Barroso II by Burson-Marsteller EMEA

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THE 2010-2014

EUROPEAN COMMISSION 1 YEAR ON...

Introduction A year ago the Barroso II Commission took office. As the first Commission to do so under the Lisbon Treaty, Barroso II faced the task of giving practical effect to the provisions of that text, as well as to its spirit - making the EU more democratic, more efficient, and better able to respond to the economic and political challenges of the day. In addition to this perhaps daunting challenge, Commission President Barroso and his 26 colleagues have also had to live up to the commitments they made to the European Parliament. At the time Burson-Marsteller recorded the visions outlined and policy pledges made to allow us all to follow the Commission’s progress. In order to mark the Commission’s 1st Birthday we asked you, the actors in the world of EU policy-making, to tell us how you thought they did. How did they perform in this first year? Did they live up to their policy commitments? And what do you see as the most important policy challenges for the next year in office? We received responses from across the policy-making spectrum, both in and outside of Brussels. We also opened the floor to the future actors, those currently studying EU affairs, who provided some passionate opinions. We hope that you find the answers interesting - we certainly did. And if you find you’d like to have more detail on how the 1 year old Commission is perceived the full results are available on our website.

Enjoy!

......................................... David Earnshaw, CEO, Burson-Marsteller, Brussels

About you... Your gender is...

Your nationality is... Belgian 7, 4% Rest of EU 24, 2%

Responses Total Responses

63,9 ............. 207 ............. 324

36,1 ............. 117 .............

Rest of the World 5, 4% Romanian 3,7% Spanish 5,9% Italian 7, 7% Greek 4, 6%

British 12% Dutch 5,6% French 14, 5% German 9%

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Your age bracket is... 41,7%

20-30

24,4%

31-40

11,1%

51-60

EU official 24,7%

Consultant 14,8%

18,8%

41-50

61+

Your professional activity is... Other MEP Student 6,2% 2,2% 9,6%

Lawyer 2,8% Corporate 5,6% Think tank 4%

National o fficial 8,6% NGO 9,9%

Your policy expertise 28,4%

Foreign Affairs

15,4%

Development

Employment & Social Affairs

16,4% 22,2%

Industry

17,9%

Research

22,8%

Energy

23,5%

Internal Market

12,7%

Consumer Protection

Tourism

12,2% 4,9% 14,5%

Regional Development Agriculture Rural Development Fisheries & Maritime

10,5% 9% 5,6%

12% 4% 12,7% 9,3%

Civil Liberties

29%

Public Health & Food Safety

10,2%

Legal Affairs

15,1%

Environment

Transport

Sport

16,7%

Monetary Affairs

Culture Education

18,5%

Trade

Journalist 3,4% Trade Association 8,3%

Justice & Fundamental Rights

14,8%

Home Affairs

10,2%

Constitutional Affairs

12,3%

Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Rights & Gender Equality Petitions

7,1% 1,5% 16%

Climate Budget

6,8%

Competition

12%

Digital Agenda

11,1%

Justice Taxation & Customs Union

7,7% 5,6%

Enlargement & European Neighbourhood Policy Humanitarian Aid

16,4% 7,7% 02

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THE 2010-2014

EUROPEAN COMMISSION 1 YEAR ON...

Barroso II - How they did in 2010 The Barroso II European Commission has been in office for almost a year. On a scale of 1 - 5 (equivalent to E to A), how would you rate its overall performance so far?

OVER A

35,4%

% 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0

26,7% 18,3%

15,5% 4,0% Total Responses

Disappointing

Below average

Average

Good

Excellent

322 .................

If you compare Barroso I to Barroso II, then Barroso II is...

How would you compare it to previous Commissions before Barroso?

How does Barroso II compare with your national government?

THE S A M E ( 51,6% ) ° .................................................................

WORSE ( 47,5% ) .................................................................

BETTER ( 45,6%) .................................................................

AL INDIVIDU

C+ D

..............

overall commitments José Manuel Barroso

..............

overall commitments Catherine Ashton

B+ C-

..............

overall commitments Viviane Reding

B+ C

..............

overall commitments Joaquín Almunia

..............

