Political horse-trading undermines EU

​WOULDN'T it be sensible if the appointment of European Commissioners was determined by ability and not by nationality or (occasionally) gender?

The horse-trading that has gone on as the Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso picked his new line-up out of the assortment of candidates offered to him by nation states has been intense and totally undermines confidence.

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France barraged Barroso with calls to ensure his man, Michel Barnier got the plum internal markets job.

To offset British wails that this would give free rein to French protectionism, Barnier’s top bureaucrat will be the British official Jonathan Faull. Germany meanwhile deliberately went for the energy slot – not traditionally a frontline post – because it’s determined to snaffle the presidency of the European Central Bank (currently held by France) when that comes up for grabs in 2011.

Chancellor Angela Merkel reckoned she couldn’t get both a front line Commission post AND the ECB presidency so pressured Barroso into giving the low profile German candidate the seemingly low profile post of energy.

The most challenging appointment has been that of Romania’s Dacian Ciolos who supposedly takes over the agriculture portfolio with enthusiastic French support despite the fact that Romania is in the dock for mismanaging EU farming funds when Ciolos was agriculture minister.

This screams out for closer scrutiny.

He for one will be in for a blistering session with the European Parliament which must endorse each and every one of the new Commissioners.

The Strasbourg interviews for new Commissioners are really the only proper job interview the putative Commissioners get.