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Europe in Review 2014

  • Text
  • Terrorism
  • Cameron
  • Farage
  • Ttip
  • Romania
  • Economy
  • Ukraine
  • Ukraine
  • Catalonia
  • Scotland
  • Luxleaks
  • Spitzenkandidaten
  • European
  • Juncker
  • Parliament
  • Euobserver
  • Russia
  • Brussels
  • Democracy
  • Elections
EUobserver, in its second annual review, looks back at the main events of 2014: Russia's annexation of Ukraine; the selection of the EU's new top cadre; separatism in Europe and more.

THE GENDER BALANCE

THE GENDER BALANCE Another issue that risked delaying the Juncker commission was gender balance. As of early August, only four countries had put forward female candidates for the EU commission. This was despite a warning from MEPs that they would veto any commission with fewer women than the outgoing Barroso team, which had nine. In the end, the count rose to nine when Belgium and Romania, the last countries to make their official announcements, opted for female candidates - Marianne Thyssen and Corina Cretu, both MEPs. But only after Juncker forced capitals’ hands by indicating that woman nominees had a higher chance of getting strong portfolios. Once the names list was clear, Juncker took his time to carve up the portfolios and vice-presidential posts, with the Brussels bubble set abuzz by the numerous organigrammes (with varying degrees of plausibility) that were leaked. HEARINGS When the final layout was decided, the candidates went through long (and mostly turgid) hearings in the European Parliament. From the outset, at least four names were in for a tough ride in the hearings: Spain’s Miguel Arias Canete, due to his oil-industry interests that would have clashed with his “energy and climate change” portfolio, Hungary’s Tibor Navracsics, who would be in charge of “culture, education and citizenship” after having been a justice minister who co-authored restrictions on media. France’s former finance minister Pierre Moscovici, nominated for the main economics portfolio, was in for a rough hearing from fiscal hawks who doubted his commitment to the EU deficit and debt rules he failed to observe during his time as minister. Britain’s Jonathan Hill, to oversee financial services reform, was also going to get tough questions given Britain’s reluctance to adhere to Brussels regulations that touch the City of London. Hill became the only one to have to go through a second hearing while Canete’s financial interests were given some extra scrutiny. In the end they all passed the EP’s gauntlet, bar one. THE BRATUSEK SAGA From the outset it was clear that MEPs were going to claim at least one scalp in the process – a matter of power politics as much as the competence of any would-be commissioner. That honour fell to Slovene ex-PM Alenka Bratusek. She was poorly prepared (though not exceptionally so), came from a small political family (the liberals) and was not supported back home. It didn’t help that she appointed herself - while a caretaker PM - on the list of three names sent to Juncker in July. An anti-corruption commission in Ljubljana said she had breached normal procedure. But she ignored its letter, failing to pick it from the post office. MEPs rejected her and asked Juncker to ask Ljubljana for a different name. Juncker stood by Bratusek for another day, not wanting to explicitly ditch her himself. In the end she withdrew. The Slovenian government then sent Violeta Bulc, a political novice and businesswoman who had trained as a shaman and fire-walker, applying New Age theories to her business environment. Bulc sailed through the hearing, as MEPs were no longer keen on blood and as her portfolio had been downgraded from vice-president for “energy union” to a simple commissioner for transport. With the Slovenian mini-drama behind it, the European Parliament voted on the entire Juncker commission on 24 October and allowed it to take office as planned, on 1 November. • Frans Timmermans - the polyglot Dutch man is to be Juncker’s right hand in charge of, amongst other things, making sure the EU does not over-regulate. Photo: Council of the European Union Yesterday’s VIPs Catherine Ashton and Herman Rompuy shortly after they were nominated for the top EU posts. Unknown when they took up their posts, they had left barely a trace on the public consciousness when they left five years later. Photo: Roel Wijnants Jose Manuel Barroso, Catherine Ashton and Herman Van Rompuy bowed out of their jobs leaving small legacies. By Honor Mahony In late autumn, Jose Manuel Barroso, Catherine Ashton, and Herman Van Rompuy left their posts. They were respectively, the head of the European Commission, the EU foreign policy chief, and the President of the European Council. They exited in an unspectacular manner – reflecting their time in office that left barely a trace in the public consciousness. Barroso said the longest goodbye, in several guises, fora and forms. Ashton, who officially finished her job the same end-of-October day, let the day pass unremarked. But she lingered on in a semi-official capacity to continue international talks on Iran’s nuclear programme. Herman Van Rompuy left his post - and politics completely - a month later. He departed in the style that he conducted his presidency: quietly and diffidently. It was a limp conclusion to their five-year terms (Barroso’s second such). BARROSO - THE PRAGMATIST This was a reflection of two things. The first was a yearning for new faces after a period of crisis. The EU had emerged from an existential threat – exposing flaws in leadership, policy-making and eurozone architecture – as a fragile but still-standing entity. New people were needed to complete the feeling of putting the crisis to bed. The other reason was the trio of politicians themselves. They were in various ways meant to represent the EU. But they never broke beyond the crises that shaped their tenures. Barroso, a pragmatist with a knack for bending with the prevailing wind, gained a second term in 2009 largely by default. That same year EU leaders deflated buzz about who would be the “first ever” EU foreign policy chief and “first ever” permanent president of the EU by choosing two unknowns for the jobs. THE TRIO Van Rompuy, a Belgian prime minister, had little international experience. Ashton, the then EU trade commissioner had no track record in foreign policy. 24 ––––– Europe in review 2014 Europe in review 2014 ––––– 25

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