Tuesday

19th Mar 2024

French EU commissioner to share powers on national budgets

  • Former French finance minister Pierre Moscovici will share his budget oversight powers with a Latvian hawk (Photo: ec.europa.eu)

EU economics commissioner Pierre Moscovici will have to share his powers on national budgets with fiscal hawk and commission vice-president Valdis Dombrovskis.

According to a letter sent by Jean-Claude Juncker to MEPs dealing with economic matters, Moscovici and Dombrovskis will "jointly" use their oversight powers on budget deficits of member states.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

"Any decision requiring approval by the commission shall be prepared and submitted by Mr Dombrovskis, as vice-president for the euro and social dialogue, jointly with Mr Moscovici, as commissioner for economic and financial affairs, taxation and customs," Juncker wrote in a letter dated 25 September.

Juncker was replying to a letter from the head of the European Parliament's economics committee, Roberto Gualtieri, who was asking about the division of tasks between the economics commissioners and vice-presidents.

The move is likely to appease fiscal hawks about the strict application of deficit rules given that France, Moscovici's home country, is the first in line for not meeting its deficit targets.

Dombrovskis is a former finance minister and prime minister of Latvia who pushed through harsh austerity measures to get his country back on track in the wake of the global financial crisis of 2008.

According to Juncker's letter, Dombrovskis will also be the one deciding who will go to the European Parliament, to eurozone finance ministers' meetings, to international meetings such as the G7 or G20 as well as the board meetings of the European Central Bank, so far attended by Moscovici's predecessor, Olli Rehn.

An EU source told this website that Moscovici is likely to continue representing the EU commission in the eurogroup meetings of eurozone finance ministers.

Juncker wrote in the letter that he expects vice-presidents to agree on "pragmatic arrangements" with their commissioners in the first weeks upon taking office.

Carsten Brzeski, chief economist at ING-DiBa, told this website that the Moscovici power-share is a sop to fiscal hawks.

"If true, this would be a clear tribute to the fiscal hawks, above all Germany. It would also make Moscovici’s task easier. Let’s not forget that France and French public finances will be the big test case for the eurozone in the coming months," Brzeski said.

He explained that if France gets strict treatment, Moscovici will suffer a media backlash in France, while if the commission looks too lenient, other countries will blame it on the French commissioner.

"In general, this entire set-up of “supervising” and “normal” commissioners will be a big challenge for the entire commission," Brzeski said, noting that the commission services might boost their ranks given the "doubling of tasks". If not, supervision will stay shallow, because there won't be enough experts to cope with all the tasks.

Juncker's economic balancing act

Even Jean-Claude Juncker’s critics would agree that the new Commission president is a skilled deal-maker.

Analysis

Success of Juncker team depends on 'uber-commissioners'

Incoming EU commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has come up with a canny distribution of portfolios for this new team but a layer of 'uber-commissioners' is potentially the most important change.

Latest News

  1. Borrell: 'Israel provoking famine', urges more aid access
  2. Europol: Israel-Gaza galvanising Jihadist recruitment in Europe
  3. EU to agree Israeli-settler blacklist, Borrell says
  4. EU ministers keen to use Russian profits for Ukraine ammo
  5. Call to change EIB defence spending rules hits scepticism
  6. Potential legal avenues to prosecute Navalny's killers
  7. EU summit, Gaza, Ukraine, reforms in focus this WEEK
  8. The present and future dystopia of political micro-targeting ads

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us