TAE: Cutting red tape starts at the top! The European Commission should finally lead by example.

Statement by the President of the TAE, Michael Jäger, in response to the enquiry/article in *Welt am Sonntag*, 21 July 2024

Put simply, an EU Commission with 27 members is oversized.

The principle of ‘one Commissioner per country’ still applies, which means that every EU Member State appoints a Commissioner, ‘even though the EU Treaty has for years provided for a significantly smaller Commission – keyword: the rotation principle’.

The European Taxpayers’ Association (TAE) calls on the heads of state and government, as well as the European Commission, to finally implement this provision. Should this not be possible in the coming EU legislative term, a binding decision to reduce the size of the European Commission must be taken for the subsequent legislative term.

After all, if the European Commission is serious about cutting red tape, it should start within its own ranks and thus set a good example. Experience in recent years shows that more EU staff have not led to less red tape! On the contrary: this bloated EU apparatus, with its more than 50 Directorates-General, agencies and departments, is creating ever more bureaucracy to the detriment of citizens and businesses, and ultimately costs billions.

Cutting red tape is urgently needed, particularly at EU level – and that starts at the very top. The Commission must be made smaller! In this case, less is more!

On the size and number of EU Commissioners:
Since the 2009 European elections, the number of EU Commissioners should actually have been lower than the number of Member States, as provided for in the Treaty of Nice (signed on 26 February 2001, entered into force on 1 February 2003).

The Treaty of Lisbon, signed on 13 December 2007 and ratified by all Member States, stipulates that, from 2014, only two-thirds of the Member States may appoint a Commissioner (see Article 17(5) of the EU Treaty). This would mean that the European Commission would have only 18 Commissioners. Unfortunately, however, the Treaty of Lisbon also contains a derogation: the European Council may decide unanimously to change this number, and this provision has already been invoked. In May 2013, the Heads of State or Government of the EU Member States unanimously decided to retain the principle of ‘one Commissioner per country’ until further notice. The provisions of the Treaty of Lisbon are only to apply once the EU has 30 member states, but no later than 2019.

Munich/Brussels, 18 July 2024