20 January 2014

Parliament Magazine/Schulz: Commission candidate race 'real chance'

Schulz, the centre-left's so-called 'common candidate' for the Commission's top post, will be anointed as the official Socialist contender during the party's congress in Rome on 1 March. First off the mark in putting his name forward for the Commission President role, the German MEP is likely to soon be joined by candidates from Europe's other main political groups.

However, it's by no means certain that EU governments will actually take heed of the results of the upcoming European elections and automatically put the winning candidate's hat into the Commission Presidency ring. This would be a serious political mistake by EU leaders, Schulz warns. "I think that one of the major concerns of voters is that they feel that their vote doesn't matter. And that is one of the reasons why we have such a low turnout at the European elections."

With a 'presidential' style race, Schulz believes that Europe's voters will have a better understanding of who and what they are voting for. "People will vote for the left or the right and will, when the results are totalled, be aware that they either won or lost with their vote. If the EU's heads of state and government don't understand that this is a unique chance to make Europe, in the eyes of our voters, more democratic, then they need to listen."

With strong indications that May's elections could see the lowest ever turnout coupled with a significant rise in the return to Brussels of eurosceptic MEPs, Schulz makes no qualms about the serious 'disconnect' that the EU has with ordinary citizens. "The problem is that the European Parliament is the only directly elected EU institution. This means that those who are not satisfied with the EU, whatever the 'EU' means to them, have only one chance to express their dissatisfaction, and that is through the European elections."

But can a race between a small group of European politicians really have a significant impact on the results of the May vote? Schulz believes it can. "If the President of the European Parliament in office is running for the Socialists, if an acting prime minister of a Member State is running for the EPP, if the group leader of the Liberals is running, if the opposition leader in Greece is running, then this is an interesting thing."

So what would Schulz do to reconnect Europe with its citizens? How would 'Commission President Schulz' change things for the better? "To make everything that is in the framework of the responsibility of the European Commission open for the European Parliament", he responds, "to include the Parliament in the whole process of executive action, to make the process shorter and to make any executive measure at a European level open to democratic parliamentarian scrutiny and accountability."

As a former mayor, Schulz says he understands that the nearer certain issues are to citizens the better the decisions on those issues are. "So I have no problem with re-delegating responsibilities to local, regional and national level and this is feasible without having to have a treaty change; we can do it. So I agree with David Cameron, we must become more effective, more democratic, more focused, no problem."

And the one key issue he will campaign on following his official appointment as the Socialist's common candidate? For Schulz, it's very clear: to deliver in the shortest possible time, action and policies to tackle Europe's youth unemployment. "We are running the risk of losing a whole generation. We are asking sacrifices from people for what? To bail out the banks? Do we care about our children? For me the fight against youth unemployment is key to regaining trust in the EU."

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Similarly in an interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Schulz announced major changes if he were to become Commission President, saying that one of his first acts would be "to tell people in the Commission: Do not think about whether there are some corners where we have not yet interfered". "The problem is that there are currently two different schools of thought in the Commission. Some will not rest until the last municipal cemetery has been privatised. And others will not stop until they have achieved a uniform funeral legislation in Europe. This angers people, and has to stop." He went on to say he he would make Europe 'vivid and understandable for the people'.

Schulz derives his claim to the Commission Presidency from the Lisbon Treaty, which states that the European Council puts forward a candidate for the office of president to the European Parliament "after appropriate consultation and with qualified majority". And in this they have to take into account "the result of the EP elections" in May.

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