Tuesday 3 March 2009

Quote of the day: Guillaume Klossa on EU leadership

On Taurillon, Guillaume Klossa, adviser to the French EU-Council Presidency last year, has said the following:
"[L]'Europe manque désespérément de leadership politique, d'incarnation et de force de réflexion commune, rôle que ne joue pas suffisamment la Commission. Les institutions de Lisbonne sont donc plus nécessaires que jamais sans être suffisantes."
Translation:
"There is a lack of political leadership in Europe, a lack of substance, of joint reflection, something the Commission does not fulfil sufficiently. More than ever, the Lisbon [Treaty] institutions are needed, without being sufficient."
I think that is exactly the point: The European Commission does not fulfil its role as 'engine' of the integration - of a joint European reflection - anymore.

Without proper leadership, the Commission's role will vanish - and already today member states in the Council and the European Parliament start to dominate the debates, regrettably with too much weight on the Council's side.

2 comments:

Ralf Grahn said...

One could ask Klossa, who adviced the French Council presidency, why the Commission has been relegated to such a position.

But he is quite right about the insufficiency of the Lisbon Treaty for a robust Europe.

Anonymous said...

Guillaume Klossa poses the real issue in few words. The key issue of the EU is epitomized