Battle
royale over top ‘Juncker Plan’ posts
Shouting
matches, rogue hearings and finger-pointing cloud the appointment
process.
By QUENTIN ARIÈS
AND JAMES PANICHI 9/30/15, 5:30 AM CET
A behind-the-scenes
fight in the European Parliament over the appointment of top managers
for a €315 billion EU investment plan has MEPs accusing each other
of national stereotyping as they attempt to muscle in on the
Commission’s role in filling the jobs.
The power struggle
descended into a shouting match last week at an informal, closed-door
hearing of candidates for the second most-powerful position in the
new European Fund for Strategic Investments. The hearing itself was
already controversial, as the European Parliament has no role in the
appointment process other than ratifying the choice made by the
Commission.
Italian MEP Roberto
Gualtieri, chairman of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee,
clashed with prominent panel member Sylvie Goulard, a French MEP.
Goulard objected to the way the meetings were run and was concerned
that the committee was trying to shoe-horn an Italian bureaucrat into
the role of the fund’s deputy managing director.
The informal vetting
process for the new fund’s top jobs has left the economic panel
deeply divided, frayed its relationship with senior members of the
Budgets Committee and antagonized the Commission, which had not
agreed to the Parliament’s expanded role. And the relationship
between two prominent MEPs has “totally collapsed” as a result of
the hearings, according to one official familiar with the process.
The investment fund
was a key campaign promise of Jean-Claude Juncker in the 2014
election for the Commission presidency, and his executive’s
political credibility is linked to the program’s success. The
dispute shows how the nascent fund is still vulnerable to national
interests competing for a slice of a huge spending pie. It also
highlights Parliament’s ongoing efforts to exert more influence.
The European Fund
for Strategic Investments, known as the “Juncker Plan,” will
raise €315 billion over three years to support investment and help
kick-start stalled EU economies. The EU budget will contribute €16
billion to the fund, with €5 billion coming from the European
Investment Bank.
‘Underhanded
Italian maneuver’
Italians have
weighed into the job-selection melee, arguing that opponents of the
candidacy of European Investment Bank official Alessandro Carano for
the new post were relying on stereotypes suggesting an Italian could
not be trusted with managing a large investment fund.
“They have been
trying to portray this as some kind of underhanded Italian maneuver,
as though being an Italian should rule him out,” said an MEP who
was present at the informal hearing.
When contacted by
POLITICO, Carano said he was simply a civil servant who had applied
for a job and had been interviewed by both the European Investment
Bank and the Commission. “I have no links with either national
governments or political parties,” he said.
Key appointments to
the fund’s management structure are being hotly contested among EU
countries, and observers in Parliament say the center-left Italian
government, which is hoping to use the fund to support key
infrastructure development, is determined to see an Italian national
in a top role.
To manage the hiring
process, the Commission announced in January that it would ask the
European Investment Bank (EIB) to develop a shortlist of candidates
to help a “steering board” select the right person for both the
roles of managing director and deputy managing director. The board is
made up of three officials from the Commission and one from the bank.
The only role
Parliament was given in the process was the right to hold a
confirmation hearing of the selected candidate, which will take place
on October 6. The Commission said it is following the appointment
procedures and it will inform Parliament of its choice of candidate
ahead of the hearing.
Rogue hearings
But Gualtieri
decided to launch his own informal vetting process of the EIB
shortlist, which his office referred to as “pre-hearings.”
Sources familiar with the process, which took place in Gualtieri’s
office on September 22, say they were an attempt to identify a
suitable candidate and then put pressure on the Commission to accept
Parliament’s choice.
Gualtieri contacted
the Budgets Committee chairman, Jean Arthuis, a French member of the
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe group, to inform him of
the informal hearings. But according to members of that panel,
Arthuis declined to take part and instructed his committee members to
steer clear of the process, fearing it lacked a legal basis.
While the shortlist
has not been finalized, MEPs have confirmed that Wilhelm Molterer, a
former Austrian center-right finance minister who is now on the EIB’s
management committee, was top of the list and his candidacy for the
role of managing-director was not contested.
Also on the list
were Carano, an EIB official who had been seconded to the Commission
to help set up the Juncker Plan, and two female candidates — a
Spaniard and a Bulgarian.
Gualtieri declined
to respond to claims he had clashed with Goulard, but defended the
process. “The European Parliament has clear prerogatives in this
area,” he said, “and we are determined to ensure that merit and
the quality of the candidate prevail over any attempt of
politicization.”
Goulard also
declined to discuss the argument, but said it was “not a matter of
people, but a matter of principle.” She said that fund’s money
should “go to good projects which are not based on what passport
those backing the project hold.” Goulard also said she was keen to
see Parliament support gender balance in such appointments.
One MEP who attended
the informal hearing said the Bulgarian candidate, who took part via
video-conference, made a strong presentation but was widely seen as
the Commission’s preferred candidate for the deputy managing
director role, with Commission Vice President Kristalina Georgieva
backing the woman, described as a former Bulgarian junior minister.
Georgieva’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Other MEPs who
attended the informal hearing said there was broad, cross-party
consensus that Carano was the strongest of the candidates.
Fabio de Masi, a
German MEP from the left-wing European United Left/Nordic Green Left
grouping, said that unlike other applicants, Carano spoke frankly
about problems which had been identified and how he would address
them. “For me, it was purely a decision based on [Carano] being the
one most willing to address the concerns of Parliament,” de Masi
said.
De Masi said he has
never supported the Juncker Plan and, while being of Italian descent,
he opposed the Italian government of Matteo Renzi and had little in
common with the Italian center-left in the European Parliament —
which includes Gualtieri. However, he said Carano was both
“knowledgeable and determined that it should not be business as
usual” and he clearly won over the MEPs who heard him speak.
But MEP Marco Zanni,
from Italy’s anti-establishment Five Star Movement, said the
quality of the candidate was not the issue. “Even if the Italian
turns out to be the best, what Gualtieri has done goes against
conventions and certainly against the rules,” said Valli, who is a
member of both the the economic committee and the budgets committee.
“I received an
invitation to attend [the informal hearing] but I declined it,”
Zanni said. “I will have no problem in attending the official
hearing. But this unofficial meeting held in Gualtieri’s office —
this goes against the way Parliament should work.”
“The shortlist
must be officially communicated to Parliament,” he said. “To the
best of my knowledge, that has not happened yet.”
Authors:
Quentin Ariès and
James Panichi
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