IT MAY never be as famous as the 1-0 victory in the World Cup of 1994, but Ireland has again beaten Italy in a prestigious international competition.

An academic analysis of how both countries handled the presidency of the European Union has found that Bertie Ahern beat Silvio Berlusconi hands down, being both a better manager and mediator.

The study, by researchers in the politics departments at Bristol University and the University of Limerick (UL), evaluated the performance of the two countries in four roles intrinsic to the presidency: that of business manager, mediator, political leader, and representative.

Ahern’s government won a 4-0 victory over Italy, winning each category and scoring twice as highly as one of Europe’s largest countries.

Ireland managed to turn “stalemate to outright success” when it took over the presidency from Italy on January 1, 2004, by negotiating the constitution for Europe, the report says. It also handled skilfully the visit of President George W Bush during the height of the Iraq war, and oversaw the appointment of a new commission president.

Overall, Ireland “performed the core functions of the presidency more effectively and legitimately” than Italy, concludes the study, published in the Journal of Common Market Studies.

Not that the opposition was up to much. The Italian presidency was regarded widely as a shambles, and got off to a particularly inauspicious start when Berlusconi likened a German MEP to a “Nazi concentration camp guard”.

The taoiseach yesterday said he was delighted “that my theory of working hard and putting in the hours has been proved right.”

Edward Moxon-Browne, director of the Centre for European Studies at UL, and one of the authors of the study, said the team had taken a theoretical idea of what an EU presidency should do and measured the performances of Ireland and Italy against those four roles.

“Even leaving Berlusconi’s personality out of it, certain aspects of the Italian presidency didn’t go well,” he said. “There was a lack of co-ordination and Berlusconi’s personal opinions were allowed to have such importance (by Italy) when the president is supposed to be speaking on behalf of the whole EU, not just his own country.”

The fact that Ahern managed to find a new commission president while being suggested as a candidate himself was a mark of the success of the Irish presidency, according to Moxon-Browne, who rates it as one of the most successful EU presidencies of all time. “It was a reflection of how well he had done in the presidency that people were looking to him to fulfil the post.”

Ahern’s strongest performance was in the role of mediator, according to the academics. The EU’s failure to come to any important conclusions under Italy’s tenure was a “reflection of the inability of the Italian government to mediate successfully between opposing points of view”, said Moxon-Browne.

By contrast, Ireland was deemed faultless in its mediation skills. “The Irish prime minister travelled around all the member states to have quiet discussions with each government to see how much latitude they had in their negotiating position and eventually came up with a compromise,” said Moxon-Browne.

“Also, the American summit, which was held in Ireland, was very controversial because of the Iraq war. Again [Ahern] was extremely diplomatic in what he said.”

In the day-to-day organising, co-ordinating and chairing of EU meetings, Ireland also fared considerably better. It had a well-oiled machine in the civil service, particularly in the Department of Foreign Affairs, for managing presidencies. While there was a set bureaucratic pattern for doing things in Italy, it was upset by interventions from politicians, in particular from its leader.

“Berlusconi’s interventions and mistakes upset the running of what would have been a smooth operation on the Italian side,” said Moxon-Browne.

The presidency is also expected to be the liaison point for EU institutions as well as the outside world. In this role Italy also fared badly, having tense relations with countries such as Germany, France and Britain as well as with EU institutions. The Irish presidency was judged to have enjoyed good relations with other member states and EU bodies.

Ireland’s lowest score was in the role of political leader, mainly because some of the credit for its achievements was due to the weight of Germany behind the scenes, said the authors.

“The way that Bertie Ahern tried to run ideas past the Germans before going public with them is quite important,” said Moxon-Browne. “Although Ireland scores high on leadership, it was supported in the background by the biggest country in the EU.” Berlusconi’s leadership was judged to be poorer.

“Small countries are usually better at being president than big countries — that was confirmed in this case,” the Limerick academic said. “Other countries tend to trust smaller countries because they feel they haven’t got a personal interest. Whereas if it’s the French or British or Germans in the presidency, there is always the suspicion that they’re out for their own ends.”

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