Easy agreement on top jobs in the EU

Nov 23 2009 by Kevin Rowan, The Journal

FOR many commentators the only surprising feature of the decision to appoint Belgian Prime Minister Herman van Rompuy and Baroness Cathy Ashton into the new senior posts created by the final ratification of the Lisbon Treaty was the speed at which consensus was achieved.

It is very difficult indeed to identify another decision that has appeared to have been so easy for the European Union’s leaders to agree upon.

It is rare too for such outcomes to receive positive support from both Eurosceptics and Europhiles, but certainly van Rompuy’s appointment has. The sceptics see it as so ‘low key’ to be irrelevant, while those who support the concept of the European Union see him as an agreeable European President largely due to the fact that there is so little opposition, rather than a desperate clamour to support him. Arguably, this is the key criteria for the post, van Rompuy’s major task and the fundamental case for there to be this role, will be to try and develop and maintain cohesion in moving issues forward in the EU.

Baroness Ashton’s appointment, ironically, received greater criticism on the grounds that she is so ‘inexperienced’. Ashton’s role of heading up the EU’s foreign affairs functions will lean heavily upon her former role as EU trade commissioner. The post has been dubbed as the “EU Foreign Minister”, but this is a serious misconception.

The fact is that the main process functions in the EU haven’t changed; it will still be the Ministers in the Governments of Member States that are making the actual decisions that shape European Union policy and action, in all things, although the Parliament are gradually accruing greater roles of scrutiny and influence. Ashton’s role is a critical one. The EU as a trading block is of global significance in a way that individual member states can never hope to be. Shaping the way in which Europe comes out of recession and the way the EU can construct a different, fairer and more sustainable global economic and social future is one of the most fundamental challenges faced by world leaders.

Ensuring that the EU acts as a political union in global socio-economic challenges and negotiations moving forward, influencing the US, the Americas and Asia, plus how the EU can develop better trade relations with Africa to develop and not destroy communities and emerging economies there, will have an instrumentally massive impact on the post-recession world order. These are big asks of the Baroness, but it is the support of European Governments and not the snipers in the media that will determine her success.

The key hope, of course, is that these new arrangements do facilitate progress in key areas that don’t seem to sail as quickly through the EU infrastructure as these appointments have. Ongoing issues around how public services can be sustained within the Union, the revisions of working time and the introduction of improved financial regulations all need the same kind of urgent attention.

Kevin Rowan, Regional Secretary, Northern TUC