The European Commission, the E.U.’s executive branch, has
been known for being a technocratic institution. Yet in drafting regulations,
imposing fines, and negotiating trade deals, the Commission is much like the
U.S.’s executive branch. In fact, high-level appointments must secure the
approval of the legislature through confirmation hearings. Yet the top of the
U.S. executive branch, the White House, has been known for being ideological and
definitely political. That that executive branch also promulgates and enforces
regulations can be easily missed. That the E.U.’s executive branch is also
political has definitely been missed or dismissed in the ideological illusion
that the E.U. is merely a technocratic international organization rather than a
federal system of governments. This illusion could finally be seen as such after
the election of Ursula van der Leyen as President of the European Commission in
2019.
Her announcement of new titles for commissioners sparked ideological
controversy because the titles themselves are inherently ideological. One
commissioner would be “for Democracy and Demography,” while another would be “for
Protecting our European Way of Life.”[1]
Besides the inappropriateness of using office titles as ideological placards,
the insertion of ideology at the top of the Commission must have surprised many
Europeans who were under the ideological impression
that the E.U. was merely an international technocratic organization rather than
a federal system with a federal government.
The “once technocratic institution,” the Commission, was,
according to van der Leyen a “geopolitical commission.”[2]
Finally an explicit acknowledgement is made that the E.U. is geopolitical, and
thus a federal government, rather than just a trading “bloc.” That The New York
Times consistently applied this label to the E.U. in spite of the fact that it
had not only an executive branch, but also a legislative one (The European
Counsel and the European Parliament) and a judicial one (the European Court of
Justice) boggles the mind. Unthinkingly swallowing the European illusion has
effectively enabled it, and thus forestalled the day when Europeans would
finally realize what they have created.
[1]
Valentina Pop, “EU’s
New Boss, Invoking ‘European Way of Life,” Sparks Partisan Brawl,” The Wall Street Journal, September 19,
2019.
[2]
Ibid.
Recommended: Essays on the E.U. Political Economy: Federalism and the Debt Crisis. See also Essays on Two Federal Empires: Comparing the E.U. and U.S. Both are available at Amazon.
