{"id":602,"date":"2012-11-23T11:09:22","date_gmt":"2012-11-23T11:09:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rulesofreason.wordpress.com\/?p=602"},"modified":"2012-11-23T11:09:22","modified_gmt":"2012-11-23T11:09:22","slug":"why-eu-commissioners-are-poor-politicians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/?p=602","title":{"rendered":"Why EU Commissioners Are Poor Politicians"},"content":{"rendered":"

Note: a highly-opinionated \u00a0piece re-posted from the EU blog<\/a> I contribute to<\/em><\/p>\n

EU Commissioners might be seasoned bureaucrats but make for lousy politicians. Viviane Reding, currently responsible for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, and Commissioner since 1999 (!) is surely a masterful mandarin, but doesn\u2019t play the politics game very well. And by politics, I don\u2019t mean the internal bickering between the Commission, the Council and the European Parliament: I am sure she is a world champion at that \u2013 I mean politics as the art of pleasing the public <\/b>while getting things done. Perhaps after so many years in the Brussels bubble Commissioner Reding has forgotten altogether that pleasing the public is part of the politics game as all. But when public support for the EU is hitting a new low, I can\u2019t help but think that the feelings of the public should be high on the Commissioner\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n

In September this year Viviane Reding announced that the Commission is coming up with a proposal to set a compulsory 40-% quota for women on boards of public companies. Immediately, nine countries (including<\/a> the Netherlands and Britain) and a few fellow Commissioners (including<\/a> several women) expressed very strong disagreement. This, however, was not enough to put the brakes \u2013 on 14 November<\/a>, the Commission approved a watered-down version which \u2018sets an objective of a 40% presence of the under-represented sex among non-executive directors of companies listed on stock exchanges<\/i>\u2019, a “flexi quota<\/i>” and a statement that \u2018given equal qualification, priority shall be given to the under-represented sex<\/i>\u2019. Now, I haven\u2019t much to say about the quality of the proposal as such \u2013 to put my cards on the table, I agree there is a problem with the unequal representation of women on company boards, and I don\u2019t know enough about the effects of quotas to have a strong opinion about the proposed solution.<\/p>\n

What is blindingly clear, however, is that the European citizens do not feel that this is an issue for the EU to solve<\/b>, and there is virtually no popular support for such action coming from Brussels. How do I know? It\u2019s data collected by the EU!<\/p>\n

According to Eurobarometer, in 2007 ten percent of the European population agreed that the EU has an important role to play<\/b> in combating discrimination (page 26, QA11<\/a>). That\u2019s just one out of every ten Europeans! Only three percent mentioned that they would turn to the EU in case of discrimination at the workplace (p.32, QA 13). In all fairness, 77% said they want to see more women in managerial positions, but no indication they wanted Commissioners poking their nose into that, or a policy which guarantees 40% of these positions for women.<\/p>\n

If anything the case for European involvement into the matter has become even weaker since. A red-hot new survey<\/a> made available last week shows that only 31% of European citizens agree that there is widespread gender discrimination in their countries:\u00a0 seven out of ten Europeans find gender discrimination rare or non-existent<\/b>. Moreover, only 22% agree that being a female puts you at a disadvantage when looking for a job (page 87, QC4). In fact, more people feel that their accent might be a problem. Again, this is not to say that, objectively speaking, there is no underrepresentation of women in top positions. But it seems that the majority of people do not find gender discrimination at the workplace very widespread, nor a political priority.<\/p>\n

In 2009<\/a> Europeans generally supported measures for monitoring<\/b> hiring practices and the gender composition at the workforce, but 58% found enough was already being done<\/b> in that respect. Interestingly, the new survey from 2012 doesn\u2019t even ask people whether they think that it\u2019s a good idea for the EU to get involved or whether a \u2018compulsory quota\u2019 policy is the way to go. These are quite curious omissions given that the survey is otherwise quite comprehensive and comes out in the same week as the Commission\u2019s policy proposal.<\/p>\n

In summary, there is no broad support for further EU action in combating gender discrimination and even less so for a policy of quotas. So why is Viviane Reding pushing this agenda in the face of absent popular support and explicit opposition from national governments? She probably strongly believes that this policy is the right and progressive thing to do. And that the Commission has the obligation to lead rather than blindly follow popular sentiments. But the fact remains that people, and many governments, don\u2019t like the idea.<\/p>\n

Irritating an increasingly hostile public with such proposals is not a very smart thing to do<\/b> because the policy would never be approved by the member states anyways, but you still get the bad press. What is stuck in people\u2019s minds is the fact that the Commission \u2018approved\u2019 something that they didn\u2019t like: they won\u2019t remember that the Commission only proposes and the Council and the Parliament decide, and that the initial proposal has been quickly watered-down to a more widely-acceptable version.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why Reding\u2019s recent actions are not smart and politically savvy in the way in which an EU-bashing politician like Nigel Farage can be politically smart and savvy. The forefathers of the EU from Jean Monnet to Jacques Delors managed to be both true to their ideals and politically shrewd in order to achieve them.<\/p>\n

