European Commission
Malmström

In the US, the Republicans’ choice for presidential candidate remains open.  Mitt Romney is now looking likely to being Obama’s rival candidate, although it is far from settled. Many of us remember the last presidential campaign and the promise made by Obama that he would close Guantanamo and make sure that each and every prisoner there would get a fair trial. Today it is exactly ten years since the first prisoners were taken to Guantanamo, and four of which have been under the Obama administration. The inhuman conditions of Guantanamo Bay and alleged lack of respect for fundamental rights for its prisoners is truly unacceptable for a nation which promotes freedom and democracy and the protection of human rights around the world. Guantanamo is in many ways a symbolic issue, making it ever more important that Obama keeps his promise.

At the Commission meeting today we discussed the economic crisis and the negotiations on the Agreement on financial stability, the so called “fiscal compact”. The actual drafting of the text has proved harder than expected by those present the night of the summit 9th December. Progress is being made but there is still a lot that needs to be clarified. It is, unfortunately, an intergovernmental agreement, but the Commission is also involved in the negotiations with the aim to that the so-called Community method should be respected and that as many countries as possible can participate.

We also talked about the situation in Hungary, where many of the new laws adopted raise serious concerns, such as those relating to the judges’ independence and the Central Bank independence. Even within the other so-called cardinal laws, there is a lot which does not quite feel compatible with European law and our common values. Our lawyers are now analyzing the laws in detail after receiving the Hungarian translations, and we will decide next week what measures are appropriate.

In a few minutes the Commission is leaving for Copenhagen to meet with the Danish Presidency. We’ll talk about priorities for the Spring – the key word now, and for the foreseeable future, is growth. Working towards this, a big priority on my horizon is to make it easier for companies to recruit experts to Europe, when particular skills cannot be found here. 

Current rules are cumbersome, for example, if a large international company like IBM needs an IT specialist for a project in Belgium they must both apply for a work and a residence permit. This is a process that in most countries takes a very long time. If  IBM then would like to move the expert to a new project in neighbouring Netherlands, for example, they must redo the entire process. If businesses are to grow they not only need the right staff and skills, but also simplified bureacracy. I have therefore presented a proposal to simplify the process through harmonization across the EU. But unfortunately it has taken longer than expected to agree on this proposal. It concerns 17, 500 people for the whole of EU, people with skills that are not found within the EU today and people that the companies are in desperate need of. Each of these are important for growth and investments. I now hope that, together with the Danish Presidency, we will be able to come to an agreement at EU level.