EC scoreboard: Hungarian commissioner Tibor Navracsics got the worst rating

BCW (Burson Cohn & Wolfe), one of the world’s largest full-service global communications agencies, did a survey in which 1,769 stakeholders from the European Union gave their views on the performance of the Juncker Commission. According to their findings, the Hungarian commissioner responsible for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport received the lowest rating.

Will there be a female president from 2019?

In fact, the Juncker Commission (2014-2019) got 46 pc regarding its performance, which might appear rather disappointing but it is broadly in line with similar surveys carried out by Burson during the previous Commission mandates – says BCW’s report. In the case of the individual commissioners, only Margarethe Vestager received a performance percentage above 50 pc  (50.2 pc) because, according to BCW, she was

“the brightest star of the Juncker Commission:

smart, tough, articulate and empathetic.” Since she believes that international giants’ tax avoidance undermines free and fair markets, she fined tech giants like Google, Amazon or Apple for billions of EUR.  Therefore, it is not surprising that many think she should lead the EC in the future.

According to the survey, she is closely followed by Federica Mogherini (High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and Vice-President of the Commission), Frans Timmermans (First Vice-President), Cecilia Malmström (Trade) and President Jean-Claude Juncker. In the case of Juncker, the survey says that, during his presidency, the EU agreed on major reforms to the euro architecture and banking, as well as migration policy. Furthermore, he led a bold push in sustainable development policies, covering climate change, energy and mobility. He was at the wheel during

the worst crises in EU history:

• migration
• near-Grexit to Brexit
• the rise of populism.

Based on all these, he received a 44.4 pc on his performance.

Commissioner Navracsics successful but still the last one on the list

Unfortunately, the lowest-ranked Commissioner is Tibor Navracsics (Education, Culture, Youth and Sport) from Hungary while the last but one is Neven Mimica (International Cooperation and Development). The survey says that Mr Navracsics pledged in 2014 to boost the number of students in higher education, to increase funding for Erasmus+, the umbrella programme that supports education, training, youth and sport in Europe, and to earmark 300 million EUR for grassroots sports. In fact, he secured approval from the College to

double the budget for the Erasmus student exchange programme, 

30 billion EUR for the period of 2021-2027. Despite all these, he finished in the last place on the list.

Interestingly, stakeholders gave very good points for the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michael Barnier (57 pc). The survey says that his experience put him lightyears ahead of his British counterparts and therefore, he was also touted as a potential future President of the Commission.

According to the survey, Vestager is the most supported person to become EC president (20 pc), followed by Alexander Stubb (EPP, 7 pc), Frans Timmermans (S&D; 6 pc), Michael Barnier and Angela Merkel (5-5 pc). Regarding the

top 3 priorities of the next Commission,

stakeholders said that they should be environment and climate, a more democratic EU and dealing with the migration crisis.

Featured image: Wiki Commons By Derzsi Elekes Andor 

Source: europedecides.eu