The Czech Presidency of the European Union, which thankfully expires July 1 and turns over the keys to the kingdom to Sweden, has officially asked European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso of Portugal-  a/k/a The Quiet Man - if he would be standing as a candidate for a second term. In a heartbeat, Barroso confirmed what was already known during the campaign for the European elections when he was formally endorsed by his European People’s Party (EPP) at its Congress in Warsaw, April 27-29. In fact, the Czech presidency activated the procedure for electing the President of the Commission according to the terms of the Treaty of Nice. Under the circumstances, in view of this week’s EU summit, the Czech Presidency has to pose to the leaders of the other 26 Member States two basic questions.
Question one: “Do you all agree to take the political decision and give a second term to Jose Manuel Durao Barroso?” Being that the question placed is on political grounds, —unanimity, that is - agreement of all 27 Member States is required.
Question two, equally simple: “Do you agree to initiate formal procedure for the second term of Jose Manuel Durao Barroso?” In this case, going by the Nice Treaty, a qualified majority is required, which Barroso already comfortably secured, not only from the 13 EPP heads of state and governments but also from four Socialists (Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates and Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev) and four liberals.
However, to initiate formal proceedings for the election of the Commission President now under the Nice treat, one country – Portugal - regardless of the Lisbon Treaty ratification, will secure its Commissioner, while all others will be under the uncertainty of the Irish referendum outcome in October. Ireland rejected the treaty last year and now has been forced to reconsider, but just like last year, when no high-ranking EU officials or Commssioners went to Ireland to campaign for its passage, Barroso and his Commissioners, in particular the Irish one, have peculiarly repeated their hands-off strategy and seem to be hoping it will pass by itself and that Irish voters will have a change-of-heart on their own. That’s not communication, that’s a prayer even the Irish haven’t thought of. So the most likely scenario will be for Barroso to be politically confirmed now and wait until after the Irish vote for the finalisation of his appointment.

What does Watson know that we don’t?

Maybe it’s elementary, but last week, Graham Watson, a Member of the European Parliament from the United Kingdom, outgoing chairman of the Alliance of Libeals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) group and candidate for the presidency of the European Parliament, said during a press conference promoting his candidacy that, if elected, he will improve Europe’s communication policy by making Euro­news a full-fledged public Pan-European broadcasting service.
It remains to be seen what is the background knowledge of the British politician on the subject of Euronews and whether he has second or even third thoughts on the matter. We would remind that Euronews is a unique combination of two legal entities, one a non-profit benefiting from European Commission and European Parliament funding, and a second undertaking the commercial productions on behalf of the first.
What is worth mentioning is that Euronews received five million Euro per year to add Arabic to its broadcasting from the European Commission upon the initiative of Director General Claus Sorensen, although there was already an excellent 24-hour broadcast in Arabic by France24. Although minor, we would also remind that one year earlier, Euronews had offered the Greek government to add Greek as a broadcast language – if it would cough up two million Euro per year. Under the circumstances the five million Euro annual budget for Arab translations, seems rather generous compared to the two million for Greek, the more so that in Cairo you can find staff to translate for 300-400 Euro per month, while for the same job in Athens you must pay at least five times that.

EU court finds justice is only in the halls of Brussels

Yet the Department of Communication of the European Commission is a sui generis situation where everything is possible. Just look at Sorensen, who is still keeping as Director of the Athens office - and working for his formal legitimisation - the person the European Court of Justice three times ruled had been unlawfully appointed. The good Director General, using as his grounds a statement from his Deputy that the European Court of Justices releases “opinions,” (and not binding decisions,) retained the dismissed employee in Athens against the ruling. Obviously, the ties of the Director of the Athens Office to the top executives of the Department of Communication of the Commission are stronger than the decisions of the Court. This deplorable situation underlines and amplifies the communication failure of the European Commission, reflecting an elitist mentality that thrives and keeps its distance from the public and from political debate.
It is not surpising that the overwhelming majority of European Commissioners, although political appo­intees, have all these years been systematically suffocated through their bureaucrats, who resist any serious communication effort to safeguard their own career and financial interests. Probably the only notable exceptions to the rule, are Viviane Reding and Antonio Tajani, who, thankfully are expected to continue.
The low turnout in the European election was a vote of no-confidence in the European bureaucracy, the European Commission and the European Parliament services. The communication failure was total since turnout dec­reased two percent to a record-low, continuing its 30-year-slide because European issues were virtually non-existent in the political debate in the Member States (to the great pleasure, of course, of the Eurocrats).