politjobs.eu job alert – Habemus Commission President

If anyone was still wondering about how Europe works – this was the week to watch it. Pure chaos and complete disregard for the European Parliament and promises to voters on the one hand, and almost miraculously getting things done – and, in my very personal opinion, with two top women coming out as the best compromises, not even badly – on the other hand.

To the frustration by Members of the European Parliament, certainly especially of EPP Spitzenkandidat Manfred Weber, the Heads of State very quickly threw the whole Spitzenkandidaten process out of the window, by which the lead candidate of the party with the largest number of vote at the European Parliament was to become Commission president.

Weber never seemed their favourite choice, but to be fair – they could have been clear upfront rather than a majority publicly supporting him throughout the campaigning and then dropping him and all prior promises to voters within a heartbeat. Even though the Visegrad states and Italy are now blamed for stubbornly blocking Weber, the support of the other states has not been enormous. As a result, all electoral candidates were eliminated – leaving the big question of who to nominate now.

After a failed first summit and a second last-minute one before the European Parliament elections of their own president, the Heads of State did come to a decision carried by all. To the big surprise of many, German defence minister Ursula von der Leyen made the race for Commission President, and a second woman – Christine Lagarde – is supposed to head the European Central Bank. Both women have the calibre to deal at top level with strong-headed state leaders, but have their fair share of national blunders and the process was far from ideal. The European Parliament still has to approve Ursula von der Leyen and is far from happy.

With such European High-Noon feeling, otherwise significant events went almost unnoticed: the European Court of Justice ruled that Poland’s judiciary reform (lowering the pension age of their Supreme Court judges) is against European law, and Europe now has a trade agreement now with MERCOSUR, and also with Vietnam. The MERCOSUR agreement was in preparation for 20 years and is the largest of its kind, so nothing to be ignored. Member States still need to ratify and French farmers are already on the streets, hence despite the smart timing for closing the deal, heated discussions are ahead on this front as well.

If such chaotic decision-making is up your ally and you feel able to contribute to still achieving results, find some jobs and as usual more on politjobs.eu!

Irina Michalowitz