Blog post

Juncker's first move

One early move that Juncker should make is to do away with the current European Commission college structure of one portfolio for each of the 28 membe

Publishing date
09 July 2014

When European Commission president-designate Jean-Claude Juncker takes over the office later this year, his task will be to prove that the European Union and its institutions are relevant for dealing with globalisation and global demographic, technological and environmental change. In our recent Bruegel policy brief, The great transformation: memo to the incoming EU Presidents, we discuss the central challenges that he as well as the Presidents of the European Council and the Parliament face. We argue that the three Presidents jointly have to work on developing a proper growth strategy and driving a reflection process on treaty change. The reform of the institutions is of central importance to deal with the challenges – and is a primary obligation of the new European Commission president and the topic of this blog post.   

One early move that Juncker should make is to do away with the current European Commission college structure of one portfolio for each of the 28 member states. This would demonstrate that he is prepared to make changes, and would be a signal to those that are disenchanted with the EU that he recognises their basic concerns, primarily the need for growth and jobs.

An effective Commission would have only a dozen policy areas in which it would take action. While the number of commissioners cannot easily be reduced, it should be acknowledged that not every commissioner can have a full portfolio without leading to inconsistency of policy and excessive activism. A solution would be for every commissioner to have the full rights of a commissioner with a full vote in the college. However, not every commissioner would be responsible for a distinct portfolio. An alternative constellation would consist of several clusters of competences for which several commissioners would be jointly responsible.

A first step should be the appointment of a senior vice president without portfolio responsible for the European growth strategy. The senior vice president would oversee all the relevant Commission activities to ensure that policies are implemented to their maximum effectiveness to promote growth. There would be a particular focus on single market and industry, the digital agenda, science and research, education and skills, and regional policy. The senior vice president would have a small staff, consisting essentially of the part of the General Secretariat currently in charge of the Europe2020 strategy.

Meanwhile, the enterprise and single market portfolios should be merged into a single market and industry portfolio to emphasise that European industrial policy should be about framework conditions and deepening the single market while reducing national regulatory fragmentation. Industrial policy based on subsidies and support for national champions is not the right approach for more growth and jobs in Europe.

The rigorous enforcement of competition rules is central for economic performance. Attempts to make competition policy subject to narrow industrial policy interests are unwarranted, as are claims that it prevents the emergence of European champions. Many sectors remain dominated by national operators in the different national markets, and substantial regulatory barriers still prevent companies, in particular in the services sector, offering their products in other EU countries. The single market agenda is therefore more relevant than ever. However, acknowledging the inherently complex nature of competition policy, a high-level committee of five independent experts should be appointed to review once a year the actions of the European Commission, and give independent advice on the direction of competition policy. Their reports should be public but should not be binding.

The economic and financial affairs commissioner must play a central role in the growth strategy, including by shaping the EU-wide fiscal stance, but she will have to operate independently of the many requests from within the Commission and focus on her mandate and the need to keep fiscal policy credible. In many countries, debt levels are already very high and fiscal consolidation is therefore important.

These moves will help to create a better foundation for a coherent strategy to address Europe's big challenges. These are threefold: boosting feeble economic growth in the face of emerging-economy competition, streamlining the EU's institutional set-up and proving that it is capable of dealing with pressing external matters, and, ultimately, facing up to the need for treaty change in order to clarify the relationship between the euro area and the EU, and move beyond the factional politics of ‘More Europe’ versus ‘Less Europe’ to ‘Better Europe,’ with the right competences allocated to European level while others remain at, or are even repatriated to, national level.

The appointment of Jean-Claude Juncker has been a difficult process, and the signals he sends early in his mandate will be important to heal rifts and set the tone. Changes to improve the functioning of the top-heavy Commission college, and to focus it on the right priorities, will be central.

About the authors

  • André Sapir

    André Sapir, a Belgian citizen, is a Senior fellow at Bruegel. He is also University Professor at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and Research fellow of the London-based Centre for Economic Policy Research.

    Between 1990 and 2004, he worked for the European Commission, first as Economic Advisor to the Director-General for Economic and Financial Affairs, and then as Principal Economic Advisor to President Prodi, also heading his Economic Advisory Group. In 2004, he published 'An Agenda for a Growing Europe', a report to the president of the Commission by a group of independent experts that is known as the Sapir report. After leaving the Commission, he first served as External Member of President Barroso’s Economic Advisory Group and then as Member of the General Board (and Chair of the Advisory Scientific Committee) of the European Systemic Risk Board based at the European Central Bank in Frankfurt.

    André has written extensively on European integration, international trade and globalisation. He holds a PhD in economics from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where he worked under the supervision of Béla Balassa. He was elected Member of the Academia Europaea and of the Royal Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts.

  • Guntram B. Wolff

    Guntram Wolff is a Senior fellow at Bruegel. He is also a Professor of Economics at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB). 

    From 2022-2024, he was the Director and CEO of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) and from 2013-22 the director of Bruegel. Over his career, he has contributed to research on European political economy, climate policy, geoeconomics, macroeconomics and foreign affairs. His work was published in academic journals such as Nature, Science, Research Policy, Energy Policy, Climate Policy, Journal of European Public Policy, Journal of Banking and Finance. His co-authored book “The macroeconomics of decarbonization” is published in Cambridge University Press.

    An experienced public adviser, he has been testifying twice a year since 2013 to the informal European finance ministers’ and central bank governors’ ECOFIN Council meeting on a large variety of topics. He also regularly testifies to the European Parliament, the Bundestag and speaks to corporate boards. In 2020, Business Insider ranked him one of the 28 most influential “power players” in Europe. From 2012-16, he was a member of the French prime minister’s Conseil d’Analyse Economique. In 2018, then IMF managing director Christine Lagarde appointed him to the external advisory group on surveillance to review the Fund’s priorities. In 2021, he was appointed member and co-director to the G20 High level independent panel on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response under the co-chairs Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Lawrence H. Summers and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. From 2013-22, he was an advisor to the Mastercard Centre for Inclusive Growth. He is a member of the Bulgarian Council of Economic Analysis, the European Council on Foreign Affairs and advisory board of Elcano. He is also a fellow at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.

    Guntram joined Bruegel from the European Commission, where he worked on the macroeconomics of the euro area and the reform of euro area governance. Prior to joining the Commission, he worked in the research department at the Bundesbank, which he joined after completing his PhD in economics at the University of Bonn. He also worked as an external adviser to the International Monetary Fund. He is fluent in German, English, and French. His work is regularly published and cited in leading media. 

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