A queue at the door
There is never a dull moment in Brussels and this week was particularly action packed. Mr. Erdogan, the Turkish Prime Minister, dropped by for a severe telling off over his assault on democracy. Serbia started EU membership talks. President Obama, after receiving support from the European Commission over his defence of security measures, much to everyone’s delight announced that he will make his first visit to Brussels for the EU-US Summit in March. Growing concern over the antics of the Ukrainian government led to a down-grading of next week’s EU-Russia Summit and for the first time in six years the EU announced that it will send troops to try to calm fighting in the Central African Republic.
Place your bets!
With the race firmly on to succeed José Manuel Barroso as Commission President a number of candidates were confirmed, declared their interest, or feigned disinterest this week. The Liberals decided that ex-Belgian Premier Guy Verhofstadt, the self-styled nemesis of Nigel Farage, will be their candidate apparently much to the disdain of Nick Clegg who didn’t want an arch Federalist candidate to further damage his party’s chances. Martin Schultz, Parliament President and the scourge of Berlusconi, is the Socialist candidate. Angela Merkel will most probably block him when its crunch time and so possible compromise candidates are starting to emerge. Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the Danish Prime Minister, seems to be a good bet here. Might we finally see a woman at the helm of the Commission?
The race is the most unpredictable on the Christian Democrat side where there are a number of candidates vying for position. These range from Enda Kelly, Irish Premier, to Fredrik Reinfeldt the Swedish Prime Minister, and more recently Christine Lagarde, latterly of the IMF who Merkel allegedly prefers as an alternative to Luxembourg’s Jean-Claude Junker. Much is being made of the right of the Parliamentary group with the most votes to propose a candidate to the Member States for approval. Less is being said about the Member States right to turn that proposal down and appoint a compromise candidate. This is going to run and run so let the horse-trading begin!
One last dash!
The European Parliament has gone into over-drive to try to clear its desks before the May elections. Shortened timelines and rushed compromises are causing major headaches for lobbyists. A great example this week has been the tabling of amendments by a Green Rapporteur to widen the scope of a proposal to phase out single-use plastic carrier bags to all carrier bags! Many lobbyists are now counting the days and hours until it becomes impossible to pass legislation and business will have to be left until the next Parliament.
European Commissioners too are looking to leave substantial legacies. This week has seen Vice-President Tajani publish, with his usual flair, a policy paper on a ‘European Industrial Renaissance’. This was somewhat overshadowed by the revision of the Climate Action plan which was heavily criticised for scaling back the EU’s anti-climate change ambitions.
Nick Blow
Managing Director, Strategis Communications