysts insist that his failings go further. Charles Grant, the europhile director of the Centre for European Reform think-tank, said: “He has been the most unsuccessful president in the history of the EU. He’s failed to co-ordinate the work of his commissioners as a team. As a former prime minister, he was too grand to get into the nitty-gritty of dossiers, and sailed over the surface.”

Graham Mather, president of the right-leaning European Policy Forum, said: “He’s shown no understanding of the market-opening and foreign policy agenda. He’s shown no intellectual leadership, and has been prone to many gaffes.”

The process of EU enlargement, and preparations for the euro, were begun well before Signor Prodi came to power. It was on his watch that the Growth and Stability Pact — the treaty that upheld the euro — collapsed as France and Germany failed to curb huge budget deficits. Many of his individual commissioners are widely judged to have been excellent. They include Chris Patten in external affairs, Günter Verheugen in enlargement, and Mario Monti in competition. But many of the Commission’s successes are attributed to them rather than their boss.

Signor Prodi was appointed President when the Commission of Jacques Santer resigned en masse after a corruption scandal. He came to power saying that his priority was to purge the EU’s institutions of fraud, but last year it emerged that millions of euros had vanished without trace into secret bank accounts opened by the officials of Eurostat, the EU’s statistical agency.

The other main count against Signor Prodi is the haemorrhaging in public support for the EU. The Commission’s surveys record Euroscepticism across the Union. The turnout at the European elections last June was a record low, with fewer than one in two voters bothering to go to the polls.

Nor is there any longer a “big project” to drive the EU forward. “The EU is perceived to be in a pretty ghastly state. The Commission has lost its sense of purpose,” Mr Grant said.

Signor Prodi is particularly proud of having seen through the negotiations that led to the EU’s first constitution. agreed by member states in July. On Friday, Signor Prodi’s last day in office, it will be signed by 28 heads of state in Rome. However, it has prompted referendums on the constitution in 11 countries, some of which could deliver a “no” vote, sparking a Continent-wide political crisis.

Tomorrow, the European Parliament will vote whether to approve the new Commission, and most of the main political groups are insisting that they will not. If Signor Prodi’s successor, José Manuel Durão Barroso, the former Portuguese Prime Minister, fails the vote, he will not be able to take office next week and Signor Prodi will have to stay on as President of a “caretaker Commission”.

Signor Prodi, who hopes to return soon to Italian politics, said: “I really hope that will not be the case.” He is not alone.

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