quarta-feira, 30 de novembro de 2016

Juncker’s Parliamentary headache


Juncker’s Parliamentary headache
With Martin Schulz leaving Brussels, the Commission suddenly faces stronger headwinds to get its agenda adopted.

By MAÏA DE LA BAUME AND BJARKE SMITH-MEYER 11/30/16, 5:15 AM CET Updated 11/30/16, 8:17 AM CET

Martin Schulz’s decision to quit the European Parliament and take his talents to Berlin last week provoked breathless speculation about his political future in Germany and that of his Socialist group without him in Brussels.

There is, however, one real world impact of Schulz’s departure in January: It is going to make the Parliament a huge pain where it hurts for the European Commission and its president, Jean-Claude Juncker.

Though on paper a conservative who belongs to the European People’s Party, Juncker has made no secret of the importance of his bromance with the departing parliamentary chieftain from the other side of the aisle.

Their partnership the past two years has smoothed the passage of big pieces of the Commission’s governing agenda, from a multi-billion euro infrastructure plan to cellular roaming cost cuts. “Martin Schulz was a facilitator,” said Jean Arthuis, a French member of the liberal ALDE group and the chairman of the Parliament’s budgetary control committee. “He would often get in touch with Commission people, and tell them in a very efficient way what the Parliament expected from them.”

Schulz delivers a speech to announce he will step down from his office and return to national politics next year, on November 24, 2016 in Brussels | Emmanuel Dunand/AFP via Getty Images
Schulz delivers a speech to announce he will step down from his office and return to national politics next year, on November 24, 2016 in Brussels | Emmanuel Dunand/AFP via Getty Images
With Schulz gone and likely a conservative or economic liberal in his presidential seat, the Parliament becomes a less predictable and friendly place for Juncker’s agenda, even if that may seem improbable at first glance.

Parliament sources say Schulz often pressured MEPs from his own group, the center-left Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), and the conservative European People’s Party (EPP) to agree to deals made with the Commission chief.

“It was just a very practical and effective way to get things done,” said Markus Ferber, a German member of the EPP, which is in opposition to Schulz. “Unlike in the last term, there is no natural other coalition. Neither a center-right coalition around EPP, [European Conservatives and Reformists] and ALDE nor a center-left coalition around S&D, Greens and [Confederal Group of the European United Left] are big enough to safely get things done.”

Absent that Germanic discipline, and smarting over the loss of their only top job atop a European institution, S&D are expected to revert to a different form: fractious, uncooperative and hostile to the priorities of a Commission in the hands of a rival from the EPP.

“Schulz could easily weigh in with those MEPs … in the S&D,” said an EPP official. “He could easily reach out to them and reason with them. Who is going to do this now?”

“Relations between the parliament and the Commission have never been as harmonious as during the first two years of this commission” — Jean-Claude Juncker
Juncker already sounded a wistful note in an interview over the weekend with Belgium’s La Libre Belgique: “I have developed with [Schulz], and thus with the European parliament, a relation based on collaboration, cooperation, and complicity,” he said. “Relations between the parliament and the Commission have never been as harmonious as during the first two years of this commission.”

On Monday, Margaritis Schinas, the Commission’s spokesperson, told reporters that Juncker hoped the new president of the European Parliament would be “a European who will be as convincing and determined as Martin Schulz was.”

Juncker’s program, minus Martin

Only halfway through his term, Juncker’s Commission has a long list of proposals to push through the EU machinery. Parliament’s Conference of Presidents, which includes leaders from all of its political party groups, in November adopted a list of priorities for 2017 drafted by Schulz, Juncker and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the EU, to fast-track into law, including eurozone budget reform, tougher gun restrictions and enhanced workers’ rights.

Many of Juncker’s flagship proposals from the first half of his term were developed with Schulz, particularly the European Fund for Strategic Investment (EFSI), a €315 billion plan to boost investments in the EU, as well as the Passenger Name Record, or PNR, which obliges airlines to hand EU countries their passengers’ data.

The next battles will be tougher. On the investment fund, there’s growing resistance to Juncker’s proposal to double the EFSI’s size. “If you take better regulation seriously, you should make a thorough evaluation before extending a tool such as the EFSI,” said Ferber, alluding to Juncker’s “Better Regulation Agenda”.

Schulz and his cabinet have held weekly meetings with the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee hierarchy to keep it up to date on negotiations with the Commission. In June, the Parliament approved the fund’s rules by 464 votes to 131 with 19 abstentions. “From the start, [EFSI talks] mainly went through Juncker and Schulz,” said Dutch Socialist Paul Tang. “Now that [Schulz] is going, compromises will be more difficult than before.

“Schulz was very dominant. If Juncker wants a relationship with the Parliament, he’ll have to work for it,” Tang said, adding that Juncker will have to reach out to a wider group of people in Parliament.

Budget, data worries

On the EU budget, Schulz set up what Arthuis called “concertation meetings” with group leaders to build a broad majority and settle the budget proposals for 2014-2020. These majorities allowed him to partner with the Commission against the European Council of EU member states, which sought deeper budget cuts. Schulz’s departure from Parliament could complicate negotiations over the 2020-2026 budget.

In the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks in 2015 and the migration crisis, Schulz brought the Socialists on board, in particular, the French, behind the controversial passenger record rules. “The socialists often take a very intransigent view on data protection,” said a Parliament source.

“We had the impression that the EU was governed by a board of directors led by Juncker and Schulz” — Jean Arthuis, member of the liberal ALDE group
The next battle on data protection is the Commission’s proposed directive to set up a centralized system to exchange fingerprints of convicted felons from outside the EU, which proponents say will help in the fight against terrorism. Parliament’s Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee isn’t buying the argument.

“The socialists and liberals are blocking the proposal because they don’t want this fingerprints tool,” the EPP source said. “This is where Schulz could weigh in because he had a handle on these people.”

Some MEPs say they didn’t like these personal arrangements with the Commission and hope a new parliamentary leader changes the way the chamber has been run in the Schulz years.

“We had the impression that the EU was governed by a board of directors led by Juncker and Schulz,” Arthuis said. “That had brought too much resentment and not enough debate in the Parliament.”


Quentin Aries and Chris Spillane contributed reporting.

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