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HR should not expect much from new employment commissioner

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Peter Reid

8 Feb 2010 | 13:26

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Most years we can say: “A new year and a new European Presidency”. 2010 is very different - it is also a new decade. Further, it’s a new European Commission as well as a new European presidency (which, for the first six months of 2010, will be Spain).

We now have two new senior European posts. First, members states have created a council president, or “president of Europe” - held by the former Belgian prime minister, Herman Van Rompuy. The post has a very grand title for what is actually a mundane job. There will be inevitable confusion with the commission president Jose Manuel Barosso, creating a new version of an old proverb “too many presidents spoiling the broth”.

To make matters worse, the commission also has a new vice-presidential post entitled “high representative on foreign affairs and security policy”, shortened to “HR”. The UK commissioner Baroness Ashton was appointed to this role, and is now known as HR Ashton. Unlike the council president, whose job is bureaucratic, the high representative is charged with leading EU foreign affairs and creating an EU foreign office whose size and budget will dwarf the UK’s.

Whether the EU foreign service will amount to anything is a subject of much debate. Success will involve a Brit undermining our own national sovereignty in foreign policy matters, while failure - which is highly likely - will be laid at the UK door. Damned either way. One can only wonder what persuaded our prime minister to believe pushing someone into this post was a shrewd move.

Commissioners must pass “confirmatory hearings” with the European Parliament before their appointment. Not quite a modern day version of the old Roman games, but they still manage to produce a little blood. Pithy questions are supposed to be asked, but the truth is these are a political charade where the sensible course of action is to read up on your subject and give frankly anodyne answers.

Confirmatory hearings are a rude introduction to the politics of Europe. National political parties are aligned to the political groupings whose power dictates both progression and protection. The hearings have complex rules and candidates are expected to provide answers to written questions. Baroness Ashton, flummoxed by the question: “Should Europe press for a seat on the UN Security Council?”, answered boldly that she did not know and would have to check what the policy was. Truth, however, is sometimes misplaced and as a result of her honesty Ashton has had a very rough ride.

The commissioner of particular concern to HR professionals is László Andor from Hungary, who is responsible for employment and social policy. He may speak English fluently but his answers at the hearing were grey and devoid of controversy. Unlike Ashton, he knew how to deal with the difficult question. In responding to an accusation of being a communist that rejected globalisation, he replied that this was a “gross exaggeration” but that the allotted one minute to answer was not enough to respond. Now, that is how to respond to a question you do not like and get away with it.

So what can HR professionals expect from Andor? He gave little away and kept to the broad outlines of existing policies on employment and the fight against poverty and social exclusion. He identified the law concerning posting of workers and working time as requiring action (but only after a thorough impact assessment) and defended migration. No big surprises then. Andor is an economist by training and, aside from academia and working in banks, his only other work experience has been for the Hungarian trade unions nearly 20 years ago. Only time will tell whether this will cloud his judgment.

Comments

1. At 10:19 on 09 Feb 2010, Peter V wrote:

The economy is slowly rising from the hole of recession. It isn’t yet over, but one good sign that would end soon (hopefully) is the slight change in unemployment rate. The unemployment rate is at a record high point, but what's even higher is the rate of underemployment. More people are working in jobs that are below their previous salary level or qualification, and willing to accept lower salaries just to keep money coming in and not running for payday loans. The lower salaries have a lot to do with why people aren't spending as freely as they had previously.
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The UK may draw comfort from having lower measured unemployment than the EU average but in truth we are no better than a mid-table performer

John Philpott, CIPD’s chief economic adviser