Mario Monti (2010): A new strategy for the single market

We are on the reform trail.

The free movement of goods, persons, services and capital and the comprehensive prohibition of all discrimination on grounds of nationality, are means to achieve a highly competitive social market economy. The internal market, which now consists of 31 countries with a total population of 515 million, is often (aspirationally) called the single market.

When we want to study the development of the internal market during this decade, the obvious time to start is Europe Day 2010 and the document to read is the study by professor Mario Monti: A new strategy for the single market at the service of Europe’s economy and society (9 May 2010; 107 pages).

Rereading Monti’s report brought back the image of the  “historic compromise” he wanted to forge among dedicated market proponents and reticent players (here from page 9):

The new comprehensive strategy outlined above should be seen as a "package deal", in which Member States with the different cultural traditions, concerns and political preferences could each find elements of appeal important enough to justify some concessions, relative to their past positions.

In particular, Member States with a tradition as social market economies could be more prepared to a new commitment on fully embracing competition and the single market, including a plan with deadlines on putting in place the single market in areas where it is still lacking, if Member States in the Anglo-saxon tradition show readiness to address some social concerns through targeted measures, including forms of tax coordination and cooperation, while there is no need to pursue tax harmonisation as such.

The magic treaty formula of a highly competitive social market economy was evoked already in the mission letter by José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission.

Monti sketched opportunities for dynamic reform and remedies for social concerns at a strategic level, not only general enough but also penned finely enough to remain astonishingly fresh today.

Since the  margins available for budgetary stimuli were very limited, Monti reminded all actors that making the single market more efficient was Europe's best endogenous source of growth and job creation.

While summing up his proposals, Monti recalled that the member states had made the bold decision to share the same currency (page 107):

That requires, at the very least, a high degree of sharing effectively a single, integrated, flexible market, a prerequisite for an optimum currency area and a vector for improvements in productivity and competitiveness.

Finally, he called for the single market to be placed as a key item on the agenda of economic government, “the latest expression of the EU’s ambition to control its economic fate”.  

Ralf Grahn  

European Union: Nobody but Barroso?

Even if José Manuel Barroso happened to be the best Commission President ever, the European political families should be hard at work competing for the next five year stint at the helm of the Commission. If political parties at European level, representing 500 million EU citizens, are unable to find one qualified candidate each, they betray both their calling and the voters.

However, progress has been slow and the preliminary discussions mainly confined to intergovernmental discussions brought to light by snippets of information to the public.

Consequently, blogger friend Jon Worth launched the campaign Anyone But Barroso on his Euroblog, in order to kick-start the democratic impulses among the European parties:

http://www.jonworth.eu/do-you-think-barroso-is-rubbish-if-so-then-help-us/

The aim is commendable, but the results are dismal.

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European People’s Party

One of the few things we EU citizens have seen, is that José Manuel Barroso seems keen to take on another five years as Commission President.

But the latest news item from the European People’s Party is EPP President Wilfried Martens commending the Commission’s economic stimulus package under Barroso’s leadership (26 November 2008). But this still falls short of a public nomination or even an endorsement of Barroso’s candidacy:

http://www.epp.eu

In other words, even Barroso has not been nominated as yet, although a number of members of the nominating European Council from different political families have spoken out in favour of him.

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Party of European Socialists

Yesterday the Party of European Socialists (PES) published its manifesto for the June 2009 European elections ‘People first. A new direction for Europe’. The election manifesto was adopted by the PES Council in Madrid (1 December 2008):

http://www.pes.org/content/view/1457/72

Martin Schulz, the leader of the Socialist group in the European Parliament, is positively brimming with confidence in an EurActiv interview today:

http://www.euractiv.com/en/eu-elections/interview-socialists-confident-leading-parliament/article-177676

Schulz argues that the socialists are going to become bigger than the conservatives and the liberals combined after the June 2009 elections. He seems oblivious of the current predilection for centre-right parties in EU member states and of internecine warfare among French socialists, split three ways. But most of all, he fails to address how his boundless optimism is going to be transmitted to European electors by a faceless campaign without a top-drawer candidate for the Commission Presidency.

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European Liberal Democrats Party

The great annual event for the European Liberal Democrats Party (ELDR) was the party congress on 30 and 31 October 2008 in Stockholm. The congress adopted resolutions with a view to the European elections, but not a word was communicated on the party’s candidate to take over the post as President of the European Commission:

http://www.eldr.eu/index.php?newlang=english

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European Green Party

I tried to find a press release on the leading Green candidate on the web site of the European Green Party:

http://www.europeangreens.org/cms/default/rubrik/9/9034.htm

Hardly surprising by now, but I found nothing (nobody).

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Election results

The Treaty of Lisbon is not going to be in force in time for the European Parliament elections in June, but Article 214(2) of the Treaty establishing the European Community requires the approval of the European Parliament for the President of the Commission:

Article 214(2) TEC

2. The Council, meeting in the composition of Heads of State or Government and acting by a qualified majority, shall nominate the person it intends to appoint as President of the Commission; the nomination shall be approved by the European Parliament.

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Even under the current rules, a European Parliament with backbone could ensure open nominations in advance, public campaigns interacting with the citizens of the EU and respect for the outcome of the EP elections.

Nothing prevents the heads of state or government (European Council) to proclaim that they are going to take into account the elections to the European Parliament, because they already committed themselves politically when they signed the Constitutional Treaty in 2004.

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Political parties

Still under the existing rules, Article 191 TEC sets out the important task for the European political parties, the one for which they and their foundations can draw funds from EU taxpayers:

Article 191 TEC

Political parties at European level are important as a factor for integration within the Union. They contribute to forming a European awareness and to expressing the political will of the citizens of the Union.
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How can the political parties at European level even pretend to fulfil their basic tasks, if they fail to field candidates for the Commission Presidency?

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Libertas

After this depressing perusal of the state of the union, I have to return to the Anyone But Barroso slogan.

Instead of ruminating about my preferred candidate, I don the cap of an independent political tactician.

If I happened to be in Declan Ganley’s shoes, I wouldn’t hesitate a moment before becoming or launching the Libertas candidate for President of the Commission.

The European level parties have, as it seems, rejected the voters and created a vacuum waiting to be filled. In the case of Libertas this gift from heaven would give them at least three aces on a silver tray: one positive campaign message instead of only negative ones, a face to project to millions of television and PC screens all over Europe and the potential for a real break-through in the EP elections.

If this happens, the established European political parties have brought it upon themselves.


Ralf Grahn

Finnish PM backs Barroso

The international edition of Helsingin Sanomat, the largest Finnish daily, quotes Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen backing a second term for José Manuel Barroso as President of the European Commission:

http://www.hs.fi/english/article/-/1135239997589

Vanhanen leads the Finnish Centre Party, a member of ELDR (European Liberal and Reform Party) and its members of the European Parliament sit in the ALDE group (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe), the third largest group.

Vanhanen’s statement raises a few questions:

Has the ELDR decided to abstain from campaigning for the next Commission President in the June 2009 European elections, when the spirit of the Lisbon Treaty has raised hopes for increased input by citizens?

Or, is Vanhanen’s ‘personal’ initiative an indication of a split within the ELDR?

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By the way, the Swedish Green Party has decided to refrain from demanding secession from the European Union, less than 14 years since accession. Swift action …


Ralf Grahn