Commission Debate, Feb/March 2022

[Kingdom of Reitzmag]

"My concern is the safety of civilians in conflict. And I think that any weapon of mass destruction is a threat to the lives of innocent civilians if it falls to the wrong hands. Yet, you're here Ms. Larsen wanting to forcefully intervene with nations' affairs and supporting the widespread presence of these weapons that could harm ordinary people. I mentioned also that all these plans will go through the European Council and that I would rather support what they have decided on this issue rather than force it myself. But then you come here telling people that this is what you want. Isn't that the true malarkey I have said all along? My primary principle throughout my campaign is for intervention only in five categories, namely Organization-wide foreign relations, Environmental Sustainability, Human Rights, International Finance and Development, and Warfare. What I want to achieve here is intervention under Human Rights and Warfare, to protect the people of Europe who have long sought peace and not war. Member-states have the right to defend their country in different means due to the variety of threats that might face them, our mission is to keep these weapons away from threatening innocent civilians."

[Istkalen]

Ms. Porter, I ask what you plan to do during a crisis. It is the responsibility of the IAC to mediate; how will you act? In my opinion, decisive and principled action is necessary, especially at the brink of war; any hesitation, and we might very well arrive at apocalypse.

[BrumBrum]

I would contact the nations involved in any conflict and bring them to the table as soon as possible. I would get both sides issues and come out with a compromise. Much as was done in the Islands crisis but it would also highly depend on the situation sometimes it would be better not to intervene right away, the last thing we need is the EU to be seen as a European policeman. We must work in cooperation with nations not overriding them.

[Vayinaod]

Time for questions submitted to the debate from across Europe.

From Inimician Major-General Ettore Stuart to Biden: “How can Biden possibly say he solved the Adventuranza crisis when it was several nations' decisions to de-escalate that, well, de-escalated the situation?”

From a concerned Inimician citizen to Sarah Porter: “It’s all well and good you value national sovereignty, but you have thus far not mentioned a single concrete policy point you would attempt to achieve during your time in office. I dare you to name three.”

From Anon. to Larsen
“You have no elected or even government experience, do you view that as a positive and negative? What do you plan to do to overcome that lack of experience?”

From Anon. To Kalessed
“What current European Agencies do you seek to reform and update? How will decentralization of some of these agencies improve their efficiency in a Europe whose respect of EU organizations is already low?”

You have two minutes to answer, as well as rebuttals for 90 seconds. (((300 words: 200 words).

((OOC: you have 24 hours to submit answers. So until 1600 GMT March 02)))

[BrumBrum]

Sara Porter:I respect that you ay want a concrete policy. There is actually two or three I would say is a strategy rather than a policy though the first thing is I will tour the parliaments of Europe asking them what they want , I will also meet the heads of state or governments of Europe in a meeting in Europolis and thirdly I will continue the current European Constitutional Committee possibly turning it into a pernament forum but definitely adding more nations. This will allow me to get input from the nations over what they want. I think this is the way to go forward not being a EU dictator to the nations setting the agenda but the nations setting the agenda with me as the servant. "

[Istkalen]

Thank you for the question. The primary objects of my initial reforms will be the EHO, the ESA, and the Arts Collaboration Fun. All are relatively bureaucratic organizations which are not completely necessary in their current positions, which sometimes actually overstep legislative bounds, which can be limited to merely coordinating the work of agencies or of independent national-level research institutions, such as those I propose the EU actually sponsor the creation of, but not interfere in. I will later focus on overhauling certain financial and monetary institutions in conjunction with the Premier Commissioner, but this will be mostly to get them to work, although we will explore the feasibility of adding a degree of popular participation in order to prevent corruption. Finally, although these are not really agencies, I want to increase the degree of popular participation that we see in institutions like the Commission and the Council. Citizens should be able to send to us directly their proposals, their petitions, and their comments on our proposals, in a single platform. This will be implemented using existing 'infrastructure,' such as Juncker's app.