C+

..............

overall commitments Siim Kallas

..............

overall commitments Neelie Kroes

C- C-

..............

overall commitments Antonio Tajani

C- C+

..............

overall commitments Maros Sefcovic v

..............

C+

..............

overall commitments Janez Potocnik v

..............

C-

..............

overall commitments Olli Rehn

..............

C+

..............

overall commitments Andris Piebalgs

..............

C+/ B .............. commitments

overall Michel Barnier

C- C+

..............

overall commitments Androulla Vassiliou

C- C+

..............

overall commitments Algirdas Semeta v

C+ C-

..............

overall commitments Karel De Gucht

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Overall Assess

ent: must do bem tter

What is immediately striking about this survey is that the general perception of the first year of the Barroso II Commission, both as a whole and as individual Commissioners, is that it must do better! One word captures the performance of the Barroso II College over its first year: average. This applies both in terms of overall performance and for living up to the individual commitments made at the outset. Admittedly, Barroso II is only twelve months into its life, with its members having another four years in which to excel. But on current perceptions, it appears that we need to be guarded about expectations of success. This general perception of Barroso II is clear across all groups of respondents but with some small nuances here and there. So, for example, NGOs and students have the most negative opinion of the Commission as a whole, with higher percentages than in other categories ranking it as “disappointing” or “below average”. While hardly comforting, it is also true however that the image crisis facing the Barroso II Commission is apparently no worse than that faced by national governments in Europe: compared with the national government they know best, nearly 75 per cent of respondents ranked the Commission as “better” or the “same”. But compared with its predecessors, nearly half of all respondents considered Barroso II to be “worse”. Intriguingly, respondents from the “consultant” category were slightly more polite and heavily ranked this Commission as being the “same”as its predecessors. Not surprisingly after a horrendous first year Vice President Ashton came lowest overall and in terms of living up to her commitments. But this needs to be measured against the unique challenges of her post-Lisbon role and the (diverging) expectations that there are for it. No other European politician will ever face the same mixture of organizational, diplomatic and policy challenges as those facing the first incumbent of this position. Indeed, some guarded optimism might be in order for the future: national officials in particular were slightly more positive about her performance. Overall, there is not much good news for the Barroso II Commission coming out of this survey. Barroso II is now at the end of its first full year – but it can hardly be judged to have hit the ground running. It is far too early to reach a definitive judgement but according to the results of this survey some considerable additional effort is required.

C+ C

..............

overall commitments John Dalli

C- C+

..............

overall commitments Máire Geoghegan-Quinn

C- C

..............

overall commitments Janusz Lewandowski

C- C+

..............

overall commitments Maria Damanaki

B- B+

..............

overall commitments Kristalina Georgieva

C+ C+

..............

C- C

overall commitments Günther Oettinger

..............

overall commitments Connie Hedegaard

..............

C-

..............

overall commitments Johannes Hahn

..............

overall commitments Cecilia Malmström

C+

C- C+

..............

C-

overall commitments Dacian Ciolosc

A B C D E

Excellent Good Average Below average Disappointing

overall commitments Stefan Füle v

..............

C+

For the detailed results and methodology, please go to:

..............

overall commitments László Andor

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THE 2010-2014

EUROPEAN COMMISSION 1 YEAR ON...

Barroso II - Looking ahead in 2011 LL OVER A

What do you consider to be the Barroso II Commission’s most important overall policy challenge in its second year in office?

Climate change

7,1% 26,7%

Future financing of the EU

20,2%

Banking crisis Total Responses

322 .................

Relations with third countries (such as China, India, USA) Demography (ageing population, immigration)

5,0% 2,8% 29,5%

Creating growth and jobs Other

8,7%

AL INDIVIDU Vision and Leadership ............................................ (............................................ 42,5%) ............................................ ............................................ José Manuel Barroso

External Action Service ............................................ (58,1%) ............................................ ............................................ ............................................ Catherine Ashton

Single Justice Area ............................................ (40,2%) ............................................ ............................................ ............................................ Viviane Reding

............................................ State Aid Modernisation ............................................ (22.8%) and Financing ............................................ Services of General ............................................ Economic Interest (22.8%) Joaquín Almunia

............................................ Transport ............................................ Infrastructure ............................................ (44,6%) ............................................ Siim Kallas

