Brussels, 07/10/2014 (Agence Europe) - Fuelling all kinds of speculation on a vertical organisation of roles, the veil over the distribution of competences between the future Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs on the one hand and the Commissioner for the Euro and Social Dialogue on the other has not been completely lifted.
However, we do know a bit more about how the two Commissioners - who could be the French Commissioner Pierre Moscovici for Economic Affairs and the Latvian Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis for the Euro, if they are confirmed by the European Parliament - will interact and represent the European Commission in inter-institutional relations and at major international meetings.
Currently, the 'Barroso' Commission delegates powers to its vice-president Commissioner for economic and monetary affairs and the euro to decide on behalf of the Commission on any new stage related to excessive deficit proceedings. It is the job of the current Commissioner, Jyrki Katainen, to make a decision, before the end of October, on the draft national budgets for 2015 (EUROPE 11170).
In the future 'Juncker' Commission, this delegation of responsibility will be kept in place, but this time will be granted to two Commissioners, who will be called upon "jointly" to defend the positions decided upon. The first time this will happen will be for the autumn economic forecasts, expected in early November. If the two Commissioners agree, there will be no particular problem. However, it is not yet clear what will happen if they clash over the position to be adopted as regards the budgetary policy of any given member state. "The weakness of the roadmaps (sent to the Commissioners designate) is that they never describe the role of the 'Juncker' cabinet," said a senior European official. Furthermore, there is no way of knowing as yet who will defend any budgetary decision adopted by the Commission before the press.
If, however, Moscovici is confirmed, it is he who will attend the meetings of the Eurogroup and its final press conferences, with Dombrovskis to attend in a supporting role. The former Prime Minister of Latvia is reported to have swallowed this bitter pill, our source within the European institution told us off the record. As the agenda of the Ecofin Councils is extremely broad, it will require the involvement of several Commissioners, depending on the dossiers being dealt with. It is worth noting that Dombrovskis will support Jean-Claude Juncker in preparations for Eurozone summits. As for the external representation of the euro at international bodies such as the IMF and the World Bank, matters remain vague. It has been decided that the future President of the Commission should be accompanied by both Dombrovskis and Moscovici to the G20 summit, to be held in Brisbane (Australia) in mid-November. Our respective cabinets are currently working on setting "practical arrangements" in place, Dombrovskis told his hearing before the European Parliament on Monday 6 October (EUROPE 11170). (MB)