Brussels, 17/01/2008 (Agence Europe) - US President George W. Bush has appointed Boyden Gray as his “Special Envoy for European Union Affairs”. Mr Gray is not unknown in Brussels. Until the end of 2007, he served as US ambassador to the EU although the US Senate did not confirm his appointment by President Bush in 2005. In January 2006, given the persistent refusal by the Senate, with its Democrat majority, to support Mr Gray, President Bush resorted to the practice of “recess appointments” (allowing the US president to appoint ambassadors for a limited period of time, without confirmation from the Senate), placing Mr Gray at the head of the US mission with the EU. His term of office expired on 31 December 2007. As the Democrats in Senate are opposed to any further recess appointment before the presidential elections in November, Mr Bush decided on 11 January 2008 to appoint Mr Gray “special envoy”, thus allowing him to continue his work in Brussels. This decision is a “positive signal because it underscores the importance the US Administration places on the relationship with the EU on the issues of climate change, energy security and economic regulation”, the spokesman from the US Embassy commented. In the months before the presidential elections in the United States, keeping Boyden Gray in Brussels also makes it possible to avoid a long process leading to the appointment of a new ambassador. At a “time of great importance in US-EU relations”, it is in Washington's interest to continue to benefit from Mr Gray's “experience and expertise”, a White House press release states.
Officially, therefore, Washington no longer has an ambassador with the EU, just a “chargé d'affaires”, Christopher Murray, who heads the mission in Brussels, as well as a “special envoy” in the person of Boyden Gray. The latter will focus on several specific projects and questions, the White House press release explains, these being: - strengthening the Transatlantic Economic Council (TEC) created in April 2007 to abolish regulatory trade barriers; - the promotion and explanation of US climate change policy (Mr Gray is an expert in the matter and also accompanied the US delegation to the Bali Conference in December 2007); and the implementation of EU/USA cooperation projects with a view to reducing greenhouse gas emissions; - and energy security. (H.B.)