The Barroso II Commission seems to be struggling to make the internal portfolio reshuffle work effectively. Old rivalries, new Lisbon Treaty processes, and major short and long-term economic and financial challenges are making it difficult to draw the executive's power map six months after the new team took office.
'I'll be her substitute' - or not?
EurActiv first reported last March that Catherine Ashton, the EU's foreign policy chief, will be able to trim her busy work schedule thanks to the assistance of three EU commissioners, who will act as her deputies. But at least one of them was apparently unaware of having been entrusted with this new responsibility. Kristalina Georgieva, the Bulgarian commissioner in charge of humanitarian aid, denied all knowledge of the role when talking to her country's press.
Later, it was confirmed that besides Georgieva, Štefan Füle, the Czech commissioner for enlargement, and Andris Piebalgs, his Latvian colleague responsible for development, along with the foreign affairs minister of the country holding the EU presidency as regards Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) issues, would act when needed as Ashton's substitutes (EurActiv 07/07/10).
Georgieva's denial seems even more surprising given that when European Commission President José Manuel Barroso first disclosed his new team last November, asterisks were marked against the names of three commissioners to indicate that they would work in "close cooperation" with Ashton.
The lengthy turf war in setting up the European External Action Service (EEAS) was marked by tensions as to what responsibility those commissioners should abandon in favour of the sui generis organisation.
Thanks to pressure from the European Parliament, the commissioners' prerogatives and the Community approach did not suffer too much.
Control over EU external co-operation programmes (development and neighbourhood policies) will remain the responsibility of the Commission, contrary to Ashton's original proposal, which planned to give more power to the EEAS.
It was also decided that proposals for changes to development policy (the European Development Fund and the Development Co-operation Instrument) will be prepared jointly by the EEAS and the EU executive, under the stewardship of the commissioner, and then jointly submitted for a decision by the college of commissioners.
However, the tough negotiations left scars between services and officials, insiders told EurActiv. The three commissioners under Ashton have come to realise that they have two bosses instead of one, while much of their cabinets' energy was spent coordinating which visits or events Ashton would be interested in and which activities would be left for them.
Moreover, as Ashton will still be very busy setting up EEAS, the period of adjustment will drag on for many more months, officials complain.
Justice vs. Home Affairs
The splitting of the former Justice & Home Affairs portfolio into two separate departments has led to widespread confusion among Commission officials. Viviane Reding is a Commission vice-president, responsible for justice, fundamental rights and citizenship, while Cecilia Malmström is the home affairs commissioner.
These policy areas are particularly sensitive given their politically-charged briefs: immigration, policing, anti-discrimination and anti-terrorism to name but a few.
An added complication is that the European Parliament now has co-legislative powers on most of these issues, which makes extra political sparring inevitable, as witnessed when the Parliament played hard ball on the SWIFT agreement on bank data transfers between the EU and the US (EurActiv 09/07/10).
In both departments, there is a sense that the many overlapping policy areas have yet to be divided in a more definitive manner.
Home affairs officials, in particular, are feeling the heat. Malmström's team has yet to finalise the precise division of tasks between its staff and Reding's justice, fundamental rights and citizenship team.
In a similar vein as the teams of the commissioners acting as substitutes to Ashton, officials privately say that three-time Commissioner Reding, a heavyweight of the Barroso II Commission, has successfully tabled a power-grab to give herself greater prominence in the current political climate than first-time Commissioner Malmström.
Bad environment?
The EU executive's environment directorate was one of the first to undergo major change as a result of the nomination of Connie Hedegaard as climate action commissioner in the Barroso II team.
The makeover, announced by Barroso for the first time in November 2009, saw the climate change units split from DG Environment in order to staff Hedegaard's newly created portfolio. In February, the Commission announced that units dealing with international negotiations on climate change at DG RELEX had also been added, along with others from DG Enterprise and Industry.
Jos Delbeke, a Belgian national who was deputy director-general at DG Environment, was appointed to lead the new climate action department. Meanwhile, DG Environment remained responsible for waste, water, air quality, biodiversity and nature protection policy.
