Kolumni Helsinki Timesissa: Retaining Commissioner from all the Member States is a key component of any new deal 11.7.2008
“Citizens are calling for a clear, open, effective, democratically controlled Community approach, and therefore, the Union needs to become more democratic, more transparent and more efficient”, was noted in Laeken declaration to launch the EU constitutional reform process in 2001.
There is no need to underline that the Lisbon Treaty is in practice the exact opposite of what was deemed necessary seven years ago: we are faced with complex unreadable texts, negotiated in secrecy, far from public scrutiny. In this respect it wasn’t a big surprise that the Irish voted against of the Treaty on the 12th of June.
According to the results of the post-referendum Eurobarometer survey in Ireland, over half of the people who didn’t vote in the referendum said this was due to a lack of understanding. “I do not know enough about the Treaty and would not want to vote for something I am not familiar with”, were citizens complaining. This sounds rational.
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There were also many other reasons for Ireland’s rejection of the Lisbon Treaty. One of the main concerns leading to Ireland’s No vote was citizens´ fear to loose country’s own fulltime Commissioner. According to the Lisbon Treaty as from 1 November 2014, the Commission shall consist of a number of Members corresponding to two thirds of the number of Member States. However, the European Council can alter this number if acting unanimously.
The EU leaders have been continuing convincing that the new rotation system will allow each Member State to have the Commissioner of their own 10 years out of every 15. Unfortunately I cannot believe in this.
If we have a look at the Lisbon Treaty, it is clearly written there that the Commissioners shall be chosen on the basis of a system of equal rotation between the Member States, reflecting the demographic and geographical range of all the Member States. In other words, the smaller Member States will be longer without the Commissioner of their own than the bigger ones.
Of course we all know that the Commission is supposed to be completely independent and the Commissioners shall neither seek nor take instructions from any Government or other institution, body, office or entity. However, in practice we all also know very well that the Commissioners are widely seen as national advocates in the European Institutions, including protecting national political interests and business.
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There was a growing acceptance among the EU leaders in the EU summit on the 20th of June that allowing all the Member States to retain an own Commissioner would be a key component of any new deal. I could not agree more.
Under current rules, set out in the 2001 Nice Treaty, the size of the Commission must be less than the number of Member States, though it is not specifically stated, down to which number the Commissioners should been cut. So, unless the Lisbon treaty comes into force before June 2009, the next Commission will be composed of less than 27 Members. The exact number has to be agreed by the Council acting unanimously.
The critics of the larger Commission have been arguing that 27-Member Commission, or larger, is too big and slow. Let’s have a look at the government of France, for instance, with totally 38 ministers. How large and full of bureaucracy is that Monsieur Sarkozy? Additionally, the French government represents only about 64 million population, whereas the whole European Union around 500 million people. There is an essential difference!
The citizens find in Ireland, and also especially in other smaller Member States, that the Commissioner of their own is something that don’t want to loose. We should keep this in our minds when trying to find out the reasons why the citizens don’t trust on the EU. According to the latest Eurobarometer survey published in June 2008 only half of Europeans say that they trust the European Union. This is something we should be really worried about.
The EU has faced several crises in its 50 years history. I believe that a solution will be found also for this institutional crisis - that has already taken far too long time. However, I hope that the EU leaders will find the way out without deepening the citizens’ trust crisis towards the EU.
The EU gains in legitimacy in many ways. Having a Commissioner from every country would be one way to increase the public scrutiny in the EU.
Member of European Parliament Anneli Jäätteenmäki (ALDE)
Vice-Chairwoman of Constitutional Affairs Committee
