Sunday 5 July 2009

Wolfgang Schäubler should not become the German EU-Commissioner!

I can fully join Kosmopolit who explained in his latest post why Wolfgang Schäuble should not become the German EU-Commissioner.

Kosmopolit wrote:
"It seems as if my predictions about who will become the new German EU Commissioner were wrong. Spiegel Online reports today that Chancellor Merkel wants to nominate Wolfgang Schäuble, the current German Interior Minister, for the post in Brussels. This is quite a bad choice especially if he aims to get the Justice and Home affairs portfolio [...].

[...]

So, I am rather skeptical about Wolgang Schäuble as the new German EU Commissioner especially if he wants to continue with his security policy; a policy field that is becoming more and more important at a EU level. The EU debate could turn rather nasty as he is likely to propose (but not necessarily implement!) controversial EU policies…

Of course he perfectly fits the traditional job description of a typical EU Commissioner: experienced national male politician (= old), end of the career posting to Brussels (= Merkel wants to get rid of him). Wolfgang Schäuble is unfortunately not a candidate to get excited about…
"
Read the full post to understand how we come to this conclusion.

For most German bloggers this conclusion would definitely be the same, although Duckhome recently wrote that he'd be glad if Schäuble went to the Commission - to get rid of him in Germany.

In fact, if I had the choice between Barroso becoming EU-Commission president and Wolfgang Schäuble becoming JHA Commissioner I would chose the first!

2 comments:

Jon Worth said...

Hold on Julien... we know there are better alternatives to Barroso as Commission President. But are not all candidates for JHA Commissioner likely to be illiberal and oppressive? The UK would never get the JHA post, but if it were to get it, anyone from any UK party would be at least as bad as Schäuble in the job...

Julien Frisch said...

I think there are more moderate candidates, even among the German Christian-Democrats, than Schäuble - and with Peter Hinze there would also be someone with a European and international party-political record, something that would be of additional advantage on a European post.

But you might be right regarding JHA: The likelihood of getting a political moron for this post is pretty high... ;-)