E.U. JOBS

Like it or dislike it, I think that everyone can agree that the E.U. is a curious institution (or, to be more correct, institutions). And nowhere is it more curious than in its processes for appointing people to its top jobs.

Most organisations use one of two methods; elections (eg Parliament, political parties, unions) or merit (eg companies, civil servants). The E.U. uses neither. Candidates somehow emerge, usually over a long period of time (though all of those candidates strenuously deny that they are in fact candidates). Then, at the last minute, everybody unanimously agrees to the proposal, which this time round took place last night. If it resembles anything, then it's the staged elections to the politburos of the Chinese or Russian Communist parties.

This year's appointments (to the head of the Commission, the President of the Council and the head of Foreign Affairs) were made more complicated by the need to satisfy various interests. A balance between left-wing and right-wing politicians; a balance between small and big countries; tensions between heads of national governments and the European Parliament, which now has more say; the feeling that after 10 years, it was time for at least one of the jobs to go to one of the new countries from Eastern Europe; and the need for at least one of the jobs to go to a woman. Furthermore, given that David Cameron had desperately (and unsuccessfully) tried to stop Jean-Claude Juncker from Luxemburg from becoming head of the Commission back in June, it was felt necessary to find candidates for the other two posts, whom the U.K. could live with.

This balancing act was one of the reasons why Denmark's Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt was in the running to become President of the Council, even though at home she is widely held to be a weak leader, who is on her way out. What eventually scuppered her chances was the appointment of Italy's Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini, like Ms. Thorning-Schmidt a left-of-centre woman, as head of Foreign Affairs. That opened the door for a right-of-centre man, Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk, to become President of the Council.

With the top jobs now filled, attention turns to who gets what in the new Commission (which, despite being a civil service, is run by politicians or ex-politicians; did I say this was curious?). Since Ms. Thorning-Schmidt had lost out (though of course she was never a candidate in the first place), she was appeased by being promised a "heavyweight post" for Denmark's commissioner. This, somewhat surprisingly, turns out to be Margrethe Vestager, leader of her coalition partners the Radicals, who has obviously decided that the chances of her still being in the Danish Government after next year's general election are minimal at best, so she had better find herself a job in Brussels before it is too late to jump ship.

And when all of that is done, what is the end result? Perhaps the most curious thing is that it is impossible to tell. The outgoing President of the Council, Herbert van Rompuy, was widely ridiculed as a Belgian non-entity when he started, but turned out to be rather good. By contrast, the star of the outgoing head of the Commission, the former Prime Minister of Portugal Manuel Barroso, has probably waned during his 10 years in the job. Mr. Tusk was appointed in part because David Cameron thinks he can broker a deal that will give the U.K. enough concessions that its people will vote in a referendum to stay in the E.U. Time will tell if that is possible; in the meantime, Mr. Tusk promises to improve his English before he starts in the job on 1 December.

I am off to the Czech Republic tomorrow for a week, so no blogging before next weekend.

Walter Blotscher