EU Presidency: Timmermans frontrunner as EU leaders decide against Weber for Commission president

EU leaders have agreed that conservative German candidate Manfred Weber will not become president of the next European Commission, Germany’s Die Welt daily reported on Friday, citing sources familiar with the decision. Instead, Dutch Socialist Frans Timmermans is now the frontrunner for the EU’s top job.

The decision was reached during talks on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, Die Welt said.

According to Bloomberg, German Chancellor Angela Merkel had endorsed Weber and  Timmermans from the Netherlands as the only candidates left in the race to lead the EU executive.

Without mentioning them by name, Merkel made clear that the centre-right German, from her political family, the EPP, and the centre-left Dutchman, are the official and only contenders to head the Commission. That leaves liberal Margrethe Vestager, the European Union’s antitrust chief, out of the race.

Read more at: Timmermans frontrunner as EU leaders decide against Weber for Commission president – EURACTIV.com

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EU Official: Islam Is Part of Our History, Present, and Future

 Frans Timmermans First EU Vice President

Recently , European Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans ( a Dutch European Citizen) hosted a roundtable with imams from Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy, and The Netherlands. He had a message for them that they doubtlessy welcomed: “The Commission is strongly committed to promoting diversity in Europe. Islam is part of our history, Islam is part of our present and Islam will be part of our future.”

There is no doubt that Timmermans’ statement is true, but not quite in the way he meant.

Timmermans did hint that he was aware Europe might not travel a smooth and placid path to the glorious multicultural future: “The way we help our citizens -- whatever their background may be -- to embrace the diversity that is a reality in European societies is going to determine much of our collective future.”

In 2015, Timmermans noted: “[D]iversity is now in some parts of Europe seen as a threat. Diversity comes with challenges. But diversity is humanity’s destiny. There is not going to be, even in the remotest places of this planet, a nation that will not see diversity in its future.”

Read more: EU Official: Islam Is Part of Our History, Present, and Future | Homeland Security

EU UNITY required as Brussels tragedy strikes at the heart of an already fragile European Union - by E. Reguky and M. Mackinnon

United we stand divided we fall

This week’s bombings in Brussels shattered the peace, and the sense of self-confidence, in the heart of the European Union. The Islamic State militants who carried them out may yet achieve a much larger goal: speeding the breakup of the 28-country bloc that is the grandest geopolitical project since the Second World War.

Even before the massacre, the EU – based on lofty ideals about the free movement of people, money and ideas – was reeling from a seemingly endless series of body blows. There was the refugee crisis, the spectre of Britain voting to leave and the rise of parties of extreme right and left, movements united only by their anti-EU positions. All these problems were exacerbated by Tuesday’s bloodshed.

Throw in the continent’s lingering economic malaise – symbolized by shocking jobless rates in Mediterranean countries – and an institution that was lauded just four years ago with a Nobel Peace Prize for its role in maintaining stability in Europe seems at genuine risk of falling apart.

That reality is just starting to sink into the institutional, clubby atmosphere of Brussels, a world of expense accounts, black BMWs and cushy high-paying jobs. Samir Benelcaid, a Belgian radio talk-show host who broadcasts in French and Arabic, said “people in Brussels didn’t really worry about the future of the EU” even though they were involved in shaping it.

The mentality is starting to change since this week’s bombings. “My own view is that Europe is falling down,” Mr. Benelcaid said. “The EU is facing so many issues with no responses, like migration, terrorism, unemployment. They give billions and billions of euros to young people for jobs formation and there are no results.”

The questions facing the EU post-Brussels are whether the bloc is just one, or perhaps two, more blows away from shattering – and whether the threat of disintegration will persuade the EU’s leaders and citizens that their union is worth saving.

Read more: Brussels tragedy strikes at the heart of an already fragile European Union - The Globe and Mail

EU Presidency: The Netherlands: Dutch have a special responsibility meeting Global Goals - by Tamira Gunzburg

The Dutch Presidency of the EU-  01 through 06-2016

In 2015, the world made the biggest ever promise to itself. World leaders adopted the 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development that will help us tackle problems like extreme poverty, hunger and climate change. The deadline they set themselves is the year 2030.

Now, as 2016 gets underway, the question can no longer be postponed. How will we go about implementing these goals, which apply to North and South alike? The only way to hit the ambitious deadline is to start full throttle.

To anyone who has had anything to do with the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, the constraint of limited time and the need to hit the ground running will not be new. Least of all for those who just kicked off their 12th Presidency for the next six months.

