EU: President Juncker to propose merger of EU Commission and Council presidencies

Could the next Spitzenkandidaten process elect a single president for two jobs?

Five months after European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker first proposed combining the Commission and Council presidencies as part of his State of the European Union speech and a week after the European Parliament’s vote to retain the lead candidate – or  Spitzenkandidaten – process, the Commission appears ready to seriously consider the proposal.

“Europe would function better if we were to merge the presidents of the European Commission and the European Council,” Juncker told the European Parliament during his annual address in Strasbourg last September, adding, “Europe would be easier to understand if one captain was steering the ship.”

The move would transform the EU leadership and consolidate authority around a single figure who would campaign for the post, Juncker is expected to outline the scenarios for EU institutional changes over the coming years at this week’s College readout.

What is expected this week is a draft plan that will include the option of combining the presidencies of the EU executive body and the national government leaders.

Note EU-Digest: Good idea, if it also provides for a universal European election for the Presidency  and is open to candidates from different political parties. 

 Read more: Juncker to propose merger of EU Commission and Council presidencies

EU State of the Union: Juncker says EU to 'move on' from Brexit and calls for "One speed. One currency. One president"

President Juncker gives State of the 
Union address to the EU Parliament

Preesident Jean-Claude Juncker declared : "the “wind is back in Europe’s sails” in an an often very personal State of the Union speech, in which he gave his vision for the future of the European Union after the UK makes its “tragic” departure in 2019.

President Jean-Claude Juncker in his speech (often interrupted by applause) argued for a more unified and politically-accountable European Union after Brexit, which would combine the presidencies of the Commission and the Council into one (universally elected?), complete the euro currency zone, and generally push the bloc to take “a democratic leap forward” in unison and at a single speed.

The European commission president said he would always be sorrowed by the UK’s decision to leave the EU. “This will be a very sad and tragic moment in our history, we will always regret this”, he said before responding to heckling from Nigel Farage, President Trump's "soul mate", by retorting: “I think you will regret this soon, I might say.”

Calling for a special summit in Romania on the 30 March 2019, the first day of an EU of 27 member states rather than 28, Juncker said he hoped the continent would “wake up” that day to a new more unified bloc.

Juncker’s annual address to the European parliament in Strasbourg was notably more upbeat about the future than his speech a year ago, with economic growth outstripping the US and unemployment at a nine-year low. The commission president and former prime minister of Luxembourg  insisted the bloc should seize the moment to make widespread reforms. “As Mark Twain wrote, years from now we will be more disappointed by the things we did not do, than by the ones we did,” he said.

"On the 30 March 2019, we will be a union of 27 and I suggest we prepare very well for that date.”

Juncker added that the council should adopt qualified majority voting, rather than unanimity, on foreign policy issues and drive forward in European defence. “By 2025 we need a fully-fledged European defense union,” he said.

He also added the EU would establish a European cybersecurity agency. “Cyber-attacks know no borders and no one is immune,” he said.

Juncker told MEPs he intended to start trade talks with Australia and New Zealand, and promised to legislate to protect strategic interests from foreign purchases through industrial screening.

A joint statement from the French, German and Italian governments following the speech endorsed the move. The German minister for economic affairs, Brigitte Zypries, said: “We must avoid other states benefiting from our opening to advance their own industrial policy interests.”

Juncker added that the EU would respond to the “collapse of the ambitions in the US” on climate change by stepping into the vacuum and ensuring that Europe protected the world. “Let’s catch the wind in our sails”, he told MEPs.

However, he ruled out Turkey’s accession to the EU in the “foreseeable future”, and, in his strongest comments to date on the issue, he condemned the country’s slide into authoritarianism under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

“Turkey has been moving away from the European Union in leaps and bounds,” Juncker told MEPs. “Journalists belong in editorial offices amid a heated debate, and not in prison. I appeal today to the powers that be in Turkey: let our journalists go, and not just our journalists.”

The EU President also proposed combining the Commission and Council presidencies — a move that would transform the EU leadership and consolidate authority in a single figure who would campaign for the post.

