Brussels, 27/08/2009 (Agence Europe) - While everyone awaits the presentation to MEPs by José Manuel Barroso, who hopes to be re-appointed for a second term as Commission President, of his new programme, the Brussels-based think tank Bruegel has drafted a series of recommendations for the European Commission on how to tackle strategically the next five years' main economic priorities. In its “memos”, Bruegel addresses the incoming president of the Commission and the 11 commissioners who have, within their areas of responsibility, the most important EU level economic policies.
The main challenge for the next Commission will be to ensure that, with the current crisis, the EU does not lose its economic or political footing on a lasting basis. The task will not be easy, given the lack of enthusiasm for ambitious European initiatives and the risk of retreat into national concerns. The Commission “will need to fight in defence of commonly agreed rules, to propose new solutions, to redefine the European narrative, and to make the EU an effective player in a fast-transforming world,” point out André Sapir and Jean Pisani-Ferry in the introduction to the collection. “If the Commission succeeds, it may turn the crisis into an opportunity. If it fails, the EU may become less relevant.”
In this, the role of the next Commission president will be decisive because “citizens need to know what is the raison d'être of the EU, i.e. what it is about and what it stands for,” Bruegel says in the section specifically directed at the new president. The outgoing Commission has not succeeded in making citizens aware of what the EU represents, Bruegel opines, pointing out that it “had to backtrack on the services directive, proved inconsistent on financial liberalisation and was unable to define what a renewed European social agenda might consist of”.
In addition to the urgent need for action against the crisis, real leadership from the president of the Commission will also be needed to put in place a coherent post-crisis strategy, for example “pressing national governments to avoid immediate moves that jeopardise longer-term goals”. Bruegel feels that a four-point strategy is needed: - a programme to restore the sustainability of public finances; - a blueprint for recovery in the new member states and for euro area enlargement (“the criteria for joining the euro were introduced in order to ensure that legal logic prevails over economic logic,” says the memo intended for the commissioner with responsibility for the economic and monetary union); - a plan for exit from the exceptional crisis-management action; - and a European Growth and Employment Programme. This would follow on from the Lisbon Strategy and would have to assign considerable funding to support the internal market, knowledge and the green economy, even before the financial perspectives in 2014 are delivered. With the same resources, it would, then, be wise to apply the budget revision planned in 2008-2009, but delayed until after the Lisbon Treaty comes into force.
With such a strategy, the internal organisation of the institution should also be reviewed to make it more of a “policy Commission” and less of a “process Commission”, Bruegel says. The portfolios of the commissioners should also be looked at once again, with only one person responsible for economic and monetary affairs (currently split between Messrs Almunia and McCreevy) and another responsible for the internal market and industrial affairs. There should also be a commissioner for climate change policy, another for the knowledge economy and one responsible for enlargement and neighbourhood policy. While the introduction of two levels of commissioners according to the scale of the task is desirable (various clusters or groups of commissioners did not provide an efficient way of rationalising the work, Sapir argues), it would seem that this would be difficult to put into practice in the near future. Recruitment of officials from outside the institution for the most important posts and better evaluation of its budgetary and regulatory measures are also desirable, the authors say. (A.B./transl.rt)