The hearings marathon for the new Commissioners- Designate came to a close on Wednesday evening with the confirmation of the Briton, Jonathon Hill, as Commissioner for financial services. From the 27 commissioners interviewed over the course of 10 days only one, Alenka Bratusek (Slovenia) Vice-President designate for Energy Union was rejected by the European Parliament. President Juncker now has to await for Slovenia to designate its candidate and may have to reshuffle the commission team because the Commissioner-Designate for Education, Culture, Youth and Citizenship, the Hungarian Minister Tibor Navracsics, although confirmed as Commissioner, may require modification to his portfolio brief- given his close ties to the Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orbán.
EU: Jean-Claude Juncker has a delicate balancing act between investment spending and budget discipline
The European Commission’s new future President has committed to both spending 300 billions euros to stimulate economic growth and also balancing the books. He announced that during the European Semester he would ascribe more importance to social indicators and monitor the social impact of the reforms whilst continuing with social dialogue. Weakened by a 10-year standstill under José-Manuel Barroso, Jean-Claude Juncker’s new ‘more political’ European Commission will have to get along with the very powerful European Council and a German Chancellor with fixed ideas on issues surrounding austerity. A delicate balancing act indeed.
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