No agreement on Commission President
This week has continued to be dominated by the choice of candidate for the EU Commission top job. The debate centres on the European People’s Party candidate Jean Claude Juncker. The former Luxemburg Prime Minister is backed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel while his appointment is strongly opposed by David Cameron and his Swedish and Dutch colleagues.
At a mini-summit held in Sweden on Monday, the German Chancellor reiterated her support for Juncker, saying that she wanted him as the President of the Commission. However, she weighted her argument by saying that the Council will have to reach a compromise which will need to take into consideration the fact that the Parliament will make a majority decision on their proposal. David Cameron, who sees Juncker as a federalist, repeated his well known position saying that he wants Britain to stay in a reformed EU and that the top job should go to someone who could lead these reforms. The underlying argument being that Juncker is not the right man for the job and that his appointment could have negative implications on the way Britons will vote in the 2017 in-out referendum. Behind the scenes rumours abound about potential alternative candidates with the names of Danish prime minister Helle Throning-Schmidt and IMF’s Christine Lagarde being floated.
This is a very interesting debate which goes to the heart of the current EU institutional issues. While the Parliament seeks more power on the basis of its democratic legitimacy, some heads of state believe that the Commission President should be appointed by them, not nominated by the Parliament. This state of affairs is due to ambiguity in the Lisbon Treaty, which, according to French ex-Prime Minister Michel Rocard (in a highly critical open letter to British people), is the result of the historical British opposition to more EU integration. In any case, the debate is fascinating because on one hand citizen complain about decisions made in Brussels by “unelected officials”, and on the other hand, some heads of state want to keep their prerogative to appoint the leader of these officials.
Italian Presidency Priorities
The Italian EU Presidency, which will take office on 1 July 2014, has given more details about their priorities; The “Connected Continent” reform package for the telecoms sector will be one of them and the Italian Government has announced that it will conclude the reform by the end of the year. They went further by announcing that the package has been devised as “unitary” and, therefore, needs to stay as it is, ruling out that some controversial elements of the reform may be taken away, such as net neutrality.
In my mind this is very exciting news; as an advocate of a more integrated EU telecoms sector I can only wish the Italians success. The completion of the digital single market will bring many advantages to EU citizen. One example is the reduction in roaming charges; one of the few successes of the EU that EU citizen actually recognise and appreciate. The bigger sectorial reforms will also boost the web-based services sector which has the potential of significant job creation, especially amongst younger people. I have recently coined this initiative the “road between Rond Point Schuman and the Silicon Roundabout”; my involvement with the startup scene in London has convinced me that one road to job creation is to make the digital ecosystem favourable and to let talented young people make the most of it. This is certainly a step in the right direction.
A modern Parliament
One interesting fact that may at first be seen as unessential concerns the number of MEPs who will fall within the EU40 group of MEPs under the age of 40. It turns out that the new Parliament will include 91 of these MEPs, a little less than in the last legislature but still a significant number.
This bodes well for what will most likely be policy priorities of the new Parliament, namely to tackle unemployment (which is higher in younger people), mobility (which is a reality for an increasing number of young Europeans) and the EU digital single market (the benefits of which are expected by the more connected generation). While age is no guarantee of competence in a certain subject, one can only hope that these 91 “young MEPs” will help make the EU more relevant to younger citizen.
David Hubert
Founder, Hubert Consulting