Top Jobs in EU

Urmstongran- "there are none so deaf as those who do not want to hear"

As for Christine Lagarde, the new European Central Bank head, she is neither an economist nor a banker but a competition lawyer.

Let’s hope that the era of boom and bust has miraculously come to an end, or else the euro could be in trouble. Having served (and messed up) as head of the IMF, a political position, is no substitute for hands-on understanding of financial markets and economics. She was a full participant in the Project Fear anti-Brexit propaganda.

Worse, she too has been embroiled in scandal. She was caught in a row involving Bernard Tapie, a controversial businessman and politician who served time for fraud.

While France’s finance minister, she agreed to an arbitration panel to determine a dispute involving the tycoon which led to him being awarded a huge payout, since reversed.

Investigators claimed that she approved the scheme because Tapie backed Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 election campaign: this, they alleged, was a way of thanking him with taxpayers’ money.

She denied the allegations, which could have landed her with a one-year jail term. She was found guilty of “negligence” but, astonishingly, the Cour de Justice de la République waived any punishment or criminal record, citing her “international reputation” and role in dealing with “the international financial crisis” as IMF boss.

You couldn’t make it up, could you!!

These crooked appointments are great news and are giving Brexit movement impetus as people realise the way the EU mince accountability and democracy.

Lemon grove. Yes, the Americans rallied round us during the war, but the loans that they gave us took many years to pay off. and delayed our recovery. A nice little earner for our ‘allies!’

counterpoint

I asked you:-

' What false claims? '
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I apologise. I see now it is the incorrect use of the words ' convicted of fraud ' rather than ' convicted of negligence '.

Subtlety but there is a difference.

Margaux

You say of the nomination and voting system in the EU in comparison to the UK:-

' And the EU equivalent of the civil service ( with additionally the power to propose legislation - which needs the approval of the Council and also the Parliament) is the Commission. '
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There is a big difference between ANY of the 28 nations 'administrations' , what we call in the UK the Civil Service, and the EU Parliament/Commission/Council as they are not ' ADMINISTRATORS ' , they are the law makers the 'LEGISLATORS '.
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You say :-

' All quite complex, but worth noting that both the Council ( proposing a candidate) and the Parliament (having to approve the candidate) are involved in the appointment of the Commission President - in the present case, Mrs von Der Leyden, who has yet to be fully approved.'
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That has been duely noted in previous posts and accepted.

However this year the EU Council nomination for the President of the EU Commission was not as usual undertaken under the ' SPITZENKANDIDATEN ' system.

Had the Council made the nomination for the President of the EU Commission under the 'Spitzenkandidaten' system then German politician Manfred Weber would have been the proposed candidate as he is Leader of the European People's Party , the ' largest ' of the EU Parliament political groupings.

Manfred Weber was overlooked this time by the EU Council, hence the nomination for President of the European Commission is now German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen, from Angela Merkel's German Christian Democratic Union.

Both Manfred Weber and Ursuala von der Leyen belong to the EPP grouping but many even in the EPP are unhappy .

Gonzalez Pons, spokesperson for the dominant centre-right EPP group in the parliament has said this :-

“The future of Europe can no longer be decided behind closed doors. The spizenkandidat process is not about one person or one name – the citizens of Europe want to elect the person who is governing Europe. This is not revolutionary, this is democracy.

“The council has the right to propose a candidate to lead the commission to lead the parliament. However, what the council doesn’t have the right to do is to ignore all the candidates that have been voted for by European citizens.” He said the approach of carving up other top jobs taken by EU leaders was “clearly against the treaties”.

So the conclusion by many is this was an EU Council backroom deal , ' possibly ' to appease Angel Merkel, who knows I believe Macron had a lot to say. Whatever the reasoning it cements the belief the EU does what the EU wants to do Democratic or not.

I think the EU Parliament will ' endorse ' Ursula von der Leyen as they don't like to rock the boat or give any other impression of total solidarity in the EU when push comes to shove.

POGS, very good post, thank you for that information, very interesting. I hadn’t realised that the process had been changed this time round. Certainly Gondalez Pons has got it right, it’s high time the EU was more democratic, regardless of our being members or not. I’m afraid at the moment, it’s jobs for the boys (or girls) and no doubt, the EU will resist change. I wonder whether they will ever change, who knows?

As for the USA, they didn’t enter WW2 until Pearl Harbour was bombed. That event brought them in. They had been asked to support before but had refused, except to sell us a lot of arms, which we were paying for until recently. Britain stood alone until 7th December 1941. With help of the allies we liberated Europe, my own father was among the liberators. That is why Britain is different from the rest of the EU. Other countries border lines were frequently moved, they were conquered frequently, they were suppressed, in particular the former Communist Block countries. They are much more used to being ruled. Remainers may ridicule Leavers ‘little England’ mentality, but the history is different and has bred a different outlook. We despise a lack of proper democracy.

maddyone

Thank you.

It is an interesting subject and the nomination of Ursula von der Leyen by the EU Council has certainly pitted the EU Parliament against it.

When you think the main Spitzenkandidat list was :-

European People’s Party – Manfred Weber

Party of European Socialists – Frans Timmermans

European Conservatives and Reformists – Jan Zahradil

Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe – “Team Europe”

European Green Party – Ska Keller / Bas Eickhout

Party of the European Left – Violeta Tomič / Nico Cué

( Smaller groupings put forward their candidates but the above are the main players.)

When you know there was a T. V debate, votes taken, names registered and the person who was not included in any of them, Ursula von der Leyen, won, then it is blatantly obvious the EU Council has thwarted the warning by the EU Parliament not to abide by what the Parliament sees as a more democratic way of electing the President of the EU, rather than the shanannigans the EU Council have reverted to.

GreenGran78......so what!
We couldn’t expect it for nothing, and what we needed was help when we needed it, to fight the war.

The allies included Americans, British, Russians, Free French, The Jewish Brigades, Canadians, and many more. They all fought together to defeat Hitler and the Nazis. The important thing to recognise is that Europe had a very different history than Britain which seems to have made a difference to how the British feel about being ‘ruled.’ The borders constantly changed in Europe over the centuries, unlike Britain. The Europeans have been used to being ruled by a variety of rulers who frequently changed. Poland didn’t even exist until relatively recently. The way European laws are formulated is different, they made many laws in advance of necessity whereas Britain makes laws retrospectively to deal with problems as they arise. Britain has a Common Law system whereas Europe has a Civil Law system. These differences matter because they in part explain why the British have always been a square peg trying to fit into a round hole in the EU.