East Europeans to enter competition for top EU job

The new member countries from Central and Eastern Europe will fight hard to get one of the three prominent EU jobs created by the upcoming Lisbon Treaty, according to Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, a former Polish European Affairs Minister who is now chairman of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee (AFET).

Speaking to Brussels journalists on Tuesday (3 June), Sariusz-Wolski said he expected the three top EU jobs to be distributed upon along “five axes: North-South, East-West, old-new, left-right, small-big”. 

Sariusz-Wolski said he did not include the President of the European Parliament in the package deal, explaining that he did not want member sates to interfere in the institutions internal affairs. 

Speculation around who will be appointed to the new positions has been rife in Brussels and EU member state capitals with a number of names being floated already (see our LinksDossier). 

However, these plans would likely collapse altogether if the Irish reject the Lisbon Treaty in a decisive referendum on 12 June. 

But the former Polish minister downplayed those fears. “We don’t have a plan B because we believe the referendum will be successful,” he said confidently. 

He also rejected the notion, put forward by the ‘No’ camp, that Ireland would be forced to gradually abandon its long-standing military neutrality under the new treaty. “Coming from a former Warsaw Pact country, I can say that slaves are not good servants,” Sariusz-Wolski said. 

Foreign and defence policy under the French presidency 

Turning to immediate issues, the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee chairman pointed out that the EU’s external action budget for the 2007-2013 period was insufficient, as highlighted in his annual report on the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), which is to be to be voted upon in Parliament this week. 

And while 1,470 billion euro is planned for the CFSP, Sariusz-Wolski deplored that the more ambitious European External Action Service, an EU diplomatic force envisaged by the Lisbon Treaty, does not get similar treatment. 

He said he was planning to discuss this issue with the French EU Presidency and expected their full assistance. “Take only one example – Kosovo is underfinanced,” Sariusz-Wolski said in reference to the EU’s reconstruction efforts. 

The Polish MEP praised French President Nicolas Sarkozy for changing his country “in the right direction”, in particular for improving its relations with the US, reassessing France’s role in NATO and resuscitating the “St. Malo spirit of effective defence”. 

Regional initiatives 

Sariusz-Wolski also praised Sarkozy for his initiative in the Mediterranean. He denied this initiative was undermining the European Neighborhood Policy, saying that on the contrary, it has inspired the ‘Eastern Initiative’ by Poland and Sweden (EURACTIV 26/05/08) and similar initiatives for the Black Sea area (EURACTIV 28/05/08). 

On this basis, he said he expected the ENP to be a “big success” in the following years. Explaining the philosophy behind the EU “Black Sea synergy” initiative, he also said this European Mare nostrum “should not be overtaken by the Americans”. 

Transatlantic relations 

The head of AFET said he hoped for a “better chemistry” between the EU and the USA following the US elections. He also said he hoped the EU will stop being “a payer and not a player” in world affairs. 

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