"Commissioner, we have a problem." David Byrne remembers the words of his chef de cabinet, Martin Power, on that first day in his new job a year ago. Dioxin in Belgian chickens. And within days he would be plunged into the aftermath of the BSE crisis, France's refusal to lift its ban on British beef.
A busy year later, one is struck by his sense of relief at having made it through. He speaks with an endearing candour of his lack of political experience and the need to develop the antennae, the promotional skills and the thick-skinned self-belief of a politician. It is as if he almost believed those Opposition jeers that he was wrong for the job.
Today he is quietly confident, not a star or a heavyweight of the Commission, but one who is mentioned regularly in dispatches, usually favourably. More than a safe pair of hands. Careful and measured in his approach to all things.
Unlike his detractors, however, Byrne never underestimated the significance of the job he had been given. Ten years ago, Health and Consumer Affairs would have been seen as a lightweight portfolio for a commissioner more preoccupied with his golf swing than with shining on the European stage.
BSE and GMOs changed all that. The breach of trust between public and the authorities and between the public and the scientific community is a profound challenge to a science-based society. It is his job to heal it by creating institutions whose pronouncements have not only the authority of the best science available but are seen as such.
That's fine in principle, but the time will come when he may well have to confront popular prejudices to tell the public what they don't want to know. Does this not mean he will inevitably be propelled from the role of consumer advocate to promoter of the safety of GMOs? "No", he insists. "I can say there is no scientific evidence against GMO food, but don't have to say `Go out and eat it'." It's a fine line.
Rigorous testing, traceability and proper labelling is the answer, he believes, and is in the process of strengthening the key EU legislation. When that is done, however, he will be faced by the difficult task of lifting the current, almost certainly illegal, moratorium on GMO approvals.
That will mean facing down public opinion and several member-states. At that stage the efficient organiser will have to show himself to be a master of politics. And there's a lot at stake beyond public health concerns, not least the possibility of a trade war with the US if both sides don't find common ground.
Byrne's success so far suggests he should not be underestimated. He won a long-running battle with ministers to impose a ban throughout Europe on "specified risk material" in beef. And he got through controversial anti-tobacco legislation although the European Court may yet undo some of the progress.
He is determined to continue that fight, particularly against teenage smoking. And, like Padraig Flynn before him, he is also willing to take on the powerful farm lobby by questioning huge EU subsidies to Europe's poor tobacco-growers, but emphasising, crucially, that he is willing to back alternative income support for them.
Less convincingly, he supports the idea of removing the price of tobacco from the consumer price index to help finance ministers increase prices without appearing to fuel inflation.
He has developed a good working relationship with MEPs, has set in train a new extra-judicial dispute settlement procedure for cross-border purchases, initiated a debate on e-commerce dispute systems, updated regulations on hormones in meat, shaken up food safety rules, banned pthalates in toys . . . But, above all else, Byrne's eventual success will be measured by the readiness of the public to accept his planned European Food Authority. The detailed plans should be published before Christmas, and he has already done much to win approval from MEPs.
The test will come when budgets have to be agreed and he fights to ensure proper staffing. Then support from the President of the Commission, Romano Prodi, will be crucial.
Contact: psmyth@irish-times.ie
