Five weeks ago Bertie Ahern announced the nomination of Maire Geoghegan Quinn to the European Court of Auditors for a six-year term beginning in February. In the course of the statement announcing the nomination, Bertie Ahern said she had "a wide range of experience of all aspects of government and public administration and her ministerial positions - dealing with European affairs, Tourism, Transport and Communications and most recently Justice - will be particularly relevant to her new role".
He noted that the EU treaties provide that members of the Court of Auditors shall be appointed for a term of six years by the Council of Ministers, acting unanimously, after consulting the European Parliament.
Maire Geoghegan-Quinn would have been an excellent appointment to the European Commission. She is an able administrator, she is intelligent, personable and has fine political instincts and a great deal of political experience. She was not appointed to the European Commission, apparently, because of pique on the part of Mary Harney over a devastating critique of the Progressive Democrats and the damage they are doing to Irish democracy which she made in a column in this newspaper last May.
A person far less qualified for the position was appointed, the then Attorney General, David Byrne. David Byrne is a fine lawyer and was an able Attorney General, but he has virtually no political experience.
There were others apart from Maire Geoghegan-Quinn well-qualified for the position who were ruled out for other reasons. Des O'Malley, Brian Cowen, Dermot Ahern and Noel Dempsey, because the appointment of any one of them would have caused a by-election and therefore potential electoral embarrassment to the governing parties.
Alan Dukes, Pat Cox and Dick Spring, because they were not members of the governing parties, a factor that far outweighs the consideration of who is best-qualified.
Partly, it would seem, in compensation for the poor treatment of Maire Geoghegan-Quinn over the EU Commissioner job, she was given the consolation prize of the European Court of Auditors.
However, there are problems with this. Article 188b.2 of the Treaty on the European Union (the Maastricht Treaty) signed on February 7th, 1992, states:
"The members of the Court of Auditors shall be chosen from among persons who belong or have belonged in their respective countries to external audit bodies or who are especially qualified for this office. Their independence must be beyond doubt." The problem is that Maire Geoghegan-Quinn does not belong and never belonged to an external audit body or any equivalent or comparable body, neither could she be said to be qualified for the office of auditor.
Bertie Ahern in his statement five weeks ago, sought to suggest that Maire Geoghegan-Quinn's political and ministerial experience was relevant. Regrettably, there is no evidence that such experience has any relevance.
Of the 15 members of the Court of Auditors at present, nine have belonged to external audit bodies in their respective countries, prior to their appointment as a member of the European Court of Auditors.
Giorgio Clemente (Italy), had been a magistrate at the Italian court of auditors. Patrick Everard (Belgium) had been a principal administrator at the EU directorate for budgets and, subsequently on the staff of the court of auditors.
Armindo de Jesus de Sousa Ribiero (Portugal) had been auditor-general of the securities market and director general of the Office of Analysis of State Finances and Public Enterprises in Portugal and, subsequently, chairman of the audit counsellors in Portugal.
Antoni Castells (Spain) is a doctor of economics, had been director of the Department of Public Finance in Spain and previously was a member of the court of auditors of Catalonia. Hubert Weber (Austria) had been auditor at the Austrian court of auditors.
Aunus Salmi (Finland) had been an auditor with a firm of auditors in Finland. Jorgen Mohr (Denmark) had been an administrator of the Danish court of auditors and was president of the Danish court of auditors from June 1985. Maarten Engwirda (Netherlands) had been a member of the court of auditors in the Netherlands. JeanFrancois Benicot had been an advisory judge at the French court of auditors.
Of the other six, two had directly relevant experience. John Wiggins (UK) had worked in the UK Treasury and was responsible for many years for macro-economics policy and public spending control. Kalliopi Nikolaou (Greece) has a doctorate in economics from the University of Bonn; she is a specialist in industrial organisation, public finance and statistics and was the Greek ambassador to the OECD.
There could be question marks over the qualifications for three of the four others: Jan O. Karlsson (Sweden) was involved in Sweden's application to join the EU. He was a negotiator and adviser on economic, financial and budgetary matters to the secretariat of the Social Democratic Group in the Riksdag from 1992 to 1994.
He was director general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Sweden from 1994.
Bernard Friedman (Germany) is a doctor of economics and Emeritus Professor of economics. He has held a variety of senior posts in the German federal civil service and in industry. He was elected to the Bundestag in 1976 and served on the Parliament's Budget Committee and chaired the committees on budgetary control and the approval of defence spending.
Francois Colling (Luxembourg) was involved from 1975 to 1995 in the development of computer control systems and computer applications for ARBED. He was chairman of the Luxembourg parliament's finance and budget committee. He would seem to have some special knowledge of auditing and control for he was architect of a bill to reform the system in Luxembourg.
The outgoing Irish member of the Court, Barry Desmond, was an excellent Minister for Health and Social Welfare in the coalition government of 1982-1987. He was/is serious about politics, was committed to his party and his constituency, but he was not fully qualified for appointment to the European Court of Auditors. His appointment was an instance of jobs for the boys.
By the very same token, the nomination of Maire Geoghegan-Quinn to the Court of Auditors represents jobs for the girls. Maire Geoghegan-Quinn is a person of ability, integrity and charm but she is not - on the basis of the section of the Maastricht Treaty quoted above - qualified for this position.
The European Parliament should not endorse the nomination. The European Council should not make the appointment.