Professors Matthias Matthijs and R. Daniel Kelemen have written a piece regarding the EU's Commission recent "facelift." They sound as if they were inspired by "deranged" ghostwriters. Contradictions abound. Gossip is lifted to the rank of affirmation and a banal epilogue is the tombstone for a flippant, superficial "contribution."
They disparage the former president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, sounding like Nigel Farage, who specializes in inappropriate vocabulary. They praise Donald Tusk. I hope they will be proven right in having done so prematurely, ante bellum. EU leaders have to be judged by the way they behave and are able to overcome the perils of hidden agendas and constant fault-lines. It has to be hoped that Tusk will be as good as his predecessor. Here the authors have indirectly rescued the old cow from drowning and got us back to the "Old" versus "New" Europe neo-con mantra. At the same time they are, rightly so, critical of Hungary's "Orban regime," which stands paradoxically at the heart of the "beloved" "New" Europe.
Juncker and the new Commission receive five Michelin stars. The political acumen of Juncker is certain, but no longer in tune with what are, unfortunately, non-Kantian imperatives. Besides, it is ironic that the Luxembourg "tax evasion enhancer-in-chief" is supposed to be Europe's "moral "steward! The new Commission is considered by the authors to be more forceful, given that so many ex-ministers occupy the various posts. This looks like a page out of the French Fourth Republic history book, a recycling of "have-beens" rather than a risk-taking, creative grab for imagination and Delors-like initiatives.
I personally think that the EU needs above all to reconnect with the citizen and to become again a clearing-house for ideas. This can only be achieved by a Commission and president who can be seen as game changers rather than bureaucrats, surviving on bad coffee and smoking cigarettes in the toilets. After all, I worked in Brussels and saw the corridors (albeit in better times...)
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