The phrase ‘Team Europe’ started cropping up in Commission press releases during the COVID-19 pandemic. Initially, it seemed like nothing more sinister than the latest addition to the lexicon of euro-jargon, a clunky but harmless phrase designed to describe cases where the EU and national governments were working together.
However, recently it has developed a life and a political character of its own.
The detail of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s new ‘cash for migrant control’ agreement with Tunisia’s autocratic President Kais Saied was brokered, according to a European Commission press release, ‘in a Team Europe spirit’ along with the Dutch and Italian premiers, Mark Rutte and Giorgia Meloni.
Rutte and Meloni were flanked by von der Leyen and Saied in a four-way handshake to mark the sealing of the deal on Tuesday (16 July).
Answers to the question ‘What is a ‘Team Europe spirit?’ should be sent on a postcard.
Yet there is also a serious side to this.
Now that the ink is dry on the Memorandum of Understanding with Tunis, it is clear that the deal errs on the side of generosity.
The Commission has promised €675 million in direct budget support for migration control and project finance, all of it guaranteed to be paid out this year, and with extremely vague language on the conditions – if any – that are attached.
As we have reported before von der Leyen appears to have made migration control part of her personal campaign for a second term as Commission president, and cosying up to Italy’s Meloni is also vital to securing that new mandate.
Nobody should be surprised by politicians being political. Yet €675 million is a lot of money to be handed over from the EU budget on the basis of presidential fiat, and this is unlikely to be the only example before next June’s elections.
Leaders made it crystal clear at the June EU summit in Brussels that they want this model to be followed by similar arrangements with other North African states, none of which are democracies.
A Commission official told reporters on Monday that the deal signed with Kais Saied in Tunis would require the unanimous approval of EU governments.
That is all well and good – but it still leaves a deficit in terms of accountability and oversight. The elected European Parliament has no means of control over either the cash or the projects that will be used to finance it.
If the EU is going to start cutting migration control deals with dictators, then they need to be negotiated with some level of transparency and accountability.
Dutch liberal Sophie In’t Veld has asked the Commission chief to “explain what Team Europe is, and how accountability, transparency and the separation of powers are ensured?”
It’s a valid question.
Are Meloni and Rutte – the latter of which just announced his plans to retire from Dutch politics after November’s elections – the EU’s new de facto migration tsars?
And, crucially, who is Team Europe accountable to?
The Roundup
Russia struck Ukrainian ports on Tuesday, a day after pulling out of an UN-backed deal to let Kyiv export grain, and Moscow claimed gains on the ground in an area where Ukrainian officials said Russian forces were going back on the offensive.
Russia’s termination of the initiative to export its grain via the Black Sea route is “no good news”, according to a Spanish EU presidency representative, who echoed concerns of the EU executive, as European farmers sounded alarm bells over what could possibly be the worst arable crop harvest since 2007.
A long-standing multi-million euro fisheries deal between the European Union and the Kingdom of Morocco expired on Monday due to a dispute over its legality and the inclusion of Western Sahara’s representatives in the negotiations, pending a decision from the EU’s highest court.
EU lawmakers are set to vote on a plan to lease and buy a building next to the European Parliament in Strasbourg without knowing the purchase price, in the latest twist in a lengthy – and increasingly murky – battle between the Parliament’s leaders.
Don’t forget this week’s Transport Brief: Is it time to put European cars on a diet? – the last edition before the summer break.
Look out for…
- Commissioner Jutta Urpilainen visits New York and participates in UN High-level Political Forum on Wednesday.
- EU-Bosnia and Herzegovina Stabilisation and Association Council.
- Trilogue on Nature Restoration Law starts between Parliament, Council, and Commission.
Views are the author’s
[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic/Nathalie Weatherald]
Source: euractiv.com
