British Prime Minister David Cameron stepped up his campaign on Monday to stop Jean-Claude Juncker becoming the next president of the European Commission, moving to outflank the European Parliament and forge an alliance against him.
In the run-up to a meeting in Sweden with other European leaders
that will discuss the matter, Cameron phoned Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt.
Reinfeldt is hosting Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Dutch premier Mark Rutte at his country residence outside Stockholm on Monday and Tuesday to discuss the EU.
On arrival, Cameron said EU leaders and not the European Parliament, whose largest political grouping backs Juncker, should nominate a candidate for the next Commission president.
“I would just make this important point of principle, which is that, as the democratically elected leaders of Europe, we should be the ones who choose who should run these institutions, rather than accept some new process, which was never agreed,” said Cameron.
Juncker’s candidacy is not on the meeting’s formal agenda but Cameron is expected to use the mini-summit to try to get the others, and especially Merkel, who has spoken supportively of Juncker, onside.
Some members of the European Parliament have said the assembly should play a defining role in choosing the next Commission president, citing last month’s European elections.
But a source in Cameron’s office said the prime minister would warn the other leaders against accepting a power shift “through the back door”.
“STITCH-UP”
“Elected national leaders should not accept rules being broken on the pretext of democracy. It is the complete opposite – a stitch-up dressed as an election,” the source said.
Juncker has the support of the European People’s Party, the largest centre-right political grouping in the European Parliament, which named him as its candidate before last month’s European elections. Facing an election next year, Cameron has pledged to try to reshape Britain’s ties with the EU and to give Britons an “in/out” EU referendum in 2017. He believes Juncker is too much of an EU federalist to give his reform plan a chance of success.
If Cameron fails to block Juncker, he stands to lose face at home and abroad and could see his ruling Conservative Party’s fragile unity begin to fray. His plans to reform the EU would also be unlikely to get a sympathetic hearing from a man he has spent so much time and effort trying to block.
Cameron’s campaign received a boost at home on Monday when the opposition Labour Party declared its members of the European Parliament would oppose the former Luxembourg prime minister if there was a vote on the presidency.
Cameron used Twitter to trumpet the development: “All major UK parties are now united on one point: Jean-Claude Juncker should not be President of the European Commission,” he wrote.
Cameron has invested a big chunk of his political capital with other European leaders in trying to block Juncker’s bid behind closed doors, but refrained from open criticism; the tweet was the first time Cameron had named Juncker in public.
He and his aides have been coy about who they want to lead the Commission, beyond saying they want someone reform-minded. One person thought to be an acceptable compromise candidate for Cameron is Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt.
DECISION THIS MONTH
EU leaders are expected to decide on their candidate for the presidency of the EU executive – a job with major influence over policy affecting 500 million Europeans – by a summit at the end of this month.
Merkel said the leaders meeting in Sweden would not make a final decision on who they would back, adding that her position was well known. Merkel said last week that she was pressing her European counterparts to support Juncker.
The source in Cameron’s office said the British leader would use the Swedish talks to identify areas where the four leaders can work together on reform, including on competitiveness, tackling burdensome regulation and addressing concerns about the abuse of the EU’s freedom of movement rules.
Reinfeldt offered Cameron his support ahead of the meeting on Monday, saying he too felt that EU leaders should choose the Commission president, and that the bloc had to be careful to preserve the balance of powers.
He said he was concerned by the prospect of Britain’s EU referendum. “I see a big risk in such a referendum. It would be bad for the EU and also bad for Sweden if Britain did not remain in the EU.”
Cameron faces a difficult week in Europe.
His Conservative lawmakers in the European Parliament are set to vote on whether to admit Germany‘s upstart anti-euro Alternative for Germany (AfD) party into the political grouping they sit in.
Merkel is keen to prevent the AfD gaining traction, and if the vote goes AfD’s way it would not help Cameron’s attempts to get Merkel to help him with both Juncker and his wider reform plans.
Reuters
