Junckers EU Team Set for Parliamentary Green Light
Jean-Claude Junckers team of European Union commissioners is poised to win parliamentary approval today, allowing the handover of EU executive power to take place as scheduled on Nov. 1 amid simmering economic and foreign-policy troubles.
Junckers line-up was completed yesterday when the designated commissioners for energy-policy coordination and transport -- Slovakias Maros Sefcovic and Slovenias Violeta Bulc -- were given passing marks for their performances in European Parliament confirmation hearings. The full assembly is due to give its verdict on the whole new 28-member European Commission around midday in Strasbourg, France.
President-elect Juncker was forced to shuffle his team last week after Alenka Bratusek, Slovenias original nominee to the commission, withdrew following her rejection for the energy-union job because of a lackluster showing in her hearing. He gave Bulc, Slovenias subsequent nominee, the transport portfolio originally assigned to Sefcovic and moved Sefcovic to the energy vice-presidency post.
The Parliament made its point by demanding a minor change rather than shaking up the team, so its no surprise the new commission is on track to get approved, Sonia Piedrafita, an analyst at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels, said by telephone. The commission under Juncker, who was Luxembourgs prime minister for almost two decades until late 2013, is slated to serve a five-year term.
Junckers team will face new tests and unfinished business after the 10-year reign of Portugals Jose Barroso atop the commission, the EU executive arm that proposes and enforces European laws, monitors national economies, negotiates trade deals, runs a diplomatic service and administers the blocs 140 billion-euro ($178 billion) budget.
Barroso spent his first term absorbing countries in former communist eastern Europe into the EU and positioning the bloc as a leader in the fight against global warming. He spent his second term battling the sovereign-debt crisis that threatened to break apart the euro.
These have been exceptional and challenging times, Barroso told the EU Parliament yesterday in what was due to be his last address to the assembly. This crisis was probably the biggest since the beginning of the European integration process in the 50s.
Along with a pace of EU enlargement that has boosted membership to 28 nations from 15 over the past decade, the financial crisis has led to a surge in anti-European parties across Europe. This protest trend in nations including the U.K., France, Italy and Greece has challenged a longstanding pro-EU consensus, adding political uncertainty to European economic management and business regulation.
Junckers incoming commission faces an imminent test over applying EU budget-discipline rules to France, which is struggling to bring its deficit within the blocs limit of 3 percent of gross domestic product as a result of economic sluggishness. The euro area beefed up its fiscal-prudence rulebook at Germanys insistence during the debt crisis, providing a basis for more squabbles between the stick-to-austerity and go-for-growth camps.
The spotlight on Frances public spending will be even greater because the designated EU commissioner for economic and monetary affairs is Pierre Moscovici, a former French finance minister. His appointment as EU economy czar ruffled some German feathers.
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Junckers EU Team Set for Parliamentary Green Light