Maintaining the links

The British Foreign Office is reclaiming one of its own from a position of influence in the European Commission. Alex Ellis, a member of the private office of José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, is to be the next British ambassador to Portugal, from September. When he joined the president's team back in 2004 he was well placed to build bridges between Barroso and London: he had worked in the UK's permanent representation to the EU as an antici, one of those who prepare the meetings of the ambassadors. He had been brought there by Stephen Wall, the UK's permanent representative to the EU, for whom he had worked when Wall was the British ambassador in Lisbon. In the Barroso cabinet, Ellis got to shape energy policy, which was something of a triumph for a Blair government that had only belatedly come round to the merits of a common EU energy policy.
The British government clearly does not like the idea of losing a link with Barroso – and perhaps the feeling is mutual. So Ellis is to be replaced by another Briton: Matthew Baldwin, who used to work on trade at the UK permanent representation. In 1999 Baldwin became deputy head of the private office of Pascal Lamy. He returned to the trade department, becoming a head of unit, and is now working on EU relations with the World Trade Organization, where Lamy is the boss. Two questions: will Baldwin be as loyal to London as Ellis and is Baldwin going to learn Portuguese?