But there is another reason why the Dutch would do well to waste no time in charting the path for the Global Goals. Their next Presidency will most probably be around 2030, when the final appraisal will be made on whether or not the world has managed to end extreme poverty and hunger, as our current leaders have set out to do.

In order to ensure that they, and all of us, can shine at that moment, here are a few priorities the Dutch Presidency can act upon right now.

Europe is facing the biggest refugee crisis since World War Two, due to protracted insecurity and destitution in Syria and across parts of Africa and Asia. The influx is projected to continue to rise into 2016. With the political distance between certain European Member States still wide, the Presidency will have to work hard to build a strong EU position that transcends domestic interests. The Dutch government has rightly identified migration and international security as one of the key priorities of their Presidency.

Refugees must be afforded protection and their needs and rights met as a matter of urgency. Yet, several Member States are yielding to the temptation to finance these costs by raiding their aid budgets. Others are even trying to pass off more security, military and intelligence operations as aid. And we are already seeing aid shift away from the poorest countries: in 2014, global aid to the least developed countries fell by 4.6% compared to 2013. That’s a decrease of €1.45 billion to those who need it most.

The Dutch Presidency will need to keep its eye on the prize and ensure that Member States protect refugees without diverting international aid. The EU has already shown that it is possible to do both: its 2016 budget increased funding for both the refugee crisis and development aid simultaneously. This is the kind of leadership the Dutch should take forward.

Of course, it is not all about aid. On average, overseas development aid is a small flow compared to developing countries’ domestic resources. However, these countries still lose at least $1 trillion every year through illicit financial flows, including tax evasion. Stopping this haemorrhage could unleash unprecedented funds for development and reduce pressure on donor countries’ squeezed budgets.

Transparency is key here. Shining a light on the payments between companies and governments and on companies’ tax practices would allow citizens in poor countries to follow the money and ensure their governments spend it responsibly. The EU has already passed ground-breaking legislation to oblige oil and mining companies to publish payments they have made to governments abroad, and transparency in this sector has led to increased social spending in a number of cases. Banks, too, have started reporting their taxes on a country-by-country basis.

The Netherlands was central to passing that legislation back in 2013, and now finds itself chairing the very institution that is scheduled to examine several proposals over the coming months that aim to do the same, but this time for other economic sectors. Obliging large multinationals to confidentially report their tax information per country is already happening. By pushing for the information to be made available to the public, the Presidency can ensure developing countries also benefit.

In a world where the Global Goals will not be met with aid alone, unlocking funds with this win-win legislation is precisely the kind of innovative manoeuvre the Dutch should lead on.

Read more: The Dutch have a special responsibility with the Global Goals | EurActiv

The European Commission: The Secret Mission Of VP Frans Timmermans - by Rene Cuperus:

Frans Timmermans the EU's point man

Frans Timmermans former Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs (Social Democrat)  is now Juncker’s number two in the new European Commission. Formally in charge of ‘Better Regulation, Inter-Institutional Relations, the Rule of Law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights,’ his more difficult undertaking will likely be the informal task of keeping the UK in the EU.

The 2013 Dutch Kings’s Speech (Speech from the Throne, ‘’Troonrede’’) by Dutch King William Alexander at the opening of the new Dutch parliamentary year, provoked a lot of reactions, both domestically and internationally. In the speech, it seemed as if the Dutch post-war welfare state was abolished, substituted by a so-called ‘’participation society’’ based on mutual individualism.

This was only partly true. Indeed, the coalition of conservative liberals (VVD) and social-democrats (PvdA) did design and put into action an unprecedented decentralisation operation towards city councils and social organizations (care, employment), but in terms of rights, one cannot seriously argue that the Netherlands is getting rid of its welfare state.

This popular Dutch Foreign Minister is now ‘’the second man’’ of the new Juncker European Commission. It is unclear at this moment whether his portfolio in the Commission as ‘’First Vice-President, in charge of Better Regulation, Inter-Institutional Relations, the Rule of Law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights’’ is really a powerful job in the Berlaymont hierarchy. 

Some say that given his personality, language skills, and good connections with Juncker, as well as his huge European and international network, Timmermans will perform outside the boundaries of his formal functional profile, and will play an important role in international affairs and European foreign policy. He might even become one of the strongest figureheads for European Social Democracy political grouping in Brussels.

I (Rene Cuperus) myself argued – in an article writtenearlier  together with Adriaan Schout of Clingendael, the Dutch Chatham House – that the secret mission for Frans Timmermans might be helping to prevent ‘’Brexit’’ from happening.

Read more: Rene Cuperus: The Secret Mission Of Frans Timmermans