The new European Commission

Introduction

The Juncker Commission started its term of office on 1 November 2014. Between the innovations of the election process that preceded its entry into operation, the new rules of collegial functioning enacted by the current President of the Commission and a few controversies that marked the first month of activity, there are a number of novelties concerning the new composition of the executive body of the European Union and also high expectations as to its performance.

Greater democracy at the origin is always a good indicator but entails also added responsibility

For the first time, there was a direct link between the outcome of the European Parliament elections and the appointment of the President of the European Commission. This evolution is the result of a long-standing call from the European Parliament, which follows from Article 17(7) of the Treaty on European Union in the wording of the Lisbon Treaty.

This is also the first time that a European Commission takes office on time since the European Parliament hearings were introduced in 1994 under the Jacques Delors Commission. Based on a proposal submitted by the European

Council Jean-Claude Juncker was elected by the European Parliament and, following the approval of the remaining college of Commissioners by this latter body, it can be justly said that the new Commission President corresponds also to the candidate chosen by the European Parliament.

Juncker has been making a point of stressing the particular democratic legitimacy of the process that led him to his new functions and, consequently, of the mandate of the new Commission. In his very first opening statement before the European Parliament in the debate to retain the office of Commission President, he presented his Political Guidelines for a future political agenda named ‘A New Start for Europe: My Agenda for Jobs, Growth, Fairness and Democratic Change’.¹

In the mission letters addressed to the new Commissioners, Juncker highlighted that the Commission’s relationship with the European Parliament is the source of the former’s democratic legitimacy. Hence it calls upon the members of the Commission to take an active part in meetings of the European Parliament and even in debates held by national parliaments anytime there are discussions on Commission proposals.

A new way of working

One of the key components of the new Commission is to cautiously select its areas of activity. Juncker’s agenda is focused on 10 policy areas deemed as strategic for the future of Europe: jobs, growth and investment, digital era, energy union, strengthening of the industrial base, deeper economic and monetary union, free trade agreements with the USA, initiatives in the area of justice and fundamental rights, policy on migration, stronger foreign policy and improvement of democratic actions.

Beyond this perimeter, effective responses are left to the initiatives of the Member States in line with the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. One of the mottos of the Commission now is, in the words of its President: ‘we cannot and should not do everything: I want the European Commission to be bigger and more ambitious on big things, and smaller and more modest on small things’.

To facilitate this, the new Commission was organised in a different and singular fashion. Responsibility for the key areas of the Political Guidelines is now entrusted primarily to the Commission Vice-Presidents, which shall work closely with the Commissioners handling the relevant matters. It follows that the members of the Commission shall carefully coordinate among each other on the issues they are responsible for, under the supervision of the sectoral Vice-Presidents, who can draw on any service of the Commission whose work is relevant for their area of action in liaison with the relevant Commissioner.

In practice, the Vice-Presidents are empowered to act on behalf of the President and are competent to assess the extent to which the initiatives of the remaining Commissioners make sense from a political viewpoint. According to the guidelines of President Juncker: ‘As a general rule, I will not include a new initiative in the Commission Work Programme or place it on the agenda of the College unless this is recommended to me by one of the Vice-Presidents on the basis of sound arguments and a clear narrative that is coherent with the priority projects of the Political Guidelines’².

For instance, in the case of Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, responsible for competition, her mission letter³ provides that projects in this field will be steered and coordinated by the Vice-President for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness, the Vice-President for the Digital Single Market, and the Vice-President for Energy Union, whilst in the past the competition portfolio had autonomous and significant weight within the Commission. Former Commissioner Almunia was in fact one of the Vice-Presidents of the Commission presided by Durão Barroso and someone who led the work in this area with relative independence vis-à-vis the remaining Commissioners.

The new composition and organisation is likely to boost the Commission’s action as a true collegial body and a team with better focus and more tuned to important priorities. Notwithstanding, with the introduction of the ‘political threshold’ of the Vice-Presidents and the need to foster cooperation between Commissioners with different areas and sensitivities, it is also possible that the decision process may become heavier and more complex.

As an illustration, and bearing again in mind the competition area, it suffices to confront the Political Guidelines presented by Juncker to the European Parliament with some recent initiatives taken by the Directorate-General for Competition to anticipate the potential sensitivity of a few future options. For example, in the energy field the Political Guidelines contain the idea that ‘we need to strengthen the share of renewable energies on our continent. (...) I therefore want Europe’s Energy Union to become the world number one in renewable energies’ (emphasis in the original text); conversely, the Commission’s Guidelines on State aid for environmental protection and energy for the period 2014-2020 provide, as a general principle, for a significant reduction of incentives (and the public instruments available) in favour of such technology, which inevitably works – as reality shows in several Member States – as a deterrence for investment in this field.

It might also be seen as ironic (or maybe not) that President Juncker selected as one of his competition priorities for the Commission’s new term to fight against tax evasion,⁴ just a few days ahead of notices of the alleged implementation of aggressive corporate tax avoidance schemes in Luxembourg (that would have apparently caused large losses in potential tax revenues to other Member States) supposedly approved during a period in which Jean-Claude Juncker held the office of Prime Minister in that country. In this regard, the Commissioner for Competition publicly confirmed that the Commission is conducting tax State aid investigations on this matter against Luxembourg and other Member States.⁵ This situation also caused a motion of censure on the Commission, moved by a number of members of the European Parliament less than one month before the Commission took office, which ended up by being rejected by a strong majority.

Final remarks

With the presidency and composition of the Commission backed up by the European Parliament, this time in a manner that is particularly straight, Juncker’s team is in favourable political conditions to perform a mandate that matches the expectations going forward at a time of fiscal consolidation of both public and private debt and growth promotion.

The new way of structuring the European executive body places important challenges in terms of the decision process. It is important that Commissioners are not held hostages of the Vice-Presidents in the technical areas of their portfolios. At the same time, in the Commission’s activity that enables room for initiatives of a political nature, practice will have to show if the layering of the decisional proceedings and the concentration of power in several Vice-Presidents will not hamper the progress of the European Project. Ultimately, only time can assert if behind a new way of thinking there is indeed a new effective approach.

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