But six months into the creation of the new department, the Climate Action DG appears to be having difficulty finding its feet. The directorate still does not have its own website and the organisational chart remains littered with holes.
Moreover, civil servants who were previously serving in different DGs are taking time to develop a "culture" of their own, admitted one EU official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"Splitting the energy and transport portfolios was relatively easy as the two departments were already functioning independently," the official said. "With environment and climate action, it is more difficult," he said, explaining that the new climate action department had to be created from bits and pieces of other DGs.
Under-staffing is also an issue, with many senior positions still to be filled. When Barroso decided to create the department last November, policymakers in the European Parliament warned against the risk of weakening the EU's climate agenda by isolating it from other environmental policy issues.
Jo Leinen, chairman of the European Parliament's influential environment committee, led a revolt against the move, saying an efficient EU climate policy "can be best advanced by a fully empowered DG Environment to cooperate with all other DGs to push for effective climate policies".
"We still find no reason for reducing the portfolio of competencies of your directorate-general for environment regarding climate policies," Leinen said in a letter, co-signed by other MEPs.
The innovation pendulum
The Commission's new innovation strategy, due to be published by Research and Innovation Commissioner Maire Geoghegan-Quinn in the autumn, began life as a business-focused policy paper drafted by DG Enterprise. But this directorate falls under the responsibility of Industry and Entrepreneurship Commissioner Antonio Tajani.
The strategy was close to being completed when Barroso appointed Geoghegan-Quinn as commissioner for research, innovation and science late last year. Now, the proposal has been recast as a 'Research and Innovation Plan' with a broader emphasis on research funding, education, SMEs and intellectual property, to suit its new political boss.
The overlap prompted Barroso to set up an innovation sub-committee led by Geoghegan-Quinn, which meets regularly to compare notes. Major tensions surround the definition of innovation: DG Research takes a science-focused approach, while Tajani's cabinet wants a more practical enterprise document that looks at public procurement and entrepreneurship.
Interestingly, last year's Year of Creativity and Innovation - which culminated in the publication of an innovation 'manifesto', was led by DG EAC (Education and Culture), which, naturally, has more of an education-based view of teaching creative and innovative thinking.
DG EAC retains control of the European Institute for Innovation and Technology (EIT), in spite of the fact that it would a more natural fit in Geoghegan-Quinn or Tajani's portfolio.
Innovation issues are also covered by Internal Market and Services Commissioner Michel Barnier, who has a major role to play in areas like creating an EU patent. This would be the cornerstone of the new innovation plan but is also seen by Barnier as the first point in his forthcoming Single Market Act.
Defending the digital fortress
Tensions are also perceivable in the information society sphere. When Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes was on the cusp of presenting her Digital Agenda paper, she allegedly had a last-minute tussle with Barnier on what the paper should say about copyright.
In the final hours, Kroes resisted pressure from Barnier to take a tough line on copyright violation, according to sources close to the Commission. The EU executive has long been trying to come up with rules to prevent piracy of intellectual property and is also engaging in international trade talks to forge an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (EurActiv 22/03/10). Drafts seen by EurActiv show that the wording on possible new laws to fight copyright violations has been watered down and that, as far as Kroes is concerned, nothing will be done before 2012. However, Barnier - a Frenchman - has had the text of the EU's Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRED) on his desk for a while, with a review in mind shortly. Kroes' decision to overrule Barnier's position has received praise but also harsh criticism from industry sources, who argue that she will do little to address Asia's dominance in ICT without stricter rules on copyright enforcement.
Health problems When the pharmaceutical sector moved from DG Enterprise to DG Sanco (Health and Consumers) late last year, it meant clinical trials became the responsibility of Health and Consumer Policy Commissioner John Dalli, who has focused heavily on consumer affairs as well as working with the public health brief.
Researchers have complained that while the unit in charge of clinical trials has an excellent grasp of the complexities of this issue, it is low on DG Sanco's list of priorities.
Dalli said the much-criticised Clinical Trials Directive will be reviewed as part of the Commission's work programme, probably realising that this is an area were DG Research and DG Enterprise still have clear interests.
Reportedly, the importance of academic clinical trials - an area that has suffered since the directive was introduced - may even interest DG EAC.
