politjobs.eu job alert – Brussels Countdowns

Some endings and new beginnings are everywhere in the air. The Brussels spring first of all brings an end to the EU’s patience with the UK. Prime Minister Theresa May actually asked for a delay of Brexit – until after the European Parliament elections, and without any idea or at least strategy for a change during that time. It bought her a few weeks and an angry UK Parliament, but not what she had in mind: in order to ensure that Brexit does not also get the EU into a bigger mess than it is already in, Great Britain needs to either get out before 22 May or come up with a list of candidates by 12 April. The UK Parliament finally seemed to understand the urgency: this week’s test votes first went as chaotic as anything so far, then finally ended with an approval of May’s deal. If MPs stick to it, we will see a somewhat orderly Brexit that keeps business and the world as we know it running, otherwise somewhere before 12 April we may finally know on which terms the UK will leave the EU – or not. And also, if Theresa May remains Prime Minister, and for how long – or not.

Similarly clear is the situation with the Hungarian Fidesz party’s involuntary leaving of the EPP group. The EPP fears a loss of 12 seats in the new European Parliament, which explains the diplomatic reluctance. The Fidesz party is now officially suspended until the fulfillment of a number of conditions, and upon evaluation of a committee of „three wise men“ (no call for the women this time). Whilst negotiations before harsh actions are certain to be welcomed, it remains to be seen to what extent Orban will exploit the EPP’s fear of a loss of the Fidesz seats.

Luckily, this week also saw some real decisions under the severe time pressure of the upcoming European Parliament elections: the copyright directive finally made it through the European Parliament plenary vote, leaving many unhappy faces and the expectation that the internet as we know it will soon be gone forever – we will see.

Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager is also using the last months of her current mandate for major decisions: she fined Google yet another time, this time over the company’s online advertising service, and for 1.49 Billion Euro – leaving this week’s second fine for Nike over cross-border sales practices and 12.5 million Euro almost overlooked. Will that help her to come out on top of the liberal „Spitzenkandidaten-Team“ to become Commission President? She has not crossed the most important hurdle yet: her member state Denmark needs to re-nominate her for the Commission job first, and since she is from the „wrong“ party, there are no crucial reasons to do so. Also, the Liberals may need to make up their mind – being too polite to name a single candidate can be interpreted as indecisiveness and backfire.

If you want to be part of the Brussels game in these exciting times, find some jobs attached and as usual more on politjobs.eu!

Irina Michalowitz