{"id":333093,"date":"2026-03-07T03:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T03:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/333093\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T03:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T03:06:11","slug":"how-phil-hogan-laid-the-groundwork-for-a-possible-comeback-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/333093\/","title":{"rendered":"How Phil Hogan laid the groundwork for a possible comeback \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Catching up over dinner in an upmarket Brussels restaurant before Christmas, Phil Hogan<\/a> told a tight-knit group of confidants he was mulling something of a political comeback. <\/p>\n

Hogan has a tradition of getting together with his old team from his days in the European Commission<\/a> for a meal every year around December. <\/p>\n

The group were eating in Le Monde est Petit, a popular spot that previously held a Michelin star, located close to the EU<\/a> quarter in the Belgian capital. <\/p>\n

Hogan told his former colleagues he was thinking about a run for the top job in the United Nations<\/a> agriculture and food security agency in Rome. <\/p>\n

It was something the former minister and EU commissioner had been considering since about September when the idea was first floated to him by some contacts in the European political system. <\/p>\n

The role of director general of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is elected every four years. <\/p>\n

All 193 countries who are members of the organisation hold one vote. The last time a European held the role was 1975. The agency\u2019s mission is to tackle world hunger and food insecurity. <\/p>\n

Hogan, who served as commissioner for agriculture in the EU\u2019s executive body from 2014 to 2019, had soundings taken in Dublin and Brussels. <\/p>\n

He would first need to secure the support of the Government<\/a> to nominate him as Ireland\u2019s candidate. The former Fine Gael<\/a> politician would then need to win over other EU capitals to emerge as Europe\u2019s pick for the job. <\/p>\n

Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon<\/a> had been open to Ireland putting somebody forward in the race. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was known that this position was coming up,\u201d one Government source said. <\/p>\n

On Tuesday the Government nominated Hogan as Ireland\u2019s candidate<\/a> to contest the election for the senior UN job.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Campaign for UN job will test Phil Hogan\u2019s reputation as back room dealmakerOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Hogan took advice from Catherine Geslain-Lan\u00e9elle, a senior EU official who had been Europe\u2019s candidate for the job the last time it mounted a joint campaign in 2019. The French official had been beaten by China\u2019s nominee Qu Dongyu, whose second term finishes in the summer of 2027, creating the vacancy. <\/p>\n

Inside the Berlaymont, Christophe Hansen, the current EU agriculture commissioner, was believed to be supportive of Hogan entering the fray. <\/p>\n

Antennas in Government Buildings were attuned to the potential political risk. <\/p>\n

Hogan had resigned as EU trade commissioner in 2020 amid fierce public backlash for attending an Oireachtas golf society dinner at a time when Covid restrictions on large gatherings were in place. He stepped down over a changing account of whether he complied with travel restrictions after flying into Ireland.<\/p>\n

There were memories too of the botched attempt to appoint former government minister Katherine Zappone as a UN special envoy, which blew up spectacularly and dogged the previous coalition for the summer of 2021. <\/p>\n

Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> and T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris<\/a> were both keen to make sure a nominee came through an independent process for the FAO job. <\/p>\n

There was a conscious effort to avoid creating any perception that could be used by Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> to attack a nomination as a jobs-for-the-boys stroke. <\/p>\n

The Department of Agriculture<\/a> put out an open call in January, which drew several applications. <\/p>\n

Hogan was recommended as the top choice, following an interview by a panel that included a former senior civil servant, an industry expert and a human resources adviser. A Cabinet meeting signed off on the nomination this week. <\/p>\n

Several senior Government sources said Hogan would largely be left to run the campaign for the UN job on his own. <\/p>\n

European governments will try to unite behind a single candidate in the international race to avoid splitting the vote. Maurizio Martina, deputy FAO director and a former agriculture minister, has been put forward by the Italian government. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are two credible candidates, both of which will have been laying the groundwork for themselves inside the commission and other EU institutions,\u201d one commission source said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHogan\u2019s competitive advantage is that he has a well-stocked book of contacts, from his time as trade commissioner and even more so from his time as agriculture commissioner,\u201d the official said. <\/p>\n

The Italian candidate has the benefit of knowing the inner workings of the UN agency, having served as deputy director general since 2021 and the advantage of being backed by a big EU member state.<\/p>\n

Other contenders may yet emerge. <\/p>\n

Hogan travelled to a FAO conference in Brazil this week to press the flesh with politicians from South America, one key constituency. <\/p>\n

It is expected several competitors will declare from Africa and other corners of the world in the coming weeks and months, competing with a European candidate for votes.<\/p>\n

A speech Hogan delivered last June gives some indication of what tack he may take when lobbying governments in Africa, or the wider developing world, for their support. <\/p>\n

The Co Kilkenny man was critical that Europe\u2019s relationship with Africa was still not one of \u201cmutual respect\u201d.<\/p>\n

It was investment and trade that would create jobs rather than traditional aid, he told an event organised by LadyAgri, a non-profit organisation set up by Cork woman Hilary Barry to help women \u201cagri-entrepreneurs\u201d in Africa.<\/p>\n

The projected population boom on the African continent over the next two decades meant there was an \u201curgency to ensure that we avoid food shortages\u201d, Hogan said. <\/p>\n

Come the middle of next year Big Phil could find himself heading up the UN agency charged with doing something about that. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Catching up over dinner in an upmarket Brussels restaurant before Christmas, Phil Hogan told a tight-knit group of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22828,5148,1712,3775,1523,61,60,22479,1843,43,8944,70,3415,23242],"class_list":{"0":"post-333093","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-department-of-agriculture-food-and-the-marine","9":"tag-european-union","10":"tag-european-commission","11":"tag-fine-gael","12":"tag-government","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-martin-heydon","16":"tag-micheal-martin","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-phil-hogan","19":"tag-simon-harris","20":"tag-sinn-fein","21":"tag-united-nations-un"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}