Environmental and social agenda Juncked

10 February 2015

NEWS EU COMMISSION

O it’s business as usual at the

European Commission. At best.

Anyone hoping that the European

elections would change the eurobureau-

crats will be deeply disappointed. Last

month Jean-Claude Juncker, the new EU

Commission President, having vowed

contrition after his role in promot-

ing oﬀshore tax avoidance in his native

Luxembourg was exposed by LuxLeaks,

outlined his priorities for 2015 in the

Commission workplan. It is clear from

this that his priorities are to continue to

push the anti-environmental and cor-

porate agendas. There isn’t even much

sign of his vaunted talent for generating

consensus.

On January 15th the European

Parliament was asked for its opinion

on this workplan but failed to reach a

common position. I was part of the nego-

tiating team for the GUE/ NGL Group of

which Sinn Féin are a member. What

became clear very soon in that negoti-

ating room was that the largest group,

the European People’s Party of which the

four Fine Gael MEPs are members, was

not prepared to allow any criticism of

Juncker’s workplan.

This is despite the criticism that came

from many quarters once the content

of the workplan ﬁrst became available.

Green NGOs and other civic organisat ions

such as Corporate Europe Observatory,

which exposes the power of corporate

lobbying in the EU, and Alter EU, an

organisation that campaigns for greater

transparency on lobbying, were quick to

point out ﬂaws and glaring omissions in

Juncker’s priorities.

His proposals for a lobby register pro-

vides one example. It goes nowhere near

establishing a mandatory lobby register.

In order to have any level of transparency

when it comes to lobbying it is essen-

tial that any register created is legally

binding. Juncker’s proposal will instead

continue to allow corporations to ‘play’

the system as it includes no detailed dis-

closures or sanctions for lobbyists, who

are famously inﬂuential here, particu-

larly in the earliest stages of the complex

Eurolegislative process.

According to AlterEU Goldman Sachs,

the ‘vampire squid’, one of the largest

and best-connected investment bank-

ing ﬁrms in the world, claimed it spent

just €50,000 on lobbying in the EU in

2013. At the same time in the United

States where there is a mandatory lobby

same ﬁrm disclosed that it had spent $3.6

million on lobbying activities. Instead

of taking the opportunity to deal with

the concerns of transparency in how

the EU conducts business, Juncker has

instead opted for a ‘nothing to see here’

approach.

Juncker’s workplan for 2015 conﬁrms

that his Commission will, like the Barroso

Commission before it, continue to place

corporate interests before those of social

justice and the environment.

For example, Juncker has withdrawn

the Maternity Leave Directive which

sought to guarantee working women 20

weeks of maternity leave, and protection

when they returned to work. One of the

intentions of the Commission’s ‘REFIT’

exercise which is withdrawing 80 of the

400 EU legislative proposals currently

in train, is to withdraw proposals that

do not advance in the legislative proc-

ess, in order to allow for a fresh start.

The Commission claimed that “includ-

ing this [Maternity Leave] ﬁle on the list

of withdrawals would open a door for a

new beginning, allowing for a more mod-

ern directive”.

Juncker has also dropped the Air

Quality legislation despite evidence

showing that 400,000 premature

deaths are attributed to air pollution in

the EU. In 2013 in Ireland alone, 3,400

deaths were linked to air pollution. He

has also dropped the Waste Management

Proposals. These proposals sought to

improve recycling and the reuse of raw

materials and resources.

It appears that Juncker’s attitude is that

environmental protection is an inconven-

ience rather than a central priority. He

failed to give any of his Commissioners

a remit for sustainable development.

Instead he chose to merge the energy

and climate change portfolios and to

appoint the controversial Miguel Arias

Canete to this merged portfolio. Canete

has openly acknowledged his links to the

oil industry and he was also a member of a

Spanish Government that had a reaction-

ary record of coal promotion, and a lack

of interest in renewable energy.

The fact that the European People’s

Party in the European Parliament had

no criticism whatsoever of Juncker’s

workplan speaks volumes of where their

interests lie. Every other group that took

part in the negotiations to ﬁnd a joint res-

olution had one criticism or another.

Juncker could have chosen to invest in

green jobs and innovation. He could have

chosen to put the needs of society before

corporations. He could have ensured

that working women were given all the

protection they require to realise their

potential. Instead he opted to continue

the EU policy of protecting big business

and the interests of the cosy consensus

of elites. •

Lynn Boylan is Sinn Féin MEP for Dublin

New commission has learnt nothing from

manifest anger in recent elections.

By Lynn Boylan

Environmental and social

agenda Juncked

Juncker has

withdrawn

the Maternity

Leave

Directive

which sought

to guarantee

working

women 20

weeks of

maternity

leave, and

protection

when they

returned to

work

“

now, what

was it we

promised?