In the comments section Lilac has kindly highlighted a reuters story with Der Spiegel quoting UK PM Cameron’s misgivings about Jean-Claude Juncker becoming the next EU Commission president, saying that he would no longer be able to ensure Britain’s continued EU membership.
Juncker, who has the backing of Angela Merkel, is the former president of Luxembourg and Eurogroup leader , and is presented as the main candidate to lead the Commission by the centre-right European People’s Party who won the most seats in last week’s European Parliament elections despite itself suffering losses.
Cameron’s fear/concerns/threat in comments on the sidelines of the EU summit meeting last Tuesday implied that a majority vote for Juncker could destabilise his government to the extent that an “in-out” referendum would have to be brought forward.That in turn could lead to the British people voting to quit the EU in the current climate following UKIP’s success in the recent elections albeit with an extremely low turnout. Cameron believes that Juncker is too federalist and would seriously hamper the UK attempt to renegotiate membership terms.
Juncker faces opposition to his appointment and French president Hollande is another who has reportedly told Merkel that he has concerns over the proposed appointment and is keen to have former finance minister Moscovici take the post, and now Italian PM Matteo Renzi has said that a political discussion is needed on the matter saying that “Juncker is one name but not the name” who has no guaranteed majority and no automatic right to the job.
The EU Commission president is selected by EU leaders but, under new rules, must be approved by the European Parliament where euro-sceptic parties on the right made large gains last week, and given this scenario the decision becomes a real hot-potato in European politics with a knock-on effect in individual countries. The BBC had this to say and warns of “fireworks” to come
Markets hate uncertainty of any sort and while this story is unlikely to have any immediate impact, we will be keeping a keen eye on it as events unfold.
