Could it be that we have just lived through a week that might radically change the face of Europe? The gloom that seemed certain to envelope the return after the summer break has given way in the twinkling of an eye to a sort of incredulity at what, for many, was unthinkable. No, the Juncker Commission is not about to become the Secretariat of the Council – the European Council, as it is today – as General de Gaulle dreamed of! The institution designed to embody and defend the common good of Europe’s countries and citizens is not about to sacrifice the ideal of prosperity shared by all Europeans that it is supposed to represent (though it has sometimes had difficulty in so doing in recent times) on the altar of the national selfishness which has long been undermining the foundations of the original European project. For the Commission, this is – at last – the time to resist the member states which too often seek to sideline it so as to be able undisturbed to enjoy stealing apples from their neighbour’s garden.
The counter-attack by the Commission has been a veritable Blitzkrieg, with lighter (at this stage) action on the flanks. The frontal attack targeted the sweetest of sweetheart deals the Irish government struck with American multinational Apple in the early 2000s. That Apple boss Tim Cook should immediately condemn the decision forcing the company to repay €13 billion in back taxes as “total political crap” is fair enough, as is his decision to lodge an appeal. That the Irish government has adopted the same attitude is far less understandable or, perhaps, speaks volumes for the way national leaders now view their duty of loyalty to their European partners. In the hours that followed the spectacular announcement of the Apple decision by Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, the American firm Caterpillar announced it was to close its site in Wallonia, laying off 2,000 workers (impacting on some 6,000 people, if sub-contractors are taken into account), and shifting production to the Grenoble region. Thereafter Employment and Social Affairs Commissioner Marianne Thyssen, speaking “in a personal capacity”, said that she felt it was time to conduct an evaluation of the stability and growth pact and the consequences of that policy. Even a Christian Democrat in office, then, has come to the point where she questions the relevance of the budgetary straitjacket that prevents the bulk of public investment. The lines are shifting, even within the ranks of the European People’s Party dear to Mrs Merkel’s heart. And lastly, on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hangzhou, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker clipped the wings of UK Prime Minister Theresa May even as she spoke of wanting to conclude agreements that would make the United Kingdom “a global leader in free-trade”. His reaction in a press conference: he said he did not much like the idea of member states of the European Union, even those that are on their way out, negotiating trade agreements: “That is an exclusive prerogative of the European Union”. Surely no finer way could have been found to remind a country that is now playing games with Article 50 – and, thus, mind games with its soon-to-be former partners – that it is not yet known who will have the last laugh.
A number of points spring from this invigorating week. Firstly, a statue to Margrethe Vestager should one day be erected in the centre of the Schuman roundabout. With her decision, this stubborn Dane has let European citizens once again hope in Europe, believe that once again the commission could again stand for the general interest, as Green MEP Eva Joly summed up in a tweet: “When Europe protects its citizens from the abuses of the multinationals, they move on. Keep it up”! Congratulations must, while we are at it, also go Commission President Juncker who gave her the freedom to act and who, in so doing, silenced those, mainly from the Left, who vilify him as the guilty party in the Luxleaks scandal. In fact, Jean-Claude Juncker was, as early as the 1990s, the first (and maybe the only) finance minister to condemn the golden parachutes handed to the bosses of an errant capitalism. In fact, the Luxembourg prime minister was no more guilty than his peers in the majority of member states, all competing in the race to the lowest tax levels, all – though some more than others – fully intent, as journalist Anne Blanpain says, on “keeping their own little tax haven when looking to nick companies from their neighbours”. How, then, can one deny the obvious, expressed succinctly by French economist Elie Cohen in Telos-eu.com: “Proof has been given that it is the Union that provides protection, that it is the Commission that addresses the excesses of tax optimisation, in the process helping Ireland ease the burden weighing on its people and its small businesses, and that it is a commissioner who can establish a fairer balance of power with the world’s largest multinational”. So then, is the EU really of no value or the Commission as pointless as the Eurosceptics of all colours would have us believe? Michel Theys