D igital Single Market ............................................ a............................................ nd e-commerce (............................................ 33%) ............................................ Neelie Kroes

Andris Piebalgs

Innovation Union ............................................ (36,1%) ............................................ ............................................ ............................................ Antonio Tajani

C ommon Transparency ............................................ R............................................ egister (29,5%) ............................................ ............................................ v

Maros Sefcovic

R............................................ esource Efficiency (............................................ 53,8%) ............................................ ............................................ v

Janez Potocnik

A............................................ stable Euro (68,5%) ............................................ ............................................ ............................................ Olli Rehn

V............................................ alue for money in EU D evelopment Action ............................................ (............................................ 25%) ............................................ S ingle Market Act ............................................ (............................................ 47,7%) ............................................ ............................................ Michel Barnier

M arket needs for ............................................ E............................................ ducation and Training (............................................ 30,4%) ............................................ Androulla Vassiliou

T............................................ axing Financial Sector (............................................ 30,8%) ............................................ ............................................ v

Algirdas Semeta

T............................................ rade negotiations (............................................ 41,1%) ............................................ ............................................ Karel De Gucht

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One challenge stands out for President Barroso as he enters the second year of his second term of office: the need to demonstrate vision and leadership. Overwhelmingly, respondents to this survey focused on the vacuum of leadership which they consider that this Commission contains. Key words which appear again and again in respondents’comments are the need for “courage”, “leadership”, “better communication”, “more ambition” and “explanation”. Similarly, the need to challenge national governments (even occasionally) rings out loud and clear in the comments submitted by respondents. There is a clear winner for the most important policy challenge facing the Commission, namely, creating growth and jobs, with both future financing of the EU and addressing the banking crisis coming close as the second and third “most important” policy challenges. There is little surprising about perceptions of the main policy challenges for some Commissioners but the strength of feeling among respondents for some of these priorities is impressive: the need for Olli Rehn to focus on a stable Euro, Maria Damanaki on preventing over-fishing and ecosystem degradation, and Dacian Ciolos on CAP reform all score very highly. For other Commissioners the importance of different priorities was more balanced and varied greatly depending on respondents’ profession, age and even gender. Though achieving lower scores, respondents clearly endorsed, nevertheless, the need for John Dalli to prioritise GMOs, nanotech and cloned food, Algirdas Semeta to examine the taxation of the financial sector, and Janez Potocnik to address resource efficiency. c

G MOs, Nanotechnology ............................................ a............................................ nd Cloned food (29,2%) ............................................ ............................................ John Dalli

E............................................ nergy Efficiency (............................................ 28.2%) and Low-carbon E............................................ nergy Vision (28.2%) ............................................

G lobal Approach to ............................................ M i gration (45%) ............................................ ............................................ ............................................

Günther Oettinger

Cecilia Malmström

M aximising national ............................................ r............................................ esearch efforts (............................................ 29.6%) and ERA (............................................ 29.6%)

C............................................ onnect Regions to 2............................................ 020 Strategy (............................................ 35,8%) ............................................

C............................................ A P Reform (77,5%) ............................................ ............................................ ............................................

Máire Geoghegan-Quinn

Johannes Hahn

Dacian Ciolosc

M ultiannual Financial ............................................ F ramework (54,5%) ............................................ ............................................ ............................................

L............................................ ow-carbon Economy R............................................ oadmap (25%) ............................................ ............................................

Janusz Lewandowski

Connie Hedegaard

P............................................ revent overfishing a............................................ nd Loss of ecosystems (............................................ 67,8%) ............................................

C............................................ roatian accession (............................................ 39,7%) ............................................ ............................................ v

Maria Damanaki

Stefan Füle

R............................................ einforce Disaster R............................................ esponse capacity (............................................ 26,8%) ............................................

A............................................ geing workforce (............................................ 38,8%) ............................................ ............................................

Kristalina Georgieva

László Andor

For the detailed results and methodology, please go to:

www.bmbrussels.eu 06

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Follow the launch of the survey on 9 Feb. 2011 on

37 Square de Mee没s 1000 Brussels - Belgium Tel. +32 2 7436611 Fax. +32 2 7336611

www.bmbrussels.eu

#ECSurvey