Now, regarding decentralization: it will reduce inefficiency. It will reduce redundancy and overlap between EU and national-level agencies and make bureaucracies more accountable - not merely to the EU but also to a wide extent to member-states, as it will be they who under such proposals will have a greater degree of control. There will in general be more streamlined coordination due to this reduced redundancy, but also a far greater degree of autonomy and control for member-states than before. Doing this will almost certainly rehabilitate both the activity and position in the eyes of the people and the nations of these agencies.

[Kingdom of Reitzmag]

"I'd like to clarify, that I did not solve the situation in the Adventuranza Strait. But what I did is call for de-escalation, and a peaceful resolution. I put my trust in all member-states, and that is why I did not intervene in the conflict. These nations have self-control and they know what they're doing, the EU doesn't need to lecture them on what to do. Member-states are sovereign and they have the right to do what they want, this is why I set-up the 5 category-based intervention principle I will implement if I win the Premiership."

"From the last term, I focused more on entrusting member-states as well as reforming the EU. This term, my focus will be expanded into the Rights of the European People, as well as draw the first traces of the Line of Sovereignty that the EU must limit itself to. I know that many people thought I did not do anything from my last term, even jokingly saying I was sleeping in my office at the Commission Headquarters. However, I'd like to remind everyone that change comes in many ways. Some populist eurofederalist malarkey want you to feel there's change when there really is nothing happening, but I don't need you to feel change to know that it really is happening. Folks, I hope that this is clarified. We must understand that true change need not to be bragged or felt, change simply needs to work and it will make you feel it is working eventually."

"I hope that with this, Europeans know that their money was not was not simply wasted by the EU and had been used efficiently for the betterment of everyone."

[Spain]

It is indeed true that I have no previous experience in politics, but I do not believe that will be a huge problem for me. I think it is something positive because that will allow me to learn more than I already know about. I joined the business sector with a little idea about it, now my enterprise succeeds. I'm able and will do the same for the EU. If we judged people in elections for their experience, no new politicians would take over from the old ones. Our current Premier, Ms. Čikarová, had only had journalist-related employments and she even was a journalist before becoming Premier. Has that made her a bad Commissioner? Absolutely not.

When it comes to tackling my lack of experience, I'll keep doing what I have done so far, that being meeting with former politicians, friends of mine, receiving some lessons from them. I have also started to read several books, which I finished recently and I have taken lessons on debating and communication. My business' sector experience also forced me to take lessons in law, and I have a Masters Degree on European Political Studies. Real experience is the only thing I lack of, but I can guarantee the person that sent this question and every single European citizen I will be a great Premier Commissioner who delivers, who makes her promises become true and that will do the best for the European Union. Nothing far away from that. Mr. Biden, during this four months, has done nothing for you, he has not done anything for the Europeans, he became everything he criticised and decided to ignore European affairs arguing he does not want to become a sort of "European policeman". I will not be like Biden, I'll be there for all of you.

[Spain]

Mr. Biden is hurt one of his predecessors dared to do something about his nation’s islands projects in the Caspian and that’s when he became pro-sovereignty. However, his sovereign principles vanished when he managed to win an election, then he became invisible and just followed the policies Ms. Čikarová implemented and gave his approval. But here I’ve the list of shame for Mr. Biden, the list of things he has done. Listen up, “folks”:

During Mr. Biden’s Commissionship, he just made a statement on the Strait Crisis, appointed the directors of certain EU institutions in an opaque way, created a constitutional convention that has not yet released any important information, we don’t even know if they have met already and created a magazine that hasn’t published anything! That is everything he has done.

He claims change “need not to be bragged or felt, change simply needs to work”, because if we had to feel it, I assure you Biden would have already been given the sack. The only things he cares about are sovereignty and sleeping. Europe’s about to enter a war? He doesn’t care. We need someone who speaks and delivers, not someone who just speaks and does nothing.

[Vayinaod]

To all the candidates from….ahem…. “Silly Moose”….

“The European Development Agency currently has the budget of 100 100 000€, how will you act if its budget gets depleted? How much from the Future Initiative Allotment would you be willing to allocate to the EDA?”

You have two minutes to answer, as well as rebuttals for 90 seconds. (((300 words: 200 words).

