07 January 2014

Merkel allies keen to curb EU powers

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Bavarian sister party, the Christian-Social Union (CSU), plans to call for fewer EU commissioners and less new EU legislation in next year's European Parliament elections.

As reported by EUObserver, the party's four-page election strategy paper - seen by Der Spiegel and due to be adopted in January at a CSU congress - says that "We need a withdrawal treatment for commissioners intoxicated by regulation". The draft text adds that a new court should be established to rule on disputes between member states and the European Commission. It further states that this "competences court" should be composed of constitutional judges from Member States.

The idea of reducing the number of EU commissioners is a further long-standing CSU demand. Currently, the college of commissioners comprises 28 members, one from each member state. A Handeslblatt leader Ruth Berschens, head of the paper’s Brussels office, endorses a streamlined model of the European Commission that has been put forward by Germany’s CSU party, which would see the 28 EU Commissioners being divided into 14 junior- and 14 senior- posts. Meanwhile, the new CSU General Secretary Andreas Scheuer argues in an interview with Die Welt, that "We are a party of reasonable Europeans. We say ‘yes’ to Europe but we fight against bureaucratic excess. We operate as an early warning system."

The CSU also wants more "national referendums" on EU topics and a return of competences from Brussels to nation states in the areas of the "over-regulated single market and regional policy". The CSU's views are not entirely shared by Merkel's larger Christian-Democratic Union or her coalition partner, the Social Democratic Party.