http://news.ft.com/cms/s/92eaad28-a144-11d9-95e5-00000e2511c8,ft_acl=,s01=2.htmlMost of the EU cast miss Wolfowitz ‘audition'
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Only seven out of the 25 European Union member states were represented by a minister or secretary of state at Wednesday's meeting. This was in spite of the fact that EU finance ministers had insisted on holding such an audition before Mr Wolfowitz's expected election as World Bank president in Washington on Thursday.
In the end, several countries sent their Brussels-based ambassadors to what was billed as an informal meeting of EU governors of the World Bank. France, which is trying to create a new number-two post at the World Bank, sent its treasury director. Only two of the big EU countries, Germany and Britain, managed a minister, along with the smaller nations Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium.
“There were some absentees but I don't think that lowered the quality of the debate with Mr Wolfowitz,” said Armand De Decker, the Belgian development minister. “Having said that, it is true that people could probably have found a way to be there.”
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Nonetheless, one official described the poor turnout as “a fiasco” and “truly humiliating considering that we
supposely had serious concerns that we really needed to discuss with him and that, perhaps against expectations, he did bother to show up”.
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:)
gold stars all around
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