Jean-Claude Juncker has come through his first big test as the European Union’s chief executive with reasons to be cheerful, even if he faces another tricky couple of weeks to get a team in place that can take office next month.
The president-elect of the European Commission was pleased, aides said, to see all but one of his 27 picks win approval in the European Parliament, leaving only the slightly awkward task of finding a role for the Slovenian substitute who arrives this week after lawmakers rejected the first nominee from Ljubljana.
Juncker’s only awkward task is that of finding a role for the Slovenian substitute
“There was a really positive message,” one official said. “Mr Juncker is very satisfied with the outcome.”
But if the incoming head of the executive can claim success in the institutional tug-of-war with the legislature that is a feature of EU politics, lawmakers also saw positives in how they asserted their powers during a rare moment in the limelight.
And both parliamentary friends and foes of the president-elect argued they were encouraged by the voting in the confirmation hearings – a five-yearly spectacle that is part seminar for policy wonks, part bear-baiting.
How Commission and Parliament interact can determine how far Juncker succeeds in a programme, endorsed by leaders of the 28 member states, to focus energies on reviving and modernising the economy, create jobs and win back the trust of voters who turned despairingly toward Eurosceptic parties at EU elections in May.
If players across the board found grounds for cheer, it is a safe bet the outlook is mixed: Juncker, who survived nearly two decades as prime minister of Luxembourg, can build majorities among the MEPs, but that may well vary issue by issue.
Parliament, with its “awkward squad” of media-savvy populists and concern to assert its institutional role, will amend – at times obstruct – Commission policy, notably in areas such as trade, finance, the environment or data protection, where many MEPs find the EU executive too pro-business. The so far fairly smooth passage of the new Commission has been assured by an informal “grand coalition” between the main right and left groups which control 55 per cent of seats.
Juncker’s predecessor, Jose Manuel Barroso, suffered serious maulings, twice, during the confirmation hearings that fol-low EU legislative elections every five years. “The coalition has worked,” said the EU official close to Juncker.
Unlike Barroso, Juncker can claim to have a mandate from parliament in the first place. Predecessors were exclusively the nominees of the European Council of member state governments.