The last European elections were special. For the first time, each party group nominated a candidate for Commission President. Among my fellow European Studies students at Maastricht University this raised much excitement. It was widely seen as a step in the fight against the much debated democratic deficit and for endowing the Commission with more popular trust – a vital resource in a democracy, especially when the link between decision-makers and the electorate is as indirect as in the European Union. For the European project to succeed in the future, heightening the level of trust in the EU is of utmost importance.
Before I go on, let me tell you some things about myself. I study and live in Maastricht, a vibrant, international, student city. During my first year of studies, I lived in Belgium, crossing the Dutch-Belgian border every day and driving home to Germany every other weekend. The administrative effort of studying in the Netherlands and living in Belgium was minimal. Moreover, I just got back from an Erasmus semester in France, also with close to no paperwork involved at all.
During these last years, I came to realize what European integration really meant. I started taking pride in the fact that the EU won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. I am aware that it was European integration that – after the horrors of two world wars – ended the ever-present bloodshed on our continent. I feel truly European. By now you might have guessed (or maybe feared) it: I am a federalist. Yeah, I said that. Hence, the remarks that follow are, of course, biased, but I firmly believe in them and I wish to share them.
Back to the European elections: The European People’s Party emerged as winner and, therefore, Jean Claude Juncker as designated Commission President. How exciting! The first more or less directly elected Commission President (even if it was not my preferred candidate) was about to assume office. But, initially, not many outside of my European Studies bubble seemed to really care. Another random politician was elected to a random position. It was only some months later, with the Lux leaks scandal, that Juncker got confronted with full-blown, mainstream, first-five-minutes-of-the-news media attention – and, hence, with widespread public interest. The new scandal then fit perfectly with the popular image of the EU as a strange entity composed of corrupted elites that could not be trusted.
The first quasi-directly elected President of the European Commission, who ideally should stand for consensus-building, cooperation and European solidarity, exposed to have enacted tax-avoidance schemes to reap gains for Luxemburg to the detriment of other member states. Politically, this is what we call a “Super-GAU” in German (meaning the greatest possible accident, the term was originally introduced to refer to the threat of accidents in nuclear power plants). Of course, the right-wing Eurosceptics in the European Parliament, who won unprecedented support in the last election, were not hesitating a second to feast on the meal that had been prepared for them. And as so often, those who yelled the loudest were being heard.
UKIP’s Nigel Farage organized a motion of censure against Juncker, and he and his FN and AfD colleagues made sure to feed the media with some quotable, easily understandable stuff about the nonsensical nature of European integration to print and broadcast. A motion of censure against a Commission President that has just assumed office, paired with media-savvy populist parliamentarians, is – in terms of trust – let’s say, not ideal. The fact that Juncker in the vote then received even more support than in the initial vote of investiture did not find much attention. The damage was done.
However, this whole scandal might also offer an opportunity. To use it Juncker now has to follow up on his announcements to tackle the lack of fiscal harmonization that made the controversial tax-scheme possible. Although often forgotten, Luxembourg was is not a single case. Countries such as Ireland, the UK, and Austria used similar schemes. Debates about a common corporate tax base had have been around for a while. With the electorate momentarily focused on the issue however, the Commission should now use this attention and push for advances in this field. This is the way Juncker should present it: Here is a problem that affects all of us. This is what we are going to do collectively to solve it! Of course, there will be many objections to this. After all, fiscal policies are at the heart of national sovereignty. Time for Juncker to assert himself! He should be wise and use the public pressure that the scandal generated to his advantage.
Image by European People’s Party.
