Yahoo – AFP,
Christian Spillman, 22 Oct 2014
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The EU's
incoming chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker pictured during a press
conference
at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France on October 22,
2014
(AFP Photo/Frederick Florin)
|
Strasbourg
(France) (AFP) - The EU's incoming chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker vowed
Wednesday to seize the "last chance" for the bloc as his team of
commissioners won parliamentary approval to start work on a stalling economy
and foreign policy challenges.
The
European Parliament in Strasbourg voted by 423 to 209 in favour of Juncker's
European Commission, which will have a five-year mandate as the union's
executive branch starting on November 1.
But with
disillusioned voters fearing a return of the economic crisis in the eurozone,
suffering from high unemployment, and increasingly turning to anti-EU parties,
Juncker said the new commission had to act now.
"This
is the last-chance commission," the former Luxembourg prime minister said
in a speech ahead of the vote.
"Either
we win back the citizens of Europe, drastically reduce the level of
unemployment and give young people a European perspective, or we fail."
Juncker won
fewer votes than his Portuguese predecessor Jose Manuel Barroso did for the
previous commission, a factor he blamed on the surge of euroscepticism during
Barroso's decade in office.
Juncker had
risked missing his start date after parliament forced him to reshuffle his team
following weeks of gruelling confirmation hearings, but the final members made
it through on Monday.
He said he
would start work immediately on readying a 300-billion-euro ($380-billion)
investment package to boost jobs and growth by Christmas, amid global fears
about the continent's economy.
 |
European
Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker addresses the European
Parliament,
presenting his team of 27 commissioners-designate for approval in the
northeastern French city of Strasbourg, on October 22, 2014 (AFP
Photo/Frederick Florin)
|
Juncker
added that the European Union must do more on issues such as the west Africa
Ebola outbreak and the Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, although he
made no mention of the crisis in Ukraine, which has raised tensions with
Russia.
World's biggest
economy
The
Commission includes one member from each of the 28 nations in the EU, a bloc
that covers more than 500 million people and taken together represents the
world's biggest economy.
Juncker has
appointed Dutch former foreign minister Frans Timmermans as his "right
hand man" to oversee reforms to the Brussels bureaucracy.
Other key
members include Italy's Federica Mogherini as foreign affairs chief, France's
former finance minister Pierre Moscovici in the economic affairs role,
Britain's Jonathan Hill as head of financial services, and Spain's Miguel Arias
Canete as energy chief.
It is the
first step in a complete leadership change at the top of the EU, with former
Polish prime minister Donald Tusk due to take over in December as president of
the European Council, which groups EU heads of state and government.
EU leaders
will rubberstamp Juncker's commission at a summit in Brussels on Thursday and
Friday.
The
Commission is widely regarded as the most powerful institution in Brussels as
it drafts laws, enforces national budgets and is responsible for negotiating trade
deals between other countries and the EU.
Juncker
promised to take a careful look at a controversial yet central clause in a
proposed giant EU-US free trade deal that allows corporations to sue
governments.
 |
European
Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker (R) laughs with Britain's
eurosceptic
UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage at the European
Parliament on
October 22, 2014 (AFP Photo/Frederick Florin)
|
Speaking in
a mixture of French and German with a smattering of English, Juncker also urged
lawmakers to back his investment package to boost the economy.
World
markets plunged last week on concerns that the fragile eurozone economy was set
for a triple-dip recession, sparked by debt-ridden Greece's plans to exit its
international bailout early.
"If
you give us your support today, we will present the jobs, growth and investment
package before Christmas," Juncker said.
But he
promised to uphold the EU's budgetary rules and be "tough when we need to
be tough", with one of his team's first tasks likely to be dealing with
France over its budget deficit.
Several
MEPs held up banners saying "No Austerity" during the debate,
underscoring the division within the EU between German-led austerity supporters
and France and others who want to spend more.
The
possibility of Britain leaving the EU in a planned 2017 referendum is another
problem Juncker has to face, but he said he was "not prepared to
change" EU migration rules in response to demands from London.
Juncker,
meanwhile, said his team had to face up to a "more dangerous world".
On the
Ebola outbreak he said Brussels only reacted when it "arrived on EU
shores. We should have acted much sooner."
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