There are not many politeness rules among politicians, but most adhere to it: Retire with comments about your successor.
Jean-Claude Juncker, the current EU Commission President, does not challenge that. No, he said on Thursday in a television interview with "Euronews" that he does not like it when opposing the European way of life and migration. "Accepting those in Europe from far away is part of the European way of life," Juncker said. "That should be specified."
Although Juncker did not mention Ursula von der Leyen by name, the incumbencies of the incumbent chief of commission can be understood as the rebuke of his designated successor. She had presented her future commissioners in Brussels on Tuesday. One of eight vice-presidents is Margaritis Schinas from Greece. He is to take care of the will of the Leyens for the protection of the "European Way of Life", translated freely so the protection of the European way of life.
As it became clear later, this portfolio should also include migration policy, one of the most contentious issues in the EU. And that was the beginning of Leyen's first serious test in Brussels.
Water on the mills of the populists
Images of crusaders or the EU flag with barbed-wire stars made the rounds on social media. "Is that from Leyen's European way of life?" Commented users. The fortress rhetoric of the right-wing populists has become the official language of the European Commission, the accusation. Quite a few interpret the title as the harbinger of a new European policy on foreclosure.
Social Democrats and Greens in the European Parliament are calling on the Leyen to change the title. "For us, the European way of life is about values," said Socialist Group leader Iratxe Garcia on Thursday. But the connection with migration is water on the mills of the populists.
The greens see it similarly. "I hope that von der Leyen changes the title," said Ska Keller, the group leader of the Greens, the SPIEGEL. "Even if it is not meant, the title suggests that migrants endanger the European way of life, which is not so." To clarify these questions, Parliament President David-Mario Sassolli from Leyen has asked the parliamentary group to meet next week.
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Future EU Commissioners: From the Leyens WunschteamKatalin Cseh, a liberal MP from Hungary, even accused the Leyen in the "Financial Times" of copying the language of Viktor Orbán. And even the liberal leader of the Liberal group, Dacian Ciolos, who was otherwise very attached to Leyen, criticized the choice of words via Twitter: "Protecting the European way of life is misleading and confusing at the same time."
Responsible for the fight against terror - and for migration
Anyone who knows about the Leyen knows that the accusation that they want to break with Europe's rights is nonsense. If the former Minister of Defense has noticed something in the past, it is because she is usually left of her party, the CDU, and not on the right.
More fitting is the question of whether it really makes sense to locate the migration, a mega-topic of the EU for the next few years and decades, in a herb and beet department. A look at the Mission Letter to the Vice President in spe Schinas, the letter in which von Leyen describes his tasks, shows what the Greek should be responsible for in the future.
There is talk of Europeans being better prepared for work in the digital world. The responsible vice-president should take care of the fight against terrorism ("security union") and also the migration question. "We need to take legitimate concerns and concerns about the impact of illegal immigration on our economy and society seriously," writes von der Leyen. Order of the Commissioner is now to organize a restart in the completely unhappy EU migration debate. Oh yes, culture, youth and sports are also part of the portfolio.
"Knitted a bit with the hot needle"
Of course you can weave a thread between all these topics, others have already tried. For example, Manfred Weber, the top candidate of the European People's Party, who had to make way for Leyen after the European elections, spoke in the election campaign of the "European Way of Life". For him, that was the defense of European values: rule of law, economic security, but also protection against crime and illegal immigration.
The bonds Weber and now Leyen take on Emmanuel Macron's "Europe Protecting" are obvious. Macron managed to make a rhetorically convincing connection between protection against economic decline, terrorism and illegal immigration, for example in his speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg in April 2018. But to forge a powerful unit of authority on the whole is something else.
Von der Leyen probably did not know what turmoil she would cause with the "European Way of Life". The future president and her people were clearly trying to give the eight vice-president succinct titles. There is also the vice-president in charge of "an economy that serves the people" or the chief diplomat for "a stronger Europe in the world".
It almost seems as if a copywriter led her to the pen. "Maybe that was a bit of a joke," criticized parliamentary president Sassolli from Leyens departmental title. "That's why it came to terms that look bizarre."
Still does not want to improve from the Leyen
The first reports that Leyen was reconsidering the matter and wishing to delete the "European way of life" from the title are nevertheless premature. Nothing will happen so quickly, it says from their environment. And anyway, does not the first articles of the Lisbon Treaty reflect well on the title and the office layout? It also speaks of the EU as an area of freedom, security, external border controls and the fight against crime. Is article 2 of the contract the blueprint for the future Schinas department?
The future Vice President for the "European Way of Life" itself is apparently not completely convinced of this argument. Schinas has already taken the matter for granted and writes on his Twitter profile that he has been nominated as "Vice President for Migration, Security, Social Rights, Culture and Youth". From the "European way of life" not a word.
As a former press officer of the EU Commission, Schinas has learned when it's time to roll the flag.
