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THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF which portfolio Michael McGrath was offered in the new European Commission, set to be unveiled today, has been postponed until next week by the institution.
A spokesperson said yesterday that the delay is as a result of processes by the Slovenian Parliament, which has still yet to formally approve its Government’s nominee.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is under pressure to get her new College of Commissioners organised and give relevant portfolios to those who have been nominated.
It’s understood that the Government is hopeful Ireland will retain some type of financial portfolio but von der Leyen’s decision has been classified to everyone but her small team of advisors.
Today announcement was meant to present the new Commission to the most senior MEPs in the European Parliament in Brussels. This was to give the chairpeople of each political grouping time to decide whether their party will agree with her proposal.
MEPs will vote on whether to approve or reject the Commission President’s proposal in Strasbourg, France next week, but processes in Slovenia have delayed the process.
Yesterday, a spokesperson for the European Commission said that the Slovenian parliament had contacted the institution asking that von der Leyen delay her announcement so its politicians could formally approve the Government’s nominee.
Another spokesperson for the European Parliament confirmed the presentation was postponed until 17 September. The vote in Slovenia is due to take place on Friday.
The spokesperson added that amendments will be made to the agenda of next week’s formal sitting of the European Parliament to allow MEPs to debate their decision.
So far, it has been reported that only the Socialists and Democrats group, of which Dublin’s Labour MEP Aodhán Ó Ríordáin is a member of, are unhappy with the current nominees as only four members of its grouping have been named as candidates for roles.
It is still largely expected that MEPs will vote in favour of von der Leyen’s proposed Commission next week.
Parliamentary committees will then publicly interview the candidates, create a report based on their performance and vote again in November to confirm the new Commission.
Commissioners are set to begin in their new roles sometime in December, if all is approved.
However, von der Leyen is understood to be having a difficult time assigning some portfolios, particularly for the new Defence Commissioner role, and to also achieve a gender balance in her new College.
The Commission President made gender balance a crucial element of her new Commission, requesting that every member states nominate both a man and a woman in July.
Only one member state followed the request, as most Governments argued that the Commission President was overstepping her authority when making it under the EU treaties.
The Irish Government chose to nominate former finance minister Michael McGrath only, for the same reason as other member states and later added that naming a second candidate would be unfair to McGrath since he had to leave a role as a Cabinet minister.
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I wonder who’ll be liable to pay the penalties if they don’t keep budgets balanced. I’m guessing it won’t be deducted from their own salaries anyway!
Certainly recommend this. It be a step in the right direction.
I agree MC. However if councils are required by statute to balance their books, why not national governments?
Cannot understand why they don’t balance their budgets as it is . Surely they have to account for every cent spent ? The figures they produce I assume are given to the government to be part of their budgeted figures . So if the government accept non budgeted figures how can they get the total economy’s figures correct ?
The mind boggles !
The degree of intrusion into how we run our country is staggering. Humiliating. And 21% of you would vote the party that invited this on us back into power.
Didn’t FG and indeed SF also ‘invite’ them in by voting in favor of the bank guarantee? They’re all as bad as each other in reality, and once they get into power all doubt about that is removed.
Ah Vincent stop,isn’t Enda fawning with happiness everytime he announces with exceeded Troika targets.FG are continuing FF’s policies no difference,just two very regressive budgets(the poorest pays most each time)
@mart- why did a bank guarantee arise, again?
@norman- the more targets hit, the greater the prospect of a return to the market, the faster we bid the Troika farewell….
Vincent even as you say if we return to the markets,we will only bid farewell to 1/3 of the Troika.The Fiscal Treaty FG coerced the country into accepting has made the other 2/3 ‘s a permanant feature here.
The Councils also need to provide justification and value for money on spending. They budget published by Kildare CC shows a spend of some €750,000 for parks cleaning and refuse collection….The largest park to me is around 10-20 acres, has about 5 bins which are always overflowing and never seem to be collected. If this is characteristic of all towns in the county how in the name can they be spending the money?
Great idea on paper, but its going to cost more to merge than the savings will generate.
Another FG/Labour spend a million to save 50,000
Funny how in the last few days with some degree of entry back to the market, possible sale of government interest in aib , a good Christmas for the domestic economy the troika decide to speak out . Confidence seemed to be lifting slightly. The eu presidency and kenny in my opinion seeming to perform well in Europe we get kicked back into our box. The economist prints an editorial recommeding help for ireland. we meet the vast majority of targets set for us. We dont do a greece and have debt write off and second bailout.Then Just in case you think of asking for a deal on bank debt remember you are still bad boys and girls…time will pass and eventually we will get out of this but we need to never forget this …remember we held a grudge and contempt for the Brits for 800 years time to swap the contempt
Looks like a deal on bank debt is off the cards.
@ciaran- and you extrapolated that from….?
The European Commission in principal recommending our councils to balance their books is not unreasonable ,we do owe the troika a lot of money.but if a european policy of fines is created as a result of the councils inability to reform their services then we should be very worried and at all costs easiest this.this would be the equivalent of a money lender calling to your door and saying he wants two grand next week because HE didn’t come get his 500 last week,does that make sense,Europe must understand that the Irish as citizens cannot be expected to pay huge daily fines because of the incompetence of our leaders,in Ireland we have no control of services like councils or hospitals or transport because our leaders ,or management have their positions cemented in place with a system of no responsibility which has been created under the watchful eye of Europe.the European Commission has failed the Irish people in allowing our very intelligent population be gradually disenfranchised by a long established fraternity of characters that would make George Orwells pigs look good.( maybe that’s harsh ,but those pigs were organized!!) So Europe ,if the services that we pay for don’t deliver in terms of value for money ,then the councils will be fined alright,but they’ll be fined by us the people or not at all.
Resist it not easiest it ,damn you technology!
Yes master ! Lets tip our hats to the European gentry.
Altho i dont like the way the troika are poking their nose in almost everything in every article on journal today
I do agree with them on this we should be running balanced budgets at council level its just a shame it takes a boom and bust and a a bailout for the country to be spoon fed basics like this why could t this be all done 2000-2008
I wonder if they are telling the Commission that they are increasing the number of Councillors in Dublin by 50…..
have your say