11/11/2014
No sooner has detail of Juncker's misdeeds
emerged - with his damage limitation
proving about as effective as deploying a fire extinguisher to fight an Australian bushfire - than Bloomberg
is on the case, calling for him to step down.
This is no "mere" eurosceptic polemic, but the view of a respected financial agency, and one which carries considerable weight. For this call to be expressed so directly, and so early in Mr Juncker's tenure as Commission President bodes ill for the institution.
With the pressure on from all directions, it can ill-afford a lame-duck leader, and could suffer badly from the lack of direction that may occur as a result. Right now, it needs someone of the calibre and focus of Jacques Delors.
For the anti-EU movement in the UK, however, this is possibly good news. Under the helm of a weak[ened] leader, the Commission will not be firing on all cylinders, and therefore may be unable to deal effectively (or at all) with high profile issues such as immigration.
In fact, the failure of the EU to get to grips with immigration, and its inability for forge an effective
common asylum policy, represents a failure comparable with the catastrophically-flawed Common Fisheries Policy.
So far, nothing Juncker
has delivered is at all impressive and if he is forced onto the back foot as a result of investigations into his dealings with the Luxembourg tax system, he is even less likely to deliver something worthwhile.
On the other hand, a Commission President without the confidence and authority to slap down David Cameron when he continues to press for his fantasy renegotiation, is not to our great advantage. Junker's protestations that he is
not afraid of prime ministers, when he is hiding from a media after his blood, tend to lack credibility.
The last word though, for the moment, should go to Bloomberg. Just now, it says, the importance of restoring trust in the EU would be hard to overstate. The union is struggling to emerge from the financial crisis and is increasingly seen as elitist, meddling and incapable of producing either fairness or growth.
It cannot help this effort, the agency adds, to have it overseen by a man who spent his career as a quintessential backroom dealer while building and running an international tax haven at other European countries' expense.
So far, there is no sign of a Santer-type crisis, but history rarely repeats itself exactly. Nevertheless, crisis there is in the making, even if it might be a little early to be breaking out the popcorn.
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