Brussels, 07/10/2014 (Agence Europe) - “Reconnecting” the citizens with the European project before it is too late. It is with this imperative in mind and a “sense of urgency” that Frans Timmermans, who has been appointed by Jean-Claude Juncker as the First Vice-President of the Commission, intends to take up his duties, which will include improving regulations, checking compliance with the Charter of Fundamental Rights, subsidiarity and relations with the other institutions. And this was the serious but unambiguous message he came to deliver on Tuesday afternoon to the conference of Presidents and members of the European Parliament who were assessing his skills set. Instead of promising them the moon and the stars, Timmermans instead gave an extremely down-to-earth vision of what he plans to do over the next five years. “Pragmatic”, not “ideological”, as he himself stressed: his priorities will move between improving the “culture of legislating” in the institutions, to the benefit of the competitiveness of SMEs, strict respect for the fundamental rights in all member states and reinforcing links with the national parliaments, which should be able to make their voices heard if they show the Commission a yellow card.
In a session lasting two and a half hours, the multilingual Timmermans, who is just as much at home in Italian and German as he is in French and English, replied honestly but with charm and humour to the questions of the MEPs, who want to know how Juncker's right-hand man will lead the College of his colleagues. 'There are no concerns on the subject', said the Dutchman, who is confident that all of the commissioners will pull in the same direction. Under the configuration chosen by Juncker, Timmermans will act as the final filter through which the work of his colleagues will pass, and will assess the relevance of this work from the point of view of better regulation, fundamental rights and the principle of subsidiarity.
On Hungary and fundamental rights, a subject which has been of concern to the European Union over the last three years, the outgoing foreign minister made no secret of his preference for dialogue and preventative actions. When questioned a bit more closely, however, Timmermans promised the MEPs that if necessary, he would make use of the “options under Article 7” of the Treaty, which provides for a raft of measures to put a member state back on the track of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, the toughest measure being the suspension of its voting rights at the Council. The Dutchman also promised a precise and objective analysis of the situation of all member states. “No country is entirely free from violations of the fundamental rights” and an annual colloquium on the subject with all of the competent institutions and civil society organisations will be held for this purpose. Timmermans rejected the idea put forward by one member of the European Parliament of creating fundamental rights indicators in the member states. On Greece and the troika, on the other hand, the future first vice-president did not win all of the MEPs over, particularly those of the GUE/NGL, who were disappointed to hear that Timmermans does not agree that the troika has violated fundamental rights. “The troika acted in line with Community law”, he stressed several times.
On improving legislation, “I cannot give you any guarantees that the will be no more initiatives such as the ones on olive oil bottles”, said Timmermans, but the Commission will be working on it. The impact assessments will be tightened up, the analyses will be more specific and involve the European Parliament. The Commission's audit and legislative control services will also be tightened up and made more independent of the Directorates General, promised the Dutchman, whose slogan has incidentally been adopted by Jean-Claude Juncker. “The EU must act in areas where it can be of use” and stay away from subjects on which it has no value to add. However, the Dutchman stressed that better regulation does not mean “not legislating” and watering down the social or environmental standards in the EU.
Among the other proposals put to the MEPs, there was also a definition of the principle of subsidiarity, which must not be used as a pretext by member states wishing to scale down European integration. Another key project on which the MEPs were keen to hear his views was the creation of an obligatory register of lobbyists, although the minister did not go into details on Tuesday afternoon.
Overall, however, his performance appears to have gone down well, the EPP Group feeling that it was just as it should be. Philippe Lamberts, co-president of the Greens/EFA Group, also issued a positive statement about his Social Democrat counterpart. “Frans Timmermans is undeniably a politician of scope and conviction; unlike too many of the other candidates heard by the Parliament, he has the stature required to join the European Commission and be its Number Two. His commitment to enforce the fundamental rights in all the member states is highly encouraging”. However, there is still one unanswered question for the Belgian: “is he coming to Brussels to water down, on the pretext of administrative simplification, the ability of the European Union to impose its law on the markets and multinationals? We will be keeping a very close eye on this”. Unsurprisingly, Timmermans' approval by the Conference of Presidents was expected very soon after the hearing. As Juncker's second in command, Timmermans had earlier that day taken part in meetings with the main leaders of the EP to start the assessments of the hearings of the commissioners-designate and make any preliminary changes needed. (SP)