From their holiday retreats Eurocrats are thinking about the great return at the end of the month. They have a lot to think about, writes Schadenfreude, our secret correspondent in Brussels.
The new Commission has to be installed. The Member States have put up their candidates. President Juncker is thinking about who is to get what job, knowing that only half a dozen of them are real and that all governments want their nominee to get one of them. it’s like putting a gallon into a pint pot.
Several Heads of Sate or Government will be rebuffed and will have to explain to their domestic audienceswhy they came off badly.
This accomplished , the new team has to be approved by the European Parliament. Being its man, Juncker is well placed to gather in the support he needs to get the team he wants.
The European Council also has to choose its new President. This job used to rotate but the European Council decided it would make for better balance if the post was independent of them. The chosen one has to be a master of testing the sense of discussions and working out the compromise which will run.
Meanwhile, back in the chanceries officialdom and politicians are using their free time to work on plans for More Europe or for Less Europe.
Less Europe is the cause of the British, meaning a new balance of competences between the Union and its members. The agenda, which is not yet drawn up, includes providing a role for national parliaments in the adoption of EU laws. The effect would be that “Laws are not made in Brussels”…which they already are not.
More Europe is primarily about the Eurozone, which is adrift. The general thrust is to give the EU additional control over national fiscal policies. The British are not involved but will scrutinise the debate carefully to ensure that they are not caught up in new centralising regulations.
Meanwhile, Edinburgh is not on holiday and the Nationalists are working on how independent Scotland will remain in/join the EU. They know that it is not as automatic as they have said it will be. Nothing is.
