Radical development. In this phase of the EU's life - one in which pessimism is still de rigueur and which is dominated by complaining - why not take the positive elements into consideration? The way in which members of the new Commission set out their intentions before MEPs enabled us to become broadly familiar with their approaches. This confrontation with the European Parliament enabled affirmation to be made that the new Commission, to be presided over by Jean-Claude Juncker and which is about to take up office, marks a radical development.
New accessions will wait. Jean-Claude Juncker has stated: No new accessions in the next five years. The reaction of Mr Füle, who is still Commissioner for Enlargement for another few weeks, was furious - not to say nasty. He defined the future president's affirmation as controversial and populist and recalled that there are at least six candidate countries (including Turkey, of course, for which two chapters are supposed to be negotiated immediately) and another two potential candidate countries. What is more, among the countries considered as such, some have rather gone backwards in moving closer to the EU - Macedonia (the official denomination of which continues to be FYROM for reasons that are well-known) and also Albania and Montenegro. It's my belief that the five years stated by Mr Juncker are more than reasonable and should rather be extended than cut short - at least, if the objective continues to be to consolidate and relaunch the EU instead of weaken it. The president of Ukraine, Mr Poroshenko, has wisely postponed Kiev's request for EU accession for six years, and it shouldn't be taken for granted that this will not be postponed even longer after that.
Without precedent. The outlook of the next Commission is largely positive. The way in which the hearings were conducted is without precedent. Mr Juncker followed every word of the debates - which led him to replace Ms Bratusek with Ms Bulc, in agreement with the Parliament. The hearings of Frans Timmermans and Federica Mogherini were particularly noteworthy (see EUROPE 11171).
A vice-president to be followed. Mr Timmermans, Dutch Minister for Foreign Affairs, who will become the first vice-president of the Commission and thus its number two, spoke with disconcerting ease in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish (in addition to his mother tongue). His outlook for the EU and his intentions convinced the MEPs, with initiatives such as an obligatory register of lobbyists, and an annual colloquium on fundamental rights, with all the institutions concerned and civil society organisations.
Radical change. Ms Mogherini, currently Italy's Minister for Foreign Affairs, had a handicap at the start (according to some observers and certainly a few MEPs) - she was known for having a particular friendship with Russia. She showed humour in the face of insinuations about this and she was quick, in particular, to state explicitly that she will assume her duties “differently from in the past”, taking on the responsibilities that Ms Ashton quietly neglected - acting effectively as Vice-President of the European Commission, working as closely as possible with NATO (the new secretary-general of which, Jens Stoltenberg, is “a very good friend” of hers), and fully assuming her responsibilities as head of the European Defence Agency. She was of course questioned on her relations with the Russian bear (as Mr Howitt put it) and replied with humour, admittedly, but also firmly, that she has “not got much experience with bears” but that she believes Russia is a strategic and neighbouring country with which it is necessary to behave with a combination of firmness and diplomacy - the balance also depending on the reaction of … the bear. A positive intention is that Ms Mogherini expressed the desire for a special partnership with the European Parliament.
I should add that the signs of normalisation in EU-Russia relations have not waited for Federica Mogherini. Following the recent act of terrorism in Grozny on 4 October, the spokesperson for Ms Ashton reiterated that the fight against terrorism is a common interest, as expressed in the joint statement from the EU-Russia summit on 28 January 2014.
The relaunch is under way. These considerations justify and explain my point of view - not everything is black in the EU's outlook and elements exist that allow us to believe that a relaunch is under way. This is an exercise that this column will continue in coming days.
(FR)