Back to Rome, at last

As the ‘will-he-won't-he?' saga of Franco Frattini nears its conclusion, Commission President José Manuel Barroso will be relieved that an end is also in sight to the succession of holding decisions that he had to make to cover for his absent vice-president – most recently the extension of Frattini's “leave without remuneration” until 28 April (a decision “taken in the interest of the institution, in order to safeguard the efficiency of the Commission's activities in the area of justice, liberty and security, with a view to the clarification of the situation following the elections in Italy”). Frattini's leave will not be “without remuneration”, in that he is to return to Brussels clutching the even more glittering prize of being his country's minister of foreign affairs – the role he had to resign when he was drafted in to the Commission as an emergency replacement for the rejected Rocco Buttiglione in 2004. Frattini explained his initial departure to fight the national political elections in March as a “return to the source of all legitimacy”.