EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – A group of EU commissioners from smaller member states is growing increasingly angry with a number of their larger-state colleagues, perceiving their actions as being driven by national interests rather than the greater European good.
"We have sworn in front of the European Court not to work for our national governments back home and I am taking it seriously," a frustrated commissioner from a smaller EU country said in an off-the-record conversation last week.
"Of course it is much easier when you come from a small member state where national leaders don't really attempt to influence the course of EU history," the commissioner added.
The implication that EU legislation is subject to the whims of powerful national capitals such as Berlin, Paris or Rome is nothing new. But the financial crisis and an enlarged union with greater powers for the Brussels-based institutions are all contributing to growing pressure, say seasoned observers.
"The bigger the EU becomes the more it becomes intergovernmental and the more the commission is regarded as an executive secretariat for the council," says Belgian MEP Derk Jan Eppink, a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists group in parliament.
Author of Life of a European Mandarin – Inside the Commission, Mr Eppink previously worked in the cabinets of former commissioner Frits Bolkestein and subsequently that of Siim Kallas.
"Commissioners from larger member states frequently feel they have to produce the goods for their governments back home, while those from smaller countries realise they don't have the capacity to do this," he said, pointing to former commissioner Gunter Verheugen's willingness to stand up for German industry.
Another official identified issues of public procurement, state aid and EU infringement cases as areas where national lobbying is frequently intense.
"Senior Italian officials within the commission are known for arguing their national case overtly," the contact said. The source added that the practice of defending a member state view is not necessarily "anti-European," as it can prevent blockages further down the EU legislative pipeline.
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