After just a month from having a new European Commission, basically the executive of the EU (just think the SAARC Secretariat strengthened 1000 times), today we have a new President of the European Council.
I know it is very confusing and EU is indeed a very confusing thing. it is not just a regional body it is something much bigger but at the same time is not a supranational state.
Who knows maybe one day we will get there, actually at least for the countries who joined the euro currency, we have a kind of hybrid confederacy (for you to have an idea of the current level of integration, now the governments must get their budgets endorsed first by the European Commission).
The European Council, together with the European Commission and the European Parliament is a key body of the EU. If the Commission is highly influential, the parliament more and more relevant, the European Council is the strategic body per excellence. In short we can say it is the real deal maker. All decisions are made there, are negotiated with the Parliament (not always but more and more often) and implemented by the Commission that has also power of initiating new legislation.
The Council represents the Heads of state and government (just think the SAARC summit strengthened and magnified not 1000 times but 10.000 times).
The European leaders meet quite often almost every two months and when they meet they steer the integration process. They have low profile meetings, close doors. Though not very transparent, they have a special setting where they can negotiate and quite often fight among them in total privacy. Each Council ends with final conclusions, not exactly the best reading I would say.
In their absence a myriad of decisions are taken by the permanent representatives of each member state all based in Brussels, the unofficial capital of the EU.
This means that the leaders must meet frequently in order to forge a common position on many issues that are commonly shared the all the members. In this way they bond to each other and develop good working relationships, something missing at SAARC level.
Very importantly, they only get focused on the big pictures while the details can be managed and decided by others.
As I said it is no easy to grasp the way EU works, it is very technical and the citizens all over the member states struggle to understand it. Many say that it lacks legitimacy and there is an increased democratic deficit that risks destroying the entire integration process.
It surely a working in progress and who knows what the EU will be in fifteen years from now.
The new president of the EU Council is Donald Tusk who just resigned from the position of Prime Minister of his native Poland. He has been a leading leader at European level and he played a very decisive role to boost the profile and visibility of his own country, one of the few doing economically ok in an era of deep crisis.
He is a member of the European Popular Party the center of right coalition that won the European election in May. His counterpart at the European Commission, the former Prime Minister of Luxemburg, Jean-Claude Juncker is also member of the same party. The powerful German Chancellor, Angela Markel is the most influential leader within the party. Former French President Sarkozy, who might again run for president, also belongs to the same political family.
These folks are not exactly conservative like Cameroon in UK as they all strongly supportive of a stronger union nor are they too close to the republicans in the US. Still opposed by the members of European Socialist Party, they are been criticized for the strong austerity measures imposed in all the Euro area.
The European Integration process is really frustrating. Just really recently the member states rejected a proposal that would allow local foundations to set up business easily in all EU space without additional requirements or registrations. Sadly the not for profit sector got bashed and no one really knows why.
There are a lot of “ups and downs” when we talk about EU but there is also a lot of passion, determination and political will. This is actually what makes the real difference.
These are also the 3 ingredients that SAARC nations need to have in order to move ahead with more integration and stronger cooperation in South Asia.
The new President of the Council must work very closely with the Commission and Parliament and forge a new vision for Europe. Now only austerity but more equality, innovation, fairness and openness to make Europe again the most exciting place to live and prosper on earth. He has really his work cut out.
The Outgoing Council President Van Rompuy in his hand over speeech said:
"We Europeans are united by our values, which make our continent unique: our respect for every
human person, without any exception or discrimination, translated in political democracy and a
social market economy. We must defend those values against self-doubt, against outside
pressure, even against fanatic barbarism. We must help those who are fighting to preserve or
reconquer them. Much is at stake in the dangerous world we live in.
Europe can only remain stable if it remains an open space of freedoms, while also, more than
today, becoming a place of protection – against threats and fears of all kinds. Europe can only
preserve its social models with robust economic growth, with more jobs, and less inequality".
The next summit is coming soon, in few weeks from now…Best of luck Donald!!!
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