((OOC: you have 24 hours to submit answers. So until 1700 GMT March 03))

[BrumBrum]

Sara Porter:I would like to thank you for this great question. While I do not normally have a policy nations have decided they want an European Development Agency. The only problem? Its so unfundeded it might as well be a chocolate teapot. The DU asked for a few billion Euros to do a solar project just the sort of thing the EDA should be able to support m what did they offer a pathetic 600 million Euros. So the GEF funded it all in the end. I would set a budget of over at least 15-20 billion euros per year or support that. I think this is the necessary amount if we are to meet the green transition goals and to level up development of nations so poorer nations in this union can become more prosperous and quickly transition. This is all currently in the budget already and this should be priority. I will also seek to make sure that at least 40% is reserved for nations with below 25,000 euros per capita GDP. This should help turbocharge the LEDC's to become middle income and rich countries. We must do more to support our poorer members and quicken a green transition to save the planet and beat poverty.

[Istkalen]

I am in favor of expanding the EDA budget alongside the provision of "startup" funds for the related democratized research and development institutions I propose the EU sponsor, which may be pursued under the same umbrella, and will seek to cooperate with the Premier Commissioner to accomplish this. All of this in total will come up to roughly 20 billion, all of which will be used not on bureaucracies but instead completely returned to the people in the form of infrastructure. I am in support of allocating 5 billion from the future legislative allotment as of now for all of these projects in total, as the budget will be proposed in the term after this one, although not more due to a fear of excluding other potential projects from receiving funding.

---

Ms. Porter, I cannot comprehend why some must be shut out of using 40% of such a fund. Everyone should be able to access the development funds if their project is within and meets the requirements of the act itself, especially when just transition is so necessary. I also ask whether you are in support of Cllr. Mizrachi-Roscoe's cuts to the surplus, which make expansion of the EDA difficult at best. I also ask how you will fund an increase to 15 billion.

I finally ask you how significant of a role should the EDA play in development? I believe funds from the EDA should be used primarily but not solely to help build the infrastructure needed to begin development and transition - electrification, transportation, and the like, as well as education, complemented by the other half of my development plan, the creation of independent research and development institutions, building the social infrastructure needed to continue development independently of international institutions, and ensuring continued economic sovereignty, preventing exploitation. But, again, what is your opinion?

[Spain]

Thank you, Silly Moose, for this amazing question! First things first, I have to make clear that whoever is elected on this election to become your Premier Commissioner won’t be able to change or pass a new budget. I wish I could, because the European Development Agency needs more money and that has been proven with the time. The current Future Initiative Allotment is set on 11 billion Euros, so the Commission would be able to allocate up to 5 billion Euros to said institution. If I am lucky enough to be elected twice and have the budget done my way, I swear I will give the EDA more funds and resources.

I now would like to ask Ms. Porter, the unofficial Biden’s spokesperson and I believe, a friend of her country’s Councillor, Mr. Roscoe, if she is supportive of the amendment the European Council passed and that her country’s Councillor proposed. He did not only gut the budget, not allowing the European Union to progress in the foreseeable future, but also trying to reduce the amount of money that comes to Europe. Sovereignty, is the only excuse we heard. We need to bring back the original contributions, because the Europeans need more money to be sent to the several institutions and organisms we have within the European Union. And to those thinking that the non-spent money is kept in Europe, let me tell you all guys those are blatant lies. Europe gives the surplus back to member states per law. If anybody tries to ever convince you about that, tell them they are lying and show them the proofs!

[BrumBrum]

Sara Porter: If the money wasn't being spent on a regular basis it wasn't needed . Even with the cut the EU still gets 49 billion euros projected and could fund a 15 billion euro EDA and still have 2 billion euros left over. So why would there be a need to increase the contribution. I'm not against the contribution being raised but if it is then it should be spent not just held for while then passed back to the member state , by the time the state gets it back they may have budgeted already for the next financial year and if they had to borrow that money they have paid unnecessary interest. I do think if contributions are raised then it should mostly be spent a 10% or 20% FIA that can be returned at the end of the year is fine but when you have a 60 billion euro surplus spending 33 billion euros only out of 93 billion euros either the spending was too low as was argued at the time or the money is not needed especially when those types of surpluses are regular.

