THE Italian European Commissioner, Ms Emma Bonino, was voted "European of the Year" yesterday by an international jury headed by the former Commission president, Mr Jacques Delors, the French magazine La Vie announced.
The panel said Ms Bonino (48) brought "courage, determination and great strength of character" to her diverse beat in the Brussels executive, which ranges from humanitarian aid to fisheries and consumer affairs.
"As a former leader of the transnational Radical Party, Ms Bonino has retained from her activist past a capacity for action and plain speaking which she has used in her institutional functions to reinforce the cohesion of the European Union," the citation said.
It singled her out especially for her action on humanitarian affairs, saying she had given a real lead in establishing a European humanitarian aid policy in ex-Yugoslavia and central Africa, giving Europe "a profoundly human face"
She had been unbending on respect for human rights and in pursuit of peace based on justice, notably in demanding the disarming of the Hutu militias threatening Rwanda.
Ms Bonino collapsed with exhaustion early last Friday after battling for 21 hours to protect endangered fish stocks from the demands of EU ministers trying to keep their fishermen happy. "Bonino fought to the end, gave a final speech and fainted," her spokesman, Mr Filippo di Robilant, said.
The unorthodox commissioner was criticised over Somalia at Easter and confronted angry British fishermen in the autumn. Accusing Canada of piracy during the so called turbot war in 1995, she showed her support for Spanish trawler men in the north west Atlantic by being lowered onto deck from a helicopter.
The French Catholic weekly launched its prize in 1987 to distinguish "a European whose, action, work, enterprise or personality represents a real European ideal". Last year's winner was the German Chancellor, Dr Kdhl.
The Dutch Prime Minister, Mr Wim Kok, welcomes a call by the Belgian Prime Minister, Mr JeanLuc Dehaene, for a drugs "mini-summit", but is not yet ready to commit the Netherlands to such a meeting, a spokesman said yesterday.
Mr Dehaene on Sunday told Dutch radio that he would favour a summit bringing together France, Germany and the Benelux countries to further combat the drug threat.
A spokesman for Mr Kok's office said Mr Dehaene welcomed his pragmatic approach to the drugs problem.