EU Referendum


EU politics: new commission announced


10/09/2014



000a Commission-010 Juncker.jpg

Juncker has today announced his "new team" to head the European Commission, accompanied by the usual leaden euro-rhetoric: "A strong and experienced team standing for change", the press release says.

If you want to know what Juncker stands for (or says he stands for, which maybe something different), he set it all out in his manifesto on 15 July – his agenda for "Jobs, Growth, Fairness and Democratic Change".

One senses, though, that he's already on a loser. "We need a stronger Europe when it comes to foreign policy", he says. "The Ukraine crisis and the worrying situation in the Middle East show how important it is that Europe is united externally. There is still a long way to go".

Amongst the "important novelties" in the new Commission, there will be a "First Vice-President" – effectively the deputy president. This is to be Dutch Labour Party politician Frans Timmermans, whose "day job" is to pursue the "Better Regulation agenda", guaranteeing that every Commission proposal "is truly required and that the aims cannot best be achieved by Member States".

The former Dutch foreign minister will watch over the subsidiarity principle, "whereby the EU should only intervene where it can act more effectively than national or local governments". His role will be special, and will include a veto right over any proposal coming from any of the Commission departments. "The First Vice-President can stop any initiative, including legislative initiative, coming from a commissioner's team", Juncker says, underlining the importance of the post.

Another "novelty" is a Commissioner in charge of both Climate Action and Energy policy under Miguel Arias Cañete. "Strengthening the share of renewable energies", we are told, "is not only a matter of a responsible climate change policy. It is, at the same time, an industrial policy imperative if Europe still wants to have affordable energy in the medium term.

Both new portfolios will contribute to the Project Team "Energy Union", steered and coordinated by Alenka Bratušek.

Then there is the European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations portfolio (under Johannes Hahn). This will be next to a reinforced neighbourhood policy, putting the focus on the continuation of enlargement negotiations, whilst acknowledging that there will be no enlargement of the European Union for the next five years.

Crucially, there will be a commissioner specifically for Migration (under Dimitris Avramopoulos) "to prioritise a new policy on migration that will robustly tackle irregular migration, whilst at the same time making Europe an attractive destination for top talent". This reflects the pivotal role currently played by immigration in European politics, but it should be noted that the emphasis is on "irregular migration", not freedom of movement – which remains off limits.

In a clumsy attempt at populism, which is soooooooo 20th Century, the Commission is being called #teamJunckerEU, which does little more than demonstrate how behind the curve these people really are. Nevertheless, these are the people in power – subject to European Parliament approval – and we're stuck with them for the next five years.

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