BOX 17.2 European Council Meeting in Copenhagen

COPENHAGEN—A bid to boost the EC's competitiveness resulted in a con­tentious debate over whether Europe could still afford its expensive social welfare programs. The issue will be studied further by the EC commission in time for a December EC summit in Brussels; at the request of German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, community member states will submit proposals, by Sept. 1, for elements to be included in the commission's "white paper" on "Entering the 21st Century." As evidence of the competitiveness issue's sensitive nature, there was a crucial change between the summit's final conclusions and an earlier draft: The draft said plans for medium-term eco­nomic revival "shall not call into question the social protection of the citi­zens," but that phrase was nowhere to be found in the final version because some EC leaders said any meaningful review of the community's economic woes must necessarily examine the once-taboo topic of social security.

source: Wall Street Journal, June 23, 1993.

17 / EUROPEAN UNION 3SS

{^president." Pictures are published entitled "Two Presidents," showing the Ameri­can president and the president of the European Commission standing side by side. The power of the two offices, however, is quite different^

In assessing the nature of the presidency of the European Commission, we see that there is an intriguing chicken-and-egg problem: What comes first, a powerful office or a powerful officeholder? Must the office be made powerful to attract powerful leaders, or is the first step appointing a powerful leader who can lend power to the office? The current president of the commission is French­man Jacques Delors—a prominent Socialist who served Mitterrand as an influen­tial economic minister but had no immediate prospect of becoming either president or prime minister in France. Hence, he was willing to move to Brus­sels to head the commission. His predecessor was Gaston Thorn, a former prime minister of Luxembourg who considered it a promotion to move from chief executive of his tiny country to head the European Commission. Before Thorn, the commission was headed by Roy Jenkins, foreign minister of a British Labour government. As Labour moved politically to the left, Jenkins, who was a moder­ate, lost any chance of moving up to the prime ministership and decided to go to Brussels as president of the commission. These three career paths illustrate •well the current status of the presidency of the European Commission. The basic job requirement is to be a leading politician in a member country. The really top people, however, such as Mitterrand, Kohl, and Major, would rather remain chief executives of their own countries than preside over the commission. Exceptions to this rule may occur for some of the small countries, as Thorn's case illustrates.

It is even more difficult to recruit leading politicians to serve as ordinary commissioners. The public visibility of these positions is so low that many ambi­tious leaders fear dead-ending their careers in Brussels and prefer to stay in their national capitals. The key for the future power of the commission will be in how much attraction it holds for the most prominent European politicians.

The European Commission directs a large bureaucracy at the headquarters in Brussels (see photo 17.1). The commission meets at least once a week. Each commissioner is responsible for specific policy areas, such as external relations, agriculture, social affairs, energy, and transport. The commission is in charge of the European Union's routine day-to-day operations. It also has the authority to make certain policy decisions on its own. Sensitive policy decisions, however, are dealt with by the Council of Ministers, and, if they are extremely sensitive, by the European Council. The main task of the commission is to prepare the meetings of the Council of Ministers and the European Council. The commission also has executive functions in the sense that it supervises the implementation of the decisions reached by the Council of Ministers and the European Council. In an official publication of the European Union, the responsibilities of the com­mission are presented as fourfold:

Proposing measures for the further development of Community policy. Monitoring observance and proper application of Community law.

Administering and implementing Community legislation. Representing the Community in international organizations.³

In another official publication, the commission is seen "as the embryo of a Euro­pean government" accountable to the European Parliament.⁴

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