EU: One year into the job, the former taoiseach has struck up a good relationship with Washington's key players, writes Denis Staunton.
John Bruton is a familiar figure on Capitol Hill these days as he seeks to explain the European Union's approach to world trade talks to the congressmen who will have to approve any deal which may be reached at next month's World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting in Hong Kong.
It is not easy to justify the Common Agricultural Policy to US politicians, many of whom face political difficulties of their own in supporting free trade.
Mr Bruton tells them that farm subsidies form a shrinking share of the EU budget and that the European offer to open its market to more agricultural imports is a serious one which was difficult to make.
He believes that the success of the WTO talks could depend on EU leaders agreeing a new budget following the collapse of negotiations over Britain's rebate.
He maintains that agreeing the budget would reassure some EU member-states that they could compromise at the WTO but still retain EU subsidies for their national economies.
"We should not allow the world trade talks to be held hostage either to the British rebate or to other budgetary demands that other countries are making in the EU budget negotiations. If we could see a breakthrough here, it would not only be very helpful to the world trade talks, it would also be morale-boosting for the European Union as an institution," he said.
He believes that, as a former politician who knows what it means to face the prospect of electoral defeat, he understands the political reality in which the congressmen operate.
Trade commissioner Peter Mandelson says that having Mr Bruton as EU ambassador to Washington has been an important element of Europe's negotiations in the run-up to next month's talks.
"It is valuable having a politician in the post when the politics is both complicated and important for Europe," Mr Mandelson said.
The decision to send Mr Bruton to Washington last year was not universally popular in Brussels and some commission officials warned that the former taoiseach would struggle to adapt to the constraints of a diplomatic post.
Some within the EU's Washington delegation were sceptical, too, regarding Mr Bruton as being too sympathetic to the US administration and insufficiently respectful of bureaucratic methods and traditions.
Mr Bruton has won over most of his staff in Washington during the past year, giving the delegation a new sense of confidence as he raises the commission's profile in the US with frequent media appearances and public events.
"We all had to up our game a bit because the expectations were different and the methods were different," one official in the delegation told The Irish Times.
For the past two months, Mr Bruton has been joined in Washington by his former constituency organiser, Kevin Gilna, who has worked for the Construction Industry Federation in Dublin for the past eight years.
Mr Gilna, who was appointed through the regular commission system, is responsible for arranging appearances outside Washington and dealing with some media issues.
Mr Bruton has also brought into his private office Maeve O'Beirne, one of the most experienced officials in the EU's Washington delegation.
For the most part, Mr Bruton has avoided diplomatic pitfalls, although he raised some eyebrows when he denounced Gerry Adams as an IRA leader in a US television interview earlier this year.
He has been fortunate insofar as his appointment coincided with a change of approach towards Europe by President George W. Bush's administration.
Mr Bruton says that Mr Bush has, if anything, been more supportive of the EU since the rejection of the constitution by voters in France and the Netherlands.
"I suppose the administration has seen that you can do some things on your own but there are a lot of things you cannot do on your own, no matter how powerful you are. The European Union is important to the United States as a stabilising factor in the world," he said.
Mr Bruton speaks warmly of Mr Bush, describing him as "very determined", with a formidable command of policy.
There is no shortage of transatlantic disputes, however, including an EU anti-trust case involving Microsoft and an ongoing trade row over Boeing and Airbus. Last week, a number of EU countries launched investigations into a report that the CIA had operated secret prisons in some European countries and may have used airports in the EU to transfer detainees to torture sites.
Mr Bruton said he was "very disturbed" by the report that such flagrant human rights abuses could take place on European territory.
"The European Union is fundamentally committed to human rights and it is committed to transparency and openness in its activities. We have built the European Union on that basis . . . If those reports are true, that is a matter of very great concern indeed," he said.
He dismisses US claims of rampant anti-Americanism in Europe, although he believes that many Europeans misunderstand the nature of society in the US.
"A lot of people do not realise how diverse this country is and that every one of the criticisms that they may have of the United States are criticisms that are voiced vigorously in this country by Americans themselves. This is a very self-critical nation. It is a nation that examines itself all the time. It is a nation that realises that it is not perfect," he said.
After 12 months as a diplomat, Mr Bruton appears to be enjoying his new role and shows little sign that he wants to return to domestic politics. That does not stop him, however, from feeling a little homesick now and then.
"What I've found most difficult is not being at home in Ireland, not being in Co Meath and not being in Dunboyne, not seeing my children as much as I'd like, not seeing my parents or my extended family. And also I miss constituency work.
"I enjoyed the clinics and the meetings and getting to know families in Meath, just feeling I had friends all over a large part of Leinster. That is something I do miss," he said.