Peter Mandelson: ‘my member states’

Brussels

Almost the first thing you see, on entering Peter Mandelson’s office at the European Commission, is a bound set of photographs of Siberia resting on the coffee table. Are they a signal, a discreet protest from this most British of politicians at being sent into exile?

Mr Mandelson would insist not. He had, by most accounts, an unhappy start in Brussels in November 2004, unable to hide his impatience with the collegiate, rather plodding ways of the 25-strong Commission. Recently Mr Mandelson has begun visibly to relish his new post, and his extraordinary powers to negotiate world trade on behalf of all 25 member states.

Not that his taste for games has left him entirely. Visitors to the commissioner must still be prepared to be kept waiting in his presence for several long moments, while he scans vital papers, before looking up with polite surprise to welcome them.

Mr Mandelson admits that when he first arrived, ‘I feared at one point that coming to work in the Commission would be like wading through treacle every day.’ But now he says it is more satisfying than the Cabinet. ‘It’s deeper and wider and more technically complex than the issues you deal with as a British secretary of state. You’re dealing with the politics of 25 member states, and reshaping global economic relations.’ It is vintage Mandelson, despite the new Brussels setting — rather like his offices.

The ‘European Quarter’ of Brussels is a soulless sort of place, and the offices of EU commissioners are normally no exception — bland boxes filled with EU flags, and glass paperweights from visiting delegations.

Mr Mandelson’s rooms are a shrine to Blair’s — and Mandelson’s — Britain. A photograph of Roy Jenkins hangs near a picture of Mr Mandelson introducing the Queen to his golden retriever, Bobby, at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland.