Juncker in PsyOps maneuver
(BRUSSELS2) In military terms, this is called "PsyOps", psychological warfare, or in good old naval warfare, a "smoke curtain".
The team of the President of the European Commission "Juncker" excels in these maneuvers intended to hide the movements of the movement, distilling confidences or not, true or false information, punctuating the expectation and respecting a calendar, "his" calendar. This is what he did during his campaign to access his post at the head of the European executive. And that's what he still practices, for the distribution of the portfolios of the Commission which should know its epilogue this Wednesday normally (with a JC Juncker press conference in Brussels scheduled for noon).
The chief of staff of the future President of the Commission, Martin Selmayr, is also well aware of the attitudes of the press, as well as of political leaders in Brussels, for having been in turn spokesperson and chief of staff (of Viviane Reding) . He knows how to use time to weave a protective thread and thus give his boss as much leeway as possible to decide what he wants (or what he can).
We have thus seen, lately, a whole series of organization charts appear on the next Commission, "revealed" first by the Financial Times and then Euractiv. Some contained "real" information, others less. Mr. Selmayr went on his own comments, promising "a surprise" for (this) Wednesday or Thursday. And doubt has crept in, to the point that what was certain yesterday is no longer certain today. No one dares to engage in the little game of predictions, who will occupy which portfolio. The fog is total. And Juncker thus gained what he wanted... more leeway.
The objective of the former Prime Minister of Luxembourg is, in fact, to regain the ground lost in recent years to restore the European Commission to its place at the center of the European game, to regain some margins of decision. The "keeper" of the European boutique today, José-Manuel Barroso, while trying to appear as the most popular, has often only resulted in appearing as the "clerk" of the Member States. Barroso did not hide this ambition. "The Commission is at the service of the Member States" he had indicated from his first months. It wasn't a few words. This was the direction of the policy pursued. But it came at a price. Far from regaining its capacity for attraction, its friendly power, the Commission has lost what made it strong, its capacity and its margins of decision, its sense of initiative.
On this point, the appointment of Donald Tusk is for Juncker a "godsend". Not a member of the Euro Zone, the Polish Prime Minister will have to rely for the conduct of economic policy... on the Commission. Cleverly the Luxembourger also intends not to occupy too much the field of external representation either, by leaving his future high representative, Federica Mogherini, to ensure the "job". Foreign policy remains in any case - whether we like it or not - a prerogative of the Member States, at the very least a competence shared between the European Union and the "28" States. And a President of the Commission has multiple tasks to manage to try to "nibble" this skill.
If this redistricting of functions is effective, if the European Commission regains some of its lost luster, we could have in the coming months a European system, no doubt a little more readable for the citizen and more effective. It is by this yardstick that we can appreciate, at their fair value, the "PsyOps" operations of the Juncker team...
(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)
