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MEPs Gabi Zimmer, Cornelia Ernst, Martina Michels, Fabio De Masi

Heading for Crisis: Juncker’s Titanic Crew

“There will be no social Europe with Juncker’s new EU Commission,“ says spokesperson of DIE LINKE in the GUE/NGL group in European Parliament, Dr. Cornelia Ernst. “If one visualizes the EU as a rolling ship, we now have a crew stubbornly heading for the iceberg. There is a storm brewing. Thereby, a change of course would be overdue for the EU. Petty structural reforms by renaming offices cannot hide that nothing’s changed.”

Massive unemployment and a limping economy in the EU member states ask for a fundamental reorientation of EU policy areas. To this the political specialists of DIE LINKE respond in detail:

Gabi Zimmer, head of the left European group GUE/NGL and deputy member of Committee for Employment and Social Affairs: “The Vice Presidents gain more responsibility so that 28 members are not going their own way anymore. Unfortunately there’s still pigeonholing: In future there will still be no super-commissioner timely combining economic development with sustainable social and ecological minimum standards. This was urgently needed facing the high youth unemployment and growing precarious employment and poverty.”

Former French finance minister Moscovici is supposed to deal with the lasting economic crisis. “Moscovici was criticized in the past weeks especially by the federal government because he suggested a longer timespan for adhering to the deficit criteria in favour of growth. Yet, the debate about a loosening of the stability and growth pact is mere pretence. The fiscal compact embedded in the EU Constitution with the votes of Social Democrats and Greens is in force. Already today austerity could be eased if a country commits to strict “structural reforms”. Correspondingly Moscovici is proud when wages in France decrease due to reforms of the social democratic government. He obviously thinks and acts rather in the interest of the finance lobby and corporations than in the interest of the population,” comments Fabio De Masi, financial and economic expert of DIE LINKE in European Parliament.

EU culture subject to censorship?

“The former justice minister of the Orban government, Tibor Navracsics (EPP), decidedly contributed to the censoring of the Hungarian media. He implemented the undemocratic laws restricting the freedom of opinion. As future EU Commissioner  for Culture, Education and Youth he is a complete miscast,” asserts Martina Michels, member of the Committee for Culture and Education.

Gender balance? No chance!

Despite Juncker talking big before his election for President of EU Commission about a more balanced allocation of offices between men and women in future, the new Commission is a pathetic display of modern policy and society. A mere nine of the 27 top positions  are to be staffed with women. “Embarrassingly, European Conservatives seriously tried to relativize this setback by reassuring that the women then would have very important and exciting tasks and will furthermore be rather competent,” comments Cornelia Ernst. “Interesting. And yet one should think competency is a precondition for being EU Commissioner, and what exactly do the Conservatives mean by important tasks? Are there ever unimportant tasks at the top of the EU?” Beside the striking lack of women anachronistic and misogynistic representatives are part of Juncker’s brigade: “The Spaniard Canete made his mark in his home country with sexist commentary and connections to the oil industry. If someone does not take seriously female political opponents because he considers them “helpless women”, he has nothing to do in a committee demanding gender equality. Being the new Commissioner for research and innovation we also see the danger of him using his connections to the oil industry to his advantage at the cost of future-oriented economy sectors,” concludes Cornelia Ernst.