New policies like women quotas do not win new supporters<\/b> for European integration. The people who like the idea of positive discrimination are likely to be the people who already support the EU: the more educated, cosmopolitan, and well-off. For the average woman, a position on the board of a top company is equally distant with or without a quota for females. But such policies would alienate people<\/b> who disagree with the substance of the policy and are already suspicious of the EU. Which, as the numbers show, are by far the majority.<\/p>\n

In her term as\u00a0Information Society and Media Commissioner, Viviane Reding made a lot of efforts to increase the visibility of the European Union. Well, now people definitely pay more attention to what the EU does. And they often don\u2019t like it. Now it\u2019s time the Commission starts to pay more attention to what the people have to say<\/b>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Note: a highly-opinionated \u00a0piece re-posted from the EU blog I contribute to EU Commissioners might be seasoned bureaucrats but make for lousy politicians. Viviane Reding, currently responsible for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, and Commissioner since 1999 (!) is surely a masterful mandarin, but doesn\u2019t play the politics game very well. And by politics, I don\u2019t mean the internal bickering between the Commission, the Council and the European Parliament: I am sure she is a world champion at that \u2013 I mean politics as the art of pleasing the public while getting things done. Perhaps after so many years in the Brussels bubble Commissioner Reding has forgotten altogether that pleasing the public is part of the politics game as all. But when public support for the EU is hitting a new low, I can\u2019t help but think that the feelings of the public should be high on the Commissioner\u2019s mind. In September this year Viviane Reding announced that the Commission is coming up with a proposal to set a compulsory 40-% quota for women on boards of public companies. Immediately, nine countries (including the Netherlands and Britain) and a few fellow Commissioners (including several women) expressed very strong disagreement. This, however, was not enough to put the brakes \u2013 on 14 November, the Commission approved a watered-down version which \u2018sets an objective of a 40% presence of the under-represented sex among non-executive directors of companies listed on stock exchanges\u2019, a “flexi quota” and a statement that \u2018given equal qualification, priority…<\/p>\n

Continue readingWhy EU Commissioners Are Poor Politicians<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[16,38],"tags":[139,187,241,243,271,291,292,509,538,608,625,682,695],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7g3hj-9I","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":689,"url":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/?p=689","url_meta":{"origin":602,"position":0},"title":"Bureaucrats as Policy-makers","date":"February 25, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Everyone loves bitching about bureaucrats but few know what it is exactly that they do. Ed Page's new book 'Policies without Politicians' provides plenty of insights. As I mention at the end of this book review, everyone who theorizes or\u00a0criticizes bureaucrats should read the book as a reality check. A\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bureaucracy"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":619,"url":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/?p=619","url_meta":{"origin":602,"position":1},"title":"The European Commission vs. the People","date":"December 6, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Note: re-post from the sister-blog The Commission has recently published its vision about the future of European integration. The report is more than ambitious calling for full banking, economic, budgetary and political integration, including \u2018dedicated fiscal capacity for the euro area\u2019 which I believe means taxation powers for the EU.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "EU governance"","img":{"alt_text":"New Picture","src":"http:\/\/eurosearch.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/12\/new-picture.png?w=350&h=200&crop=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":193,"url":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/?p=193","url_meta":{"origin":602,"position":2},"title":"Social science in the courtroom","date":"December 2, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Everyone who is interested in\u00a0the sociology of science, causal inferences from observational data,\u00a0employment gender discrimination, judicial sagas, or academic spats should read the latest issue of Sociological Methods & Research. The whole issue is devoted to the Wal-Mart Stores,Inc. v. Dukes et al. case - \"the largest class-action employment discrimination\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Observational studies"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":845,"url":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/?p=845","url_meta":{"origin":602,"position":3},"title":"5 simple things to know about asylum policy in the European Union","date":"September 16, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Migration is quickly turning into the defining issue of our time. This might sound clich\u00e9, but is true. Not only does migration top the list of most important problems facing society, but it is also divisive in a way no other issue is. Unlike problems like inequality or the environment,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "EU governance"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":544,"url":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/?p=544","url_meta":{"origin":602,"position":4},"title":"Ethnic job discrimination in the Netherlands","date":"October 29, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I have more than one reason to care about job discrimination based on ethnicity in the Netherlands. A new study shows that there is plenty to worry about. In short, the researchers sent identical job applications varying only the name - Dutch vs. ethnic (Antillean, Surinamese, Turkish, Moroccan). The 'Dutch'\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Field experiments"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":720,"url":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/?p=720","url_meta":{"origin":602,"position":5},"title":"The evolution of EU legislation (graphed with ggplot2 and R)","date":"March 19, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"During the last half century the European Union has adopted more than 100 000 pieces of legislation. In this presentation I look into the patterns of legislative adoption over time. I tried to create clear and engaging graphs that provide some insight into the evolution of law-making activity: not an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Data visualization"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.dimiter.eu\/thumb\/figure1.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}