Mandelson lands key EU job

Last updated at 15:54 12 August 2004


Ex-Cabinet minister Peter Mandelson has been handed a key post in the EU in a sensational return to frontline politics after being nominated by Tony Blair.

Mr Mandelson will take up his post on November 1, subject to the whole Commission being approved by the European parliament.

A by-election will be held in his Hartlepool constituency at a date yet to be fixed.

As trade commissioner, Mr Mandelson holds one of the key posts in Brussels, officially in charge of the "international dimension of competitiveness".

Britain had argued for, and won, a new vice-president of the Commission specifically charged with taking forward economic reform - the so-called "Lisbon agenda".

But Mr Mandelson will not fill that role, though he was never likely to, given that the UK's previous two commissioners had held very senior positions as vice president and commissioner for

external relations.

Mr Barroso said one of his main purposes was to communicate the European ideal more effectively to EU citizens, following the low turnout at this year's European parliament elections - and he has appointed a new vice-president to achieve that.

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