Jose Manuel Barroso

Van Rompuy’s American-style eurozone

December 6, 2012 6:00 pm by Peter Spiegel

Van Rompuy, left, has set out a different vision of common eurozone debt than Barroso, right.

Herman Van Rompuy, the European Council president, published the latest iteration of his plan to overhaul the eurozone this morning, just a week after his counterpart across the Rue de la Loi, European Commission president José Manuel Barroso, offered his own blueprint.

Van Rompuy’s 14-page outline includes many of the ideas he’s been proffering since October, including a requirement that all eurozone countries engage in “contractual arrangements” with Brussels, committing them to economic reform plans, and the creation of a eurozone budget. Barroso’s plan has similar elements.

But it’s worth noting where Barroso and Van Rompuy differ, because it could have major implications for the direction the eurozone heads in the coming months. And the differences are perhaps nowhere more evident than on one of the issues that has bedevilled the eurozone since the outset of the crisis: so-called “eurobonds”.

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Posted in Economic governance, EU, Euro |

Will EU summit back eurozone reform “contracts”?

December 4, 2012 6:11 pm by Peter Spiegel

Van Rompuy is, once again, asking summiteers to endorse the idea in draft conclusions.

When José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, unveiled his blueprint for the future of the eurozone last week, aides acknowledged it contained some blue-sky ideas that were meant to provoke debate as much as set firm policies.

But EU presidents and prime ministers may be asked to endorse some of its more controversial ideas if a leaked copy of the communiqué for next week’s EU summit is any indication – including a plan to have all eurozone countries sign “contractual” agreements with Brussels akin to the detailed reform plans currently required only of bailout countries. We’ve posted a copy of the draft, dated Monday, here.

The idea of the Brussels contracts was originally advocated by the summit’s chair, European Council president Herman Van Rompuy, ahead of October’s gathering. But in the end, summiteers only agreed that such a plan should be “explored”. Read more

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Posted in EU, EU Commission, Euro |

Morsi’s first comments on anti-US violence

September 13, 2012 2:36 pm by Peter Spiegel

Photo AFP

Mohamed Morsi, the new Egyptian president, arrived in Brussels today for day-long meetings with top EU officials. But most of the world’s attention was back in Cairo, where the US embassy, like other embassies in the region, had been the target of attacks by demonstrators angry about an anti-Muslim movie clip uploaded onto YouTube in the US.

Morsi’s morning press conference with European Commission president José Manuel Barroso was his first chance to publicly address the incidents and followed concerns in Washington that he had not condemned the attacks strongly enough. Indeed, US president Barack Obama himself warned that the US did not consider Egypt an ally, nor an enemy, and was watching closely how Morsi would respond.

In order for our readers to make their own judgment, the complete transcript of Morsi’s comments on the incident at the Brussels presser, as conveyed through a translator, are below. He falls short of specifically condemning the attacks, but does say “the Egyptian people reject any such unlawful act” against “individuals, the properties and the embassies.” Read more

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Posted in EU, Foreign policy |

[UPDATED] The EU Soviet? Barroso takes on Orban

March 16, 2012 2:17 pm by Peter Spiegel

Orban walks on stage in front of Hungary's parliament for Thursday's national day address.

[UPDATE] We’ve obtained the English-language version of Orban’s March 13 letter to Barroso requesting assistance on reopening talks with the IMF for a line of credit. The letter can be read here.

The war of words between Brussels and Budapest continued on Friday, with José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, hitting back at Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban, who a day earlier compared Barroso’s Commission to Soviet apparatchiks and Hapsburg imperialists.

Orban’s tongue lashing, made at a national day rally in front of thousands in central Budapest, came after a series of recent moves by the Commission, the European Union’s executive branch, to sanction the Hungarian government for violating EU rules on deficits and democratic institutions.

Through his spokesperson, Barroso questioned Orban’s grasp of democratic principles, a rebuke sure to rankle the Hungarian prime minister, who as a young anti-Communist activist became famous for publicly calling for the withdrawal of the Red Army in 1989.

“Those who compare the European Union with the USSR show a complete lack of understanding of what democracy is, in his view,” said the spokesperson, adding she was relating Barroso’s personal comments. “They also fail to understand the important contribution of all those who have defended and fought for freedom and democracy.” Read more

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Posted in EU, EU Commission |

Who’s the highest-profile European Commissioner?

February 2, 2012 5:24 pm by Peter Spiegel

Finn Olli Rehn, last week in Davos, has been seen on Finnish media by 45% of his fellow countrymen.

In Brussels, being a member of the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, is about as high as an official can climb in the eurocracy. But just how well are those Brussels luminaries known back in their home countries?

Thanks to the commission itself, we now have a good idea. According to a telephone survey conducted by Eurobarometer – the results of which haven’t been published, but were presented to commissioners during a meeting Tuesday – the best-known is Finland’s Olli Rehn, the economic commissioner who has been in the press almost constantly thanks to the eurozone crisis. He also contemplated running for president of Finland last year, which undoubtedly helped boost his score.

