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Confronting the democratic deficit
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the embryonic demos. But there is even less chance of governments agreeing to pan-European than national elections of commissioners. A second criticism of the proposal is that elected commissioners would find it harder to fulfil the Commission’s core responsibility of representing the European interest, as opposed to their own national interest. In order to win election, candidates might promise to help any number of special interests. And once the commissioner was installed in Brussels he or she might shamelessly promote his country’s or party’s priorities. That would be a danger if the commissioners were able to seek re-election. But there is no particular reason why commissioners elected for a single term should be more nationalistic than those currently appointed by governments, who are eligible for second terms. The reality today is that all commissioners represent national interests to a greater or lesser degree. Thus when the Commission adopted Sir Leon Brittan’s scheme for a New Transatlantic Marketplace, in the spring of 1998, the French commissioners followed their government line by opposing the proposals. It is sometimes desirable that the Commission does take into account national viewpoints, so that it does not propose too many laws of the abolish-the-British-pint variety that hurt national sensibilities. The Commission should remain the body that seeks to promote the general interest against the particular interests of states. Once they arrive in Brussels, commissioners should—like members of the board of the European Central Bank—be independent. A third criticism—and one heard within the Foreign Office—is that having non-renewable terms of office would invalidate the whole idea of making the Commission more accountable. If commissioners could not seek reelection, electorates would not be able to “kick the rascals out”. That is true, but the commissioners would be responsible to and sackable by the European Parliament. And so long as national electorates could “kick the rascals in”, if only once, in a contested election, the Commission’s democratic credentials would be greatly strengthened. The fourth criticism is that the Commission should be placing a greater emphasis on managing and policing the market, rather than writing new