Eurobloat #0116 • December 2019
December gave Brussels everything it loves: a brand new Commission, a brand new climate religion, and a court ruling reminding member states who is really in charge. The UK, meanwhile, voted for the exit and the EU spent the month explaining why that exit must come with a "level playing field".
Folly of the Month: A continent ordered to be carbon-neutral by the people who cannot run a meeting on time
On 11 December the new Commission unveiled the European Green Deal, an everything-everywhere plan to make Europe "the first climate-neutral continent" by 2050, complete with promises of a carbon border tax, a circular economy and a "just transition" fund. Two days later the European Council blessed the 2050 target for everyone except Poland, which declined to sign up and was told the matter would be revisited in June. So the grand continental destiny was agreed by twenty-six of twenty-seven, the headline was printed anyway, and the one country that said no was quietly sent to the back of the class. A plan for the next thirty years, drafted by an institution that took an extra month just to seat its own Commissioners.
1. Climate neutrality for all, except the member that disagreed
At the 12 to 13 December summit, leaders endorsed climate neutrality by 2050 while Poland alone refused to commit, earning a promise that the Council would "come back to this issue" in June 2020. Unanimity in Brussels now means everyone agrees, and the holdout is scheduled for re-education later.
2. A fresh Commission, one month late, takes up residence
The von der Leyen Commission finally took office on 1 December, having missed its 1 November start because Parliament had rejected three of the proposed Commissioners. The new team arrived a month behind schedule and immediately announced a thirty-year plan to remake the continent.
3. The ECB's new chief decides the central bank should fight the weather
At her debut press conference on 12 December, Christine Lagarde announced that climate change was "the major challenge that the world is facing" and that the ECB, though "not driving the bus", would examine it under its mandate. The institution charged with keeping prices stable promptly went looking for a new and far larger job.
→ bis.org
4. Brussels invents an official list of which investments are virtuous
On 18 December negotiators struck a deal on a "taxonomy", an EU-wide classification system telling investors which economic activities count as sustainable. Having failed to agree on it at Council a week earlier because of a row over nuclear power, they returned and produced a central register of approved virtue for the whole single market.
5. The EU court tells Spain its own supreme court got it wrong
On 19 December the Court of Justice ruled that jailed Catalan separatist Oriol Junqueras held parliamentary immunity from the moment he was elected an MEP, and that Spain should have asked Brussels before keeping him detained. A national supreme court convicting a man under national law was informed that the European Parliament now outranks it.
6. The world's trade referee goes dark, and the EU's answer is a private club
From 11 December the WTO Appellate Body could no longer hear appeals, paralysed because new judges had not been appointed. The EU, champion of the "rules-based order", responded not by fixing the global body but by assembling a side arrangement of like-minded members to judge each other instead.
7. The border agency that does not guard the border gets bigger
On 4 December the new Frontex Regulation entered into force, promising a standing corps of up to ten thousand and operations beyond the EU's frontiers. The agency presiding over years of irregular arrivals was rewarded for the record with a larger budget and a grander mandate.
8. Brexit confirmed, so Brussels begins demanding a "level playing field"
At the 13 December Article 50 summit the EU27 welcomed the UK's coming departure and reappointed Michel Barnier, while insisting any future deal guarantee a "level playing field". The British had just voted to leave, and the first response was a list of rules they must keep following anyway.
9. The court rules that Airbnb is software, so France may not regulate it
Also on 19 December, the Court of Justice held that Airbnb is an "information society service", meaning France could not require it to hold an estate agent's licence and that Paris should have notified Brussels before trying. A member state's attempt to apply its own property rules was struck down because it forgot to ask permission first.
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