According to the survey, obtained by Brussels Blog, 45 per cent of Finns said they had seen or heard Rehn in the media, far ahead of the rest of the commission – including its president, Portugal’s José Manuel Barroso, who finished 9th with 31 per cent of Portuguese respondents saying they’ve seen the former prime minister on local media.

At the bottom of the list were commissioners from two of the largest member states: France’s Michel Barnier, who only 8 per cent of French respondents said they had heard or seen, and Britain’s Cathy Ashton, who came in at 16 per cent.

The complete list after the jump. Read more

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Posted in EU, EU Commission |

An awkward start to Denmark’s EU presidency

January 12, 2012 12:27 pm by Peter Spiegel

Barroso, left, at Thursday's news conference with Denmark's Thorning-Schmidt in Copenhagen

A good chunk of the Brussels press corps has been in Copenhagen this week for the formal kick-off of Denmark’s turn at the EU’s 6-month rotating presidency. Days of back-to-back ministerial briefings and ceremonial events have focused intensively on the Danish government’s “green growth” agenda – down to the green skirt-clad Danish National Girls Choir performing “Plant a Tree” at a concert attended by EU bigwigs Wednesday night.

But when it came to today’s official handoff of the EU reins to Danish prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, there was a slight hiccup: Denmark’s Vestas, the world’s largest maker of wind turbines, chose the same day to announce it was cutting 2,335 jobs – most of them in its home country. Read more

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Posted in Economic governance, Environment, EU |

Budapest and Brussels on a collision course?

December 22, 2011 11:18 am by Peter Spiegel

Hungary's Viktor Orban, left, with José Manuel Barroso during an EU summit earlier this year.

Perhaps because it is not in the eurozone, the recent turbulence in Hungary has not gotten a huge amount of attention internationally. But Budapest and Brussels are currently on a collision course that could have significant consequences for the region’s economic stability.

At issue is whether the European Union and the International Monetary Fund will provide financial assistance to Hungary at a time the florint is in free-fall and the government’s borrowing costs are skyrocketing, with 10-year bond yields now above 9 per cent, well above levels where Ireland, Greece and Portugal were forced into bail-outs. Standard & Poor’s downgraded Hungarian bonds Wednesday evening, citing the unpredictability of prime minister Viktor Orban’s economic policies – including his attempt to assert more control over Hungary’s central bank.

In a letter to Orban sent this week by José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, and obtained by the FT, Barroso drives a hard bargain. Not only does he “strongly advise” Orban to withdraw the proposed laws governing the central bank, but he makes clear that any assistance will come with tough conditions.

Excerpts after the jump. Read more

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Posted in EU, EU Commission, Fiscal policy |

Is the Sarko-Merkel plan anti-Commission?

August 18, 2011 10:41 am by Peter Spiegel

Merkel and Sarkozy at their post-summit news conference Tuesday evening in Paris

The letter Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel sent yesterday to the president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, contains a lot of ideas that have been discussed previously in Brussels and not gone very far, raising questions as to how much of the new Franco-German agenda can actually be implemented.

But reading between the lines of the letter, one theme that has gone almost unnoticed is the seeming sidelining of the institution that is supposed to be at the centre of European integration: the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch headed by José Manuel Barroso.

Suggesting that Van Rompuy head regular summits of eurozone heads of state as “the cornerstone of the enhanced economic governance of the euro area” is only part of the seemingly anti-Commission tenor of the plan. Read more

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Posted in Economic governance, EU, EU Commission, Euro |

Was Barroso’s letter bold leadership or bad timing?

August 5, 2011 10:15 am by Joshua Chaffin

New York Stock Exchange on August 4, 2011. Image by AFP

In a sign of the severity of this week’s market turbulence, Olli Rehn, Europe’s economics commissioner, has cut short his holiday and will be back in Brussels today. Rehn is to address the press corps at midday – presumably to undo some of the damage caused by an explosive letter penned by his boss, José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president.

In his letter – which was sent to the eurozone heads of government on Wednesday, but released to the press on Thursday – Barroso acknowledged that the big decisions taken at a eurozone summit on July 21 were not having the intended effect on financial markets. He also called for a “rapid reassessment” of the eurozone’s €440bn bailout fund just two weeks after leaders had armed it with new weapons following a torturous, months-long debate. Read more

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Posted in Economic governance, EU |

On populism: The Dutch vs. Barroso

June 1, 2011 8:20 pm by Peter Spiegel

The analysis piece we ran in yesterday’s paper about the threat populism poses to European integration has gotten so much feedback, that I thought I’d post more on the interview I had with Dutch European affairs minister Ben Knapen, which helped inspire it.

As mentioned in the original piece, Knapen is highly critical of officials — including José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European commission — who argue that populist sentiments should be marginalised or ignored by European leaders. Instead, he thinks Brussels should take such concerns more seriously than they are now.

In fact, Knapen singled out Barroso in our interview, which Dutch officials tell me is a bit of pushback to recent comments Barroso made urging European leaders to “not give in to the populists or extremists” in upcoming EU budget negotiations, remarks picked up by the Dutch press. Said Knapen: Read more

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Posted in EU |
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