BRUSSELS BEHIND THE SCENES
Weekly analysis with Sam Morgan
‘Who do I call if I want to call Europe?’ That is the infamous quote attributed to former US secretary-of-state Henry Kissinger. The idea of a single ‘European Union President’ has long been bandied about but let us hope that it does not become a reality.
The EU loves its presidencies. There is one for the Commission, one for the Council, Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee, the Committee of the Regions, even a rotating presidency that chairs council meetings for six months.
It is difficult enough to get right for us journalists that cover the EU and are hustling through career-long grifts as Brüsselversteher, let alone foreign governments and – god forbid – normal everyday people.
Appointing a single ‘EU President’ is an idea that resurfaces now and then, especially when it gets towards the time to appoint and elect the next cavalcade of politicians vying to serve five years in Brussels.
It is a bad idea.
BRUSSELS BEHIND THE SCENES includes weekly analysis not found anywhere else, as Sam Morgan helps you make sense of what is happening in Brussels. If you want to receive Brussels Behind the Scenes straight to your inbox every week, subscribe to the newsletter here.
The previous European Commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker said at the end of his time in office that he would support an effort to merge the Commission and Council presidencies into a single job.
It is allowed under the EU treaties and would arguably declutter the institutional landscape. Henry Kissinger’s successors at the White House and his counterparts around the world would also know whose number to dial when they needed to ‘call Europe’.
‘EU President’ also has somewhat of a ring to it and would perhaps go some way to achieving that prime objective of Euro-federalists and pro-EU advocates who want voters to take the Union and its role in society more seriously.
Behind the Scenes has been in this game long enough now to not even bother trying to strike up a conversation back home about the latest goings-on in Brussels. The unconverted are simply not interested.
Governments would probably be up for a discussion about the idea too, right? The Council would love to have more say over what the Commission gets up to. The EU-27 has already had a taste over these last five years of a president who was hand-picked by them.
More of the same would surely be most welcome.
That is obviously one major reason why the ‘one president’ idea is not a good idea. Even more Council sway over the EU executive is a very slippery slope; it starts to verge on total institutional capture.
Obviously, the European Commission is much more than the EU’s civil service, as it has a political element to it that national administrations either dream of or would rather steer clear of, given the extra potential headaches attached.
But as the last couple of weeks have shown, the Commission is not particularly well-suited to playing politics.
Ursula von der Leyen has rubbed a lot of people up the wrong way with her initial messaging on Israel-Palestine and her inability to control a rogue Hungarian Commissioner was also rather difficult to watch.
The next Commission could do with a dash of technocracy to right the ship slightly.
Perhaps most importantly, is it really a good idea to consolidate executive and political power into one single role?
We live in a world of tyrants and corruption. Although Europe, especially the EU, thinks itself too sophisticated and noble for all that, you only have to take one look at the slow creep of graft in a couple of member state governments to have doubts about that.
Better to have a von der Leyen and a Charles Michel bickering and staying out of trouble than a Euro-Trump sat atop a golden throne on Schuman roundabout.
BRUSSELS BEHIND THE SCENES includes weekly analysis not found anywhere else, as Sam Morgan helps you make sense of what is happening in Brussels. If you want to receive Brussels Behind the Scenes straight to your inbox every week, subscribe to the newsletter here.
