"Too big a job for Paavo", sighed Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson, at the time when Finland's Speaker of Parliament and former Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen was aspiring to become the next President of the EU Commission.
This and many other comments can be found in a new book due out in October, which describes Persson's years as Prime Minister. The book has been written by the Swedish daily Aftonbladet's political editor-in-chief Olle Svenning.
According to Svenning, the Nordic Countries have always failed to pull together in matters pertaining to the EU. Among other things, this has been a product of the fact that social Democrats Lipponen and Persson - who were Prime Ministers at the same time - never really got along with each other.
"Lipponen is loyal to the wishes of the EU elite even before their decisions have actually been made", Persson is said to have snapped.
Lipponen's attempts to secure the top EU job foundered in the spring and summer of 2004, and the position went to José Manuel Barroso.