“Europe would function better if we were to merge the presidents of the European Commission and the European Council,” Juncker told the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
“Europe would be easier to understand if one captain was steering the ship.”

For the video with the complete speech of President Juncker click here. 

Mr. Juncker. who is originally from Luxembourg spoke at times in German, French and English. His speech was simultaneously and individually translated for members of the EU Parliament in their own local language 

EU-Digest

European Union - EU boss threatens to break up US in retaliation for Trump Brexit support - by Nick Gutteridge

In an extraordinary speech the EU Commission president said he would push for California, or Ohio and Texas to split from the rest of America if US President Donald Trump does not change his tune and become more supportive of the EU.

The remarks are diplomatic dynamite at a time when relations between Washington and Brussels are already strained over Europe’s meagre contributions to NATO and the US leader’s open preference for dealing with national governments.

A spokesman for the bloc later said that the remarks were not meant to be taken literally, but also tellingly did not try to pass them off as humorous and insisted the EU chief was making a serious comparison.

They are by far the most outspoken intervention any senior EU figure has made about Mr Trump and are likely to dismay some European leaders who were hoping to seek a policy of rapprochement with their most important ally.

Speaking at the centre-right European People Party’s (EPP) annual conference in Malta yesterday afternoon, the EU Commission boss did not hold back in his disdain for the White House chief’s eurosceptic views.

He said: “Brexit isn’t the end. A lot of people would like it that way, even people on another continent where the newly elected US President was happy that the Brexit was taking place and has asked other countries to do the same.

“If he goes on like that I am going to promote the independence of California, Ohio and Austin, Texas in the US.”

Mr Juncker's comments did not appear to be made in jest and were delivered in a serious tone, although one journalist did report some "chuckles" in the audience and hinted the EU boss may have been joking. The remarks came in the middle of an angry speech in which the top eurocrat railed widely against critics of the EU Commission.

And reacting to the furore which followed them, EU Commission deputy chief spokesman Alexander Winterstein explained: "You will have seen that this is not the first time the President draws this analogy and I think he’s making a point that is as simple as it is valid.

"He does not suggest that certain states should secede from the United States and at the same time I think he considers it also not terribly appropriate for other heads of states to suggest that member states of the EU leave the EU. So I think that’s the comparison that he’s drawing."

Read more:  more: European Union - EU boss threatens to break up US in retaliation for Trump Brexit support | Politics | News | Express.co.u

EU′s Juncker unveils post-Brexit vision for bloc

Presenting five options to the European Parliament on Wednesday, Juncker said it was time for European Union members to once again become "pioneers" to carve out a new future for the EU at 27, referring to the bloc's 27 remaining members after the UK withdraws.

His speech comes just weeks before British Prime Minister Theresa May is due to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, to begin the country's official divorce proceedings from the EU.

The former Luxembourg prime minister insisted that "as painful as Brexit will be, it will not stop the EU as it moves to the future."

Juncker laid out five "pathways to unity" for EU leaders to consider at a special summit in Rome on March 25 to mark the 60th anniversary of the bloc's founding treaty.

Another option would see Brussels pull back from many areas, including regional development, health, employment and social policy. Alternatively, the bloc could maintain the status quo, Juncker said, with limited progress on strengthening the euro single currency and limited defense cooperation.

The fifth option would involve a more federalist approach, "sharing more power, resources and decision-making across the board."

During his speech, Juncker hit out at "permanent Brussels bashing" by populist politicians all over the bloc, insisting that the EU was not responsible for each country's problems.

But he conceded that Brussels had often been put on a pedestal, and had failed to keep many of its ambitious promises, for example, addressing the bloc's high unemployment rate.

Looking to the future, Juncker said: "Our task will be to say clearly what Europe can and cannot do."

He called for EU states to respond to his suggestions by the end of the year, and decide on a course of action by the European Parliament elections in June 2019.

Read more: EU′s Juncker unveils post-Brexit vision for bloc | News | DW.COM | 01.03.2017