TALKING SHOP: Kauppi meets with a Brussels lobyist
Posted Sunday, May 30, 2004; 14:48 BST BRUSSELS:GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS
If Strasbourg is the Parliament's showroom, Brussels is its factory floor. At 10:53 on this gray morning, Kauppi takes her seat in one of her two committees, the powerful Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON), to hear European Central Bank (E.C.B.) president Jean-Claude Trichet present his 2003 annual report. The Parliament's 17 committees, which focus on topics ranging from legal affairs and the internal market (Kauppi's other assignment) to fisheries and women's rights, are where the E.P.'s real power lies. She owes her plum roles to her political group's power: Kokoomus is in the center-right European People's Party, Parliament's largest.
No bill gets to the full Parliament without going through the committees, where M.E.P.s consult other E.U. officials as well as representatives of business, industry and NGOs. ECON, for example, gave Trichet a grilling before his nomination was approved last fall. Today, he reviews the E.C.B.'s year and talks about keeping inflation in check. Committee work "can be a bit boring, but it's very important," says Kauppi as she heads back to her office. "What we do there has a political role as well as an economic role."
The Parliament has long been seen by younger politicians as a stepping stone to bigger roles back home and by older ones as an easy preretirement gig. "They don't do legislation or write reports; they hardly ever speak," Kauppi says. "I think of the Parliament as an ordinary legislative office." And she's convinced its work matters, citing her own 2001 report on the E.C.B., which urged the bank to improve its transparency, as a case in point. The bank has opened up a bit, issuing public monetary-policy analyses and improving access to documents.
As the legislature gains more power, it's increasingly seen as a place where careers are made. A decade ago, it would have been tough to find someone like Kauppi, who says she could envision working as an M.E.P. for her entire political life. While M.E.P.s still tend to vote for their own national interests, Kauppi could turn out to be the prototype for a new generation of truly European politicians with a stronger commitment to represent "Europe." Asked if she'd eventually like to return home and become Finnish Prime Minister, she says instantly: "Of course!" Then she pauses, and adds: "Even better than Prime Minister would be E.U. Commission President."
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