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The Juncker Commission's Ten Priorities

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The Juncker Commission's Ten Priorities The Juncker Commission's ten priorities An end-of-term assessment IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS EPRS | European Parliamentary Research Service Authors: Étienne Bassot and Wolfgang Hiller PE 637.943 – May 2019 EN This publication provides an up-to-date overview and assessment of the delivery by the European Commission of the various legislative and other political initiatives flowing from the ten priorities defined by its President, Jean-Claude Juncker, when the Commission took office in 2014. The paper draws on a wide range of EPRS publications and updates a previous edition, The Juncker Commission's ten priorities – State of play in autumn 2018, published in September 2018. It has been compiled and edited by Isabelle Gaudeul-Ehrhart, with contributions from across the Members' Research Service and the Directorate for Impact Assessment and European Added Value of EPRS. The following policy analysts, in particular, contributed to the analysis: Didier Bourguignon and Angelos Delivorias on priority 1, Tambiama Madiega, Marcin Szczepanski and Shara Monteleone on priority 2, Gregor Erbach on priority 3, Nora Milotay on priority 4, Christian Scheinert on priority 5, Jana Titievskaia on priority 6, Shara Monteleone and Sofija Voronova on priority 7, Anja Radjenovic on priority 8, Elena Lazarou on priority 9, and Laura Tilindyte on priority 10. The graphics have been prepared by Nadejda Kresnichka-Nikolchova and Giulio Sabbati, and are derived from the on-line 'Legislative Train Schedule' application, launched by Parliament to track progress on the Commission's legislative proposals. LINGUISTIC VERSIONS Original: EN Translations: DE, FR Manuscript completed in May 2019. DISCLAIMER AND COPYRIGHT This document is prepared for, and addressed to, the Members and staff of the European Parliament as background material to assist them in their parliamentary work. The content of the document is the sole responsibility of its author(s) and any opinions expressed herein should not be taken to represent an official position of the Parliament. Reproduction and translation for non-commercial purposes are authorised, provided the source is acknowledged and the European Parliament is given prior notice and sent a copy. © European Union, 2019. Photo credits: © European Union, 2019; EP – Michel Christen. PE 637.943 ISBN: 978-92-846-4802-3 DOI:10.2861/618373 QA-04-19-390-EN-N [email protected] http://www.eprs.ep.parl.union.eu (intranet) http://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank (internet) http://epthinktank.eu (blog) The Juncker Commission's ten priorities Executive summary This edition closes the cycle of the European Parliamentary Research Service's bi-annual monitoring of the Juncker Commission's ten priorities. After the last plenary session of the 2014-2019 European Parliament, it assesses the extent to which President Juncker, together with the college of Commissioners as a whole, has delivered on what he announced when he took office, and subsequently through the Commission’s annual work programmes and his State of the Union addresses. It also considers the progress made by the twin branches of the EU legislature – namely the Council and the European Parliament – on the basis of the Commission’s proposals. What is the state of play of the various legislative and other initiatives announced by the Commission since taking office in 2014? How many of the commitments made have led to formal proposals? And how many of those proposals – whether in the form of legislation, other major political initiatives, or international agreements – have been brought to fruition, thus demonstrating that the EU institutions have collectively 'delivered'? The statistical breakdown indicates that, overall, six months before the end of its mandate, the Commission had tabled nine out of ten of the proposals foreseen. At the end of this legislature, two thirds of the Commission's proposals had been fully agreed, if not yet formally adopted, by the co- legislators. The exact situation is set out on page 2 of the text that follows. Of the 547 proposals foreseen, 512 have been submitted (94 per cent), of which 361 have been adopted (66 per cent). There are 151 proposals (28 per cent) which have not so far been adopted, and where the outcome may depend on the institutional transition this year. Of these, 115 (21 per cent) have been proceeding normally through the legislative process, while 36 (7 per cent) have either been proceeding slowly or are blocked. The qualitative evaluation explains what lies behind these figures, from rapid adoptions to lengthy negotiations and disagreements between or within institutions, and assesses them in the broader context of the challenges faced by the European Union in 2019. In some areas, the European Commission transformed difficulties into opportunities (this is the case with achievements in the area of trade, and in security and defence, for example). In others, the evaluation suggests that its proposals lacked the necessary ambition or complexity to meet the challenges (the digital single market and the economic and monetary union come to mind), were tabled too late (for example on the single market), or progressed on one aspect at the expense of stepping back on another (as was the case with some aspects of migration policy or the union of democratic change). On the eve of the May 2019 European elections, this paper seeks to provide an independent, objective and authoritative tool for all those interested in assessing the performance of the current Commission and the follow-up given to its initiatives. It is both exhaustive – in covering all the ten priority areas that the Commission set itself – and selective – as it focuses, for each priority, on the main initiatives and their latest developments. It aims to be both quantitative and qualitative: for each of the ten priorities, it offers a quantitative snapshot of the various initiatives at the key stages of their adoption, complemented by a qualitative assessment of the situation. These graphs are regularly updated on the 'Legislative Train Schedule', which features on the European Parliament's website. Étienne Bassot and Wolfgang Hiller European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) May 2019 I EPRS | European Parliamentary Research Service Table of contents 1. Introduction ___________________________________________________________________________________ 1 2. Main developments in the implementation of the ten political guidelines _________________________________ 3 Priority 1: A new boost for jobs, growth and investment ________________________________________________ 3 Priority 2: A connected digital single market __________________________________________________________ 6 Priority 3: A resilient energy union with a forward-looking climate change policy ____________________________ 9 Priority 4: A deeper and fairer internal market with a strengthened industrial base __________________________ 12 Priority 5: A deeper and fairer economic and monetary union ___________________________________________ 15 Priority 6: A balanced and progressive trade policy to harness globalisation _______________________________ 18 Priority 7: An area of justice and fundamental rights based on mutual trust ________________________________ 21 Priority 8: Towards a new policy on migration _______________________________________________________ 24 Priority 9: A stronger global actor _________________________________________________________________ 27 Priority 10: A Union of democratic change __________________________________________________________ 30 3. Main references _______________________________________________________________________________ 33 Terminology used in this analysis Proposals foreseen for the term: Legislative proposals, and to a lesser extent initiatives such as communications and action plans, announced by the European Commission in its annual work programmes or State of the Union addresses. Proposals not submitted: Legislative proposals, and to a lesser extent initiatives such as communications and action plans, announced by the European Commission in its annual work programmes or State of the Union addresses, but which had not been tabled by 18 April 2019 (the final day of the last plenary part-session before the elections). Proposals submitted: European Commission initiatives that have been submitted to the co-legislators – European Parliament and Council. Proposals not yet adopted; progress now pending transition to new legislature: this ‘unfinished business’ category includes: - Proposals proceeding normally: Proposals under consideration by the European Parliament and Council in the normal course of the legislative procedure; - Proposals proceeding slowly or blocked: Initiatives blocked by an institution or under negotiation for more than two years; or legislative initiatives or legislative proposals announced by the European Commission but with no follow-up for more than nine months. NB: While ‘unfinished business’ automatically lapses with the end of the legislature, the new Parliament can decide to continue work on any such proposal. Moreover, even when a first-reading position has been adopted, the new Parliament may invite the Commission to refer specific proposals to it anew. Legislation adopted: Legislative proposals finalised and adopted by the two co-legislators. For the purposes of this final edition, the figures include legislative proposals agreed by the co-legislators and adopted by Parliament as of 18 April, but still awaiting formal adoption by the Council and/or final
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