Habemus Commissioner


Aleksandar Krzhalovski

“White smoke” emerged from Brussels on Tuesday afternoon with the announcement by the current President of the European Council (leaders of all 28 EU member states) that an agreement has been reached on leading positions in EU institutions after the European Parliament elections in May.
Without describing the process, for which there were already, and there will be many other articles, although itself was very fascinating, let’s see what we can conclude from the dramatic 2-3 days in Brussels and the nomination of Ursula von der Leyen as the leading commissioner, that is, President of the European Commission.
The first two things are that the European Union (again) demonstrated how functional democracy works and, moreover, its ability to achieve consensus. Namely, despite the observance of all binding rules (as getting majority of 21 countries out of all 28, as well as representation of at least 65 percent of the population), the leaders debated for two days and one whole night about the various interests and required balances, member states, through party, to regional and gender equality. In this process, the concept applied at the last elections was sacrificed – with a leading candidate for the presidency of the European Commission of each of the political groups, as well as geography (Eastern Europe, for instance, did not receive any of the four main jobs). But no matter how impossible it seemed, at the end of the marathon night on Sunday and half of Monday, an agreement was finally reached and, more importantly, achieved by consensus, ie no country voted against (only Germany abstained, because of the coalition agreement of the CDU and the SPD for their government, and that is to be abstained in the EU when there is disagreement from one government partner). This followed after several rounds of negotiations and various proposals for the composition of these functions, a failed proposal by Merkel because of a “rebellion” among her partners from the European People’s Party (EPP) and reaching an interim solution that requires majority – but was evaluated (by Merkel herself) that this was not good enough, that is, it does not have sufficient support, in the light of the necessary reforms within the European Union itself.
In addition to the proposal for Ursula von der Leyen (currently serving as Germany’s Defense Minister), Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel was elected European Council President replacing Donald Tusk, and Josep Borrell from Spain was nominated as High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy instead of Federica Mogherini; as well as Christine Lagarde, the current director of the International Monetary Fund, as president of the European Central Bank), is very different from the initial attempts and what was introduced by Angela Merkel for this EU summit. Namely, none of the leading candidates are on the final list. Actually, the recommendation of the Council is one of them – EPP candidate Manfred Weber, to be European Parliament President for the second part of his five-year term (the fifth function to be determined but left to the parliament itself), while the two other leading candidates – Frans Timmermans (Socialists and Democrats) and Margrethe Vestager (Liberals), to be vice-presidents of the European Commission. During these two days other candidates were mentioned, such as the Bulgarian economic analyst Kristalina Georgieva, Slovak diplomat Maroš Šefčovič, Croatian Prime Minister Plenkovic, as well as several others, and the final proposal is quite surprising for many.
This leads to the next conclusion… or two: that in the effort to find a solution acceptable to all, there were candidates who were not sufficiently checked (considering that they were not candidates in the European elections), and already there are remarks about their work on current or past functions (for example, Der Leyen has not only serious remarks about the management of the defense ministry, but also an investigation for financial abuses); and secondly – that there are already negative reactions from MEPs (who need to vote on this proposal), including from the Social Democrats who are the second largest group (and expect their candidate Timmermans to become president of the Commission) and the fourth – the Greens. Without their votes, it will not be possible to reach majority support for this proposal.
Let’s go back to the outcome. It can be concluded that Angela Merkel (yet again) demonstrates leadership, in many respects. After resisting her initial proposal (Timmermans being the EC president), there were many comments about her failure and weakened power. Throughout the long night and the many bilateral negotiations, she still got the necessary figures for that proposal – but she decided that this was not enough… and continued to search for new solutions. The outcome in the end seems much better for both Germany and the EPP – that a German woman and a member of the EPP will be the EC president! And all this with the complete consent of everyone else. Another display of her supreme diplomatic skills. Finally, what this proposal (if confirmed in parliament) means for us in Macedonia. We should be pleased that one can expect a strong emphasis on the attitudes/policies of Germany (and Merkel), including in terms of enlargement, since Ursula is the only minister in all Merkel’s previous governments (from 2005 to now). She herself is a great federalist and a believer in the idea of ​​United Europe. Von der Leyen was in Skopje at the invitation of Defense Minister Radmila Sekerinska on September 20, last year, ten days before the referendum on the name.
Ursula von der Leyen was actually a proposal by French President Emanuel Macron. Thus, he is satisfied with the choice (and he does not hide it), among other things, and why all four candidates are francophone, is. they speak French, so it can be expected to soften his fierce rhetoric with regard to Monday’s enlargement.
It is unclear what will be the attitude and role of Josep Borrell in the place of Mogherini. He is likely to be more reserved in terms of enlargement, especially because of Spain’s more complicated attitude to the Serbia-Kosovo case (Spain does not recognize Kosovo as an independent country), but it does not necessarily mean he will.
Also, the fact that all proposed candidates are from Western (old) Europe and there is no representative from Central and Eastern Europe (which are more in favor enlargement) can mean that the priority will be to deepen the Union, as opposed to enlargement. Or, as Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said: “It is very likely that there will be no invitation for enlargement, so I do not want Bulgaria to be blamed for it.” All in all, a lot of uncertainties, but it seems the choice is very favorable for our European aspirations.
At the end of the stormy EU summit, which nevertheless produces a solution (and, as Donald Tusk pointed out: Last time we needed three months, now only three days, some countries were against in the end, and now there are no against), which should be good enough to get the required majority in the European Parliament, although there seems to be a no less violent debate ahead.
If the proposed candidates are eventually selected, we could be more optimistic about the October “date”, although this is only a minor positive development in the mainly negative news we received this month, so it’s better not to expect a date – we can only be happier if we really get it!

Views expressed in this article are personal views of the author and do not represent the editorial policy of Nezavisen Vesnik