At one level it has been a privilege to attend the Danish Presidency Press Trip for the past four days. I’m the first blogger ever to have been allowed to attend, and hopefully not the last. But the whole experience leaves me feeling a little empty, although not quite for the reasons that may be immediately obvious.
Have a read of this piece (see comments – link changed – a version is available here) on AP’s website about Barroso’s State of the European Union speech. It’s entitled “Top EU official seeks closer policy union” and then starts “A senior EU official called for closer political and financial unification in Europe”, before explaining Barroso’s actual job in the 2nd paragraph.
Why does this matter?
Barroso has just finished delivering his State of the European Union address to the European Parliament. While – as before – we had a bit of a chuckle in the blogosphere with buzzword bingo, this was a serious occasion and Barroso rose to it, delivering a speech full of determination that contained a commitment to a financial transaction tax and a strong ideological appeal for a communitarian solution to the sovereign debt crisis facing the EU.
While the speech was fine (and indeed I was more impressed than I thought I would be), the real issue will be how any of this will change the way the EU moves forward. Importantly what reaction – if any – will there be from Heads of States and Governments from the Member States of the EU? Sadly rather little I fear.
The lesson from this year must be this: that next year Barroso’s speech must be delivered to a special joint session of the European Council and the European Parliament. Confronting and challenging Member States, in public, would be a vital step in the EU’s political and democratic development.
Last year a bunch of EU blog nerds had a laugh when José Manuel Barroso made a State of the European Union address (more here). The very notion that Barroso would do this made us smile, and knowing he’s not a great speechmaker we played the EU version of the popular business game bullshit bingo – Barroso Bullshit Bingo.
The basic idea is that you need to list 10 words or phrases you reckon our esteemed President is going to use in his State of the European Union speech, to be delivered from 0900 CET on Wednesday 28th September, and the person with the most mentions wins… Please post your suggestions as comments below, or link to wherever your 10 phrases are. As before names of Commissioners and other EU institutions are not allowed.
As last year you can also play on Twitter, using #SOTEU (State of the European Union) and if you want for follow without humour then the Commission has an official account for the speech – @StateofUnion_EU.
Playing the game for real involves the audience shouting ‘Bingo’ out loud when their word is mentioned, and the speech is in the plenary chamber of the European Parliament. So any MEPs wanting to play and shout out would be most welcome!
My 10 phrases are: economic crisis, the eurozone, show leadership, speak with one voice, more integration, jobs and prosperity, what Europe represents in the world, creation of euro bonds, fiscal convergence, our friends.
Which one will be ousted first?
In a regular government, when a Minister is struggling he or she is removed by the Prime Minister. I don’t think anyone has any doubt that the European Union is struggling to get to grips with the Eurozone / debt crisis. So who’s the fall guy?
Well, so far, there hasn’t been one, at least not at EU level. It’s high time that changed.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive, has a Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs – Olli Rehn. Yes, Olli who, you might be asking. While Member States bicker over the future of the Euro, the EU needs a clear line from the Commission, and Rehn – a tremendously cautious politician with non-existent communications skills – has failed to step up.
Unlike a national government it’s not legally possible for Commission President Barroso to sack a Commissioner, but he can reshuffle them, so Rehn could be dispatched to somewhere where nothing is expected of him. Until the ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon, the Commission President could not sack any of his Commissioners – since Lisbon (see Article 16 TEU – pdf here) the Commission President has this power, but so far it has never been used. Hence a reshuffle of the Commission is the more likely solution.
My favoured replacement in Rehn’s portfolio would be Neelie Kroes – tough, experienced, ready to take hard decisions. Barnier, Kallas or De Gucht would be alternatives. There’s a quick poll – let me know what you think!
Loading ...[Note: entry has been amended at 2146 on 20.9.2011 in light of comments below]
Look across Europe, and think of the calibre of its leaders. Merkel, Sarkozy, Cameron. Zapatero, Berlusconi, Tusk. Reinfeldt, Løkke, Pahor. Brussels with Barroso and Van Rompuy. This is not a quality lineup, not what one would classically call a statesman or stateswoman among the lot of them. Not a Schuman, an Adenauer, even a Delors or Kohl. With the danger of a Greek default drawing ever closer it’s not as if we can do without determined leadership in Europe.
Stepping back for a moment, why are we in this predicament?
It starts, I think, with the nature of representative democracy in the era of the internet (building on the era of 24 hour news), and the way that political parties function internally.
So started an interesting exchange of views about the future of Schengen yesterday – my tweet, and then a reply from European Commisson spokesperson Koen Doens:
Subsequent to the Twitter discussion, I’ve had some time to digest the letter Barroso sent back to Berlusconi and Sarkozy (you can find the PDF here) and, frankly, it’s not bad at all, and indeed contains plenty of positive points about how Schengen needs to be improved, although the letter does admit that reimposition of borders may be considered. Continue reading
At Bloggingportal we came up with the idea of having a laugh at the expense of our esteemed President, Jose Manuel Barroso with his “State of the European Union” speech by playing bullshit bingo.
The entire speech is now available here, and the Wordle for it looks like this:
Barroso also proposed a letter to MEPs has been made public. Follow this line for a Wordle cloud of the words from the letter.
[Note: post updated with a new Wordle since first being published]
