I am avoiding commenting on the views of the second Barroso Commission until the European Parliament has endorsed the candidates. Until the MEPs vote on the new Commission on 26 January 2010 after quizzing each of the Commissioners, the new Commission will not take up office. In the meantime, the Commissioners are avoiding talking about their vision for their new jobs out of respect for the powers of the EP, but Michel Barnier has broken rank and has already indicated how he is intending to work in his new job on crucial issues (see the interview in the French newspaper Le Monde on 16 December 2009).
He is right to speak out. I believe it is proper for him to break the rule of silence because his designation as the new EU Internal Market and Services Commissioner has generated volleys of unfair attacks and counter-attacks, suggesting that other people would be pulling the strings when he comes to office. Nicolas Sarkozy talked about his appointment as proof that the French had won the day when it comes to regulating financial services. The British Banking Association and many of the English broadsheets expressed fears that damaging restrictions would be imposed on the City of London. Daniel Cohn-Bendit sarcastically commented that Michel Barnier would be controlled by senior civil servants in the form of the Director General for the Internal Market and Services (who is of British nationality). A whole host of daft and misplaced comments before Barnier even takes up office!
Michel Barnier wisely decided to ignore these criticisms. Instead of tackling them head-on, he made some broad points - European Commissioners do not represent their country's interests; smart regulation of the financial industry in Europe is simply not possible if the British are not on board; it is in the City of London's interests for the EU to be powerful and the EU's power is also reliant on the City's financial strength. On monitoring ongoings in the financial world, Barnier said that the European Parliament would play an important role (as I explained yesterday): 'In this domain, the Parliament will provide value-added. The necessary negotiations will be tough and demanding - between the Commission on the one hand, which will unveil ambitious draft legislation, and the Council of Ministers and the Parliament on the other, which have to play their role of decision-makers. Financial supervision is only one aspect of the single financial market - all the other G20 decisions need to be implemented s well. Barnier said the aim was to build capitalism based on entrepreneurs rather than speculators, mentioning the following areas of corporate financial governance - penalties, crisis management, hedge funds, own resources requirements for banks and derivatives.
General disgust. Barnier did not deny that public opinion is broadly disgusted with the Single Market, with people fearing the loss of protection provided by their own countries. The crisis is making people look inwards rather than outwards and is fanning the flames of economic nationalism. He said it was necessary to go on the offensive - the Single Market has to be given a new lease of life but not at the detriment of social services, and tangible issues need to be sorted out, like an EU bank card, European patents and e-commerce rules and regulations, moving on later to tackle intellectual property, copyright and trademarks.
Powers of persuasion. As we see, Barnier has his work cut out for him. It will be interesting to compare the above ideas with the report by former EU Commissioner Mario Monti, who has been commissioned by the Barroso to sketch an overview of the Single Market. Michel Barnier described Monti's task as diagnosing Single Market fatigue and how to cure it. Mario Monti expressed his views at a meeting with MEPs earlier in the week. He tends to agree with Barnier: the Single Market is running out of steam and Europeans find it unattractive. He said he was planning to come up with some new ideas (Why not look at whether we should take the idea further?), but said the only powers that came with his small task was the power of persuasion. MEPs responded by sharing his impression that people did not understand the Single Market, with Schwab using the term 'Single Market Fatigue' and Vergnaud stating bluntly that people take a very dim view of the Single Market. Harbour highlighted how much the Single Market contributed in terms of economic growth and jobs but admitted that the public remained to be won over to this idea (see issue 10041).
Taking things for granted and not appreciating them. People seem to be overlooking the importance and benefits of the big European border-free market. It is now such an established fact of life for Europeans that we take it for granted and forget that it underlies everything else. Countries around the EU are longing to join the club. The Single Market needs to be adjusted, expanded and, above all, explained to ordinary people. Good luck to Barnier and Monti!
(F.R. trans fl)