Frans Timmermans - First EC Vice-President designate, in charge of Better Regulation, Inter-Institutional Relations, the Rule of Law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights. After one week of monotonously disastrous appearances, Frans Timmermans on Tuesday 7 October was hailed almost as a Saviour, the superhero with a warm but authoritarian smile, the Grail in one hand, a whip in the other. At ease in six languages, cracking jokes, fending off (mostly unconvincing) attacks, just a tad severe, with conviction and charisma, he showed himself to be indeed the second president of the Commission. He knew everything, all the dossiers, he avoided traps and pitfalls, he showed no hesitancy and was, together with Federica Mogherini, one of the few who seemed to genuinely enjoy the hearing. He didn’t even take offence when his compatriot, the very tough Liberal MEP Sophia In’t Veld asked him whether he will be the “lapdog of the governments”. He talked straight and seemed not to hide anything: “There are serious shortcomings, and the Juncker Commission will have to show that it is able to tackle them.” He promised he will retreat, after agreement with the Parliament, a whole series of useless regulations. He even gave a concrete example of a piece of legislation that should be repealed: — “One of the biggest blows to the credibility of the EU was the oil can episode.” (This was the failed initiative, last year, that would have forced restaurants to use only labelled, traceable, bottles of oil on tables.) He promised to push tough legislation in the case of young Europeans fighting in Syria-Iraq and who might come back as hardened jihadists, while maintaining all present civil rights. -- “It is mind-boggling”, he says. “Society has the right to protect itself. But we cannot disregard the fundamental rights. We cannot limit rights in fighting terrorism.” He also promised to be inflexible with the Hungarian autocrat Viktor Orban (not a difficult position, they are from different political camps). At the same time, he didn’t accept the suggestion that the troika infringed the rights of Greek citizens. He said: — “The situation in Greece today is almost miraculous. Greece overcame the crisis. Some Greeks lost their jobs and homes, but I wouldn’t say that the troika violated fundamental rights in Greece.” He was repeatedly applauded. About the Romas he said: “I worked in the OSCE on the Roma issue. Little has improved in the last 20 years. We all failed in the EU in a horrible way. And, yes, there is a big temptation of illegality, because illegality is better than starving…” Timmermans was more than convincing, although one would be hard put to distinguish anything “Socialist” in his rigorous, polyglot discourse. He proved to be indeed Juncker’s shadow, éminence grise, âme damnée and alter ego.
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