As usual, Jo and his people don’t know the system: you can’t just nominate an EU Commissioner one fine afternoon in a random tweet
Malta’s new EU commissioner (right)
Karmenu Vella (right)
Commissioners are nominated by member states after the new President of the Commission is appointed, and after consultation with this new president.
The president’s term runs concurrently with that of the commissioners – in this case, 2010 to 2014 – and when the commissioners go, so does the president.
The new President of the Commission is then the first to be appointed, before the new commissioners. What follows after that is that member states present their considered names to the president for consultation. It is only after this consultation with the president goes through that the name can be nominated.
This year, the system is being changed. The Commission President is not going to be directly appointed anymore, but nominated by the European Council for election by the European Parliament.
The newly elected Commission President might not wish to have a man of 64 who was in the Cabinets of Mintoff, Mifsud Bonnici and Sant among his commissioners.
The die-hard Laburisti might never have known this and the insufferable Sliema snobs who have latterly discovered the glories of Mintoff under the direction of Muscat might choose to have forgotten it, but Malta under Mintoff and KMB was a pariah in non-Communist bloc Europe in those days, with real issues of violence, human rights violations and suppression of freedom of expression and of association.
Would Barroso have been comfortable with an ex minister from East Germany? No.
In its autocratic fervour, our government has forgotten that its right to nominate is countered by the Commission President’s/European Parliament’s right (duty) to refuse.
But there’s more. As soon as the Socialists target the first European People’s Party nominee – at least two nominees are challenged each time round – the EPP will pick out the weakest Socialist nominee. And that is definitely going to be Karmenu Vella.
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So he may have resigned in vain. Is there more to what we are being told?
Can it be that this is a worked-out plan that will eventually put the blame on the EU?
Ma maghmlux mod li Karmenu iddejjaq ministru u hbewha b’dal mod?
I would not be surprised if this turns out to be another ‘kannink plen’ to lambast the EU, when it refuses the Maltese nominee, and provide our PM another reason for filing for divorce from the EU.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they used an eventual rejection of Vella by the EU to whip up even more anti-EU fervor.
At least we do not have to fear that Joseph Muscat will use an excuse to get us out of the EU. His plan to sell our passports has at least put our minds at rest on that.
Barroso himself was a Maoist communist in his other life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUr09Bv-Qy4
We also know that Joseph Muscat didn’t consult with Simon Busuttil on the nomination of Karmenu Vella as EU Commissioner. Simon Busuttil said this morning that support for Karmenu Vella is not to be taken for granted.
I’m so conflicted about the grilling to come.
One the one hand I don’t know if I’ll be able to stand the embarrassment.
On the other had I can’t wait to see him get a good thick slice of reality pie.
I think Jo is banking on his friend Martin Schultz becoming President of the European Commission.
The thing is that he has probably miscalculated the situation – big time.
The biggest party at the EP is the EPP, with the second biggest party being the Socialists. It has been like this for donkey’s years and surely won’t be changing much in the near future.
The likelihood is that when we’re asked to vote for a President, those voting for the EPP candidates will also vote for an EPP President, and vice-versa.
Assuming that an EPP-leaning President is appointed, then yes, Vella is going to have major league problems during the grilling process.
On the other hand, assuming that the majority of people elected will be Socialists, and Schulz will become President of the Commission, Vella should have a clear ride – or so Jo thinks.
In my opinion, Jo’s rationale at the moment is that since the Socialists romped to a ‘massive’ victory last year, and that his friend Hollande is President in France, then that new-found Socialist popularity will translate into a Socialist victory on the European stage.
Clearly, that is not going to be the case though.
After the second round of Municipal Elections this weekend in France Hollande is experiencing waht is being termed as “une défaite historique.”
170 towns shifted to the right. Bobigny after 95 years of voting Left.
155 of these towns has a population of over 9000 people.
Even Pau shifted after 53 years of being left: if not entirely to the right, to the Parti du Centre.
FN won 15 new towns.
It’s “bleu” and on top of that the tendency is “bleu Marine,” not insipid light blue translated as neither here, there or anywhere.
That’s the song of the Marseillais.
On top of all that, Hollande is reported as saying that there will be a reshuffle: PM, Ministers etc.
BUT the PS themselves are being recorded as saying that it’s not the PM or the Ministers that are the problem. It’s Hollande himself.
Fancy that.
Schultz’s in trouble.
http://www.euractiv.com/eu-elections-2014/epp-puts-heat-schultz-stanishev-news-533113
‘..The EU election campaign appeared to take a vicious turn on Wednesday (29 January) as the centre-right European Peoples’ Party (EPP) attacked European Parliament President Martin Schulz over a €60,000 contract awarded to the wife of Sergei Stanishev, the president of the Party of European Socialists (PES)..’
Molto Konrad.
Then there’s this other incident,
http://www.euractiv.com/global-europe/israel-blames-schulz-water-remar-news-533481
‘…According to Deutsche Welle, this caused the Knesset to break out in turmoil. Right-wing Jewish Home Party member Moti Yogev shouted at him: “Shame on you, you support someone who incites against Jews.” Yogev and Naftali Bennett, the economy minister and Jewish Home party leader, then left the hall. Bennett immediately took to his Facebook page: “I will not tolerate duplicitous propaganda against Israel in the Knesset … and especially not in German.”
In his own speech to the Knesset, Benyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, weighed in to accuse Schulz of “selective listening”.
Schulz said he had not checked the fact, but was told so by Palestinian youth.
“Even the Palestinian water authority says the discrepancy is much smaller,” Netanyahu said. “Schulz admitted that he didn’t check if what he said is true, but he still blamed us. People accept any attack on Israel without checking it. They plug their ears.”…’
Bit of a plonker.