[Kingdom of Reitzmag]

"If elected, some of the key goals I want to achieve are reform of the budget contribution system, redistribution of the budget, and the enhancement of the EU's loan systems. On Budget System Reform, we have and will continue to seek the advice of financial experts as well as member-states on what budget system they see as fair. Some ideas that we have come up was a population-based budget, return to the 0.1% system, and a few other ideas we could implement. I do not support the current 0.05% of GDP contribution system and would rather support returning the former system of 0.1%."

"For redistribution of the budget, yes I do believe that the EDA needs more funds. We will prioritize and divert funds into more useful institutions, such as the European Development Agency. Currently, we are looking at reducing the spending of the European Commission and other institutions that had big surpluses and divert these funds to institutions like the EDA as I said."

"Finally, the enhancement of the EU loan system. We are looking at merging all loan agencies of the EU into one big loan agency. This will allow for centralization of loan funds and affairs. This will also allow for flexibility of the funds and easier auditing when necessary. We will also look into a better interest rate system to that based on the inflation rates which will be measured by the European Central Bank."

"With all these in mind, how much of the FIA should be transferred to the EDA? The answer is not simple, because the FIA is not the only part of the budget where we can take funds to replenish the EDA. But we can estimate, about 5 Billion Euros or more if we follow the 0.1% system we support."

[Istkalen]

Ms. Porter, please answer the questions I asked. Where will you get your proposed 15 billion from, why should 40% of the fund be reserved for only the poorest member-states, and what do you think the aim of EDA loans should be?

[BrumBrum]

Sara Porter:I will look at working with amenable councillors in the Council to introduce an emergancy request for extra money for the EU to go to the EDA so we can keep some of the FIA just in case working with the premier who controls this aspect. As for why 40% should go to the poorest member states only is they need the most simply put UD don't need as much per capita for example and neither do richer countries like Spain and Leagio but if we want to help all transition to a green sustainable economy poorer nations like Nofoaga , like Galland and Aspern need alot of extra help garunteeing 40% goes to nations like them and North Diessan and Pravoslaviya ensures this happens. It directs money to where it is most needed not the one with the best ability to write bids and hire people to put bids for money in.

[Vayinaod]

"Do you support a 'European Green Deal', and if so what does that mean exactly for you? How will you help countries whose current industries would be devastated potentially by rapid transition across Europe such as Vayinaod and the Duxburian Union?"

You have two minutes to answer, as well as rebuttals for 90 seconds. (((300 words: 200 words).

((OOC: you have 24 hours to submit answers. So until 2100 GMT March 04))

[BrumBrum]

Sara Porter:I support the European Green New Deal. Is it enough on its own ? No and certainly nations need to look how to go further in a way that fits their society and economy. Also I believe funds from the EU should be available particuarly to poorer nations to make sure they can also go carbon neutral before 2040 , this shouldn't be a luxury only rich nations can afford and rich nations should step up and provide the funds to help poorer nations who may I remind them are often poor because of exploitation in the past by these big nations like the Duchies , Spain and Reitzmag among others fomerly are the reason they cannot afford to do things on their own today. I want to be clear I am in no way singling out those nations since its the way things were back then, but we must provide more aid to develop the poorer economies in a sustainable way from the richer nations of the union using European brotherhood and sisterhood.

[Spain]

Yes, I support a European Green Deal, yet that means everyone should be compromised with them and that no nation should be left behind. When the talks were held in Bergen, many nations did not attend the summit, for example Vayinaod, the Duxburian Union, Angleter… The Green Deal summit began as a failure and ended up as a failure, due to a lack of agreement and participation. To me, the EGD should be something we all commit to, and that is not an imposition but rather a compromise with the European society and our citizens. Every nation must have its different rhythm and we just need to set 2 goals: when the whole region is transitioning to non-polluting vehicles and when are we achieving zero emissions. The rest should be decided and managed by the nations and not by the European Union, we cannot pretend that everyone acts at the same time.

Now when it comes to countries like the Duxburian Union or Vayinaod for example, Europe needs to be there and we need to guarantee funding for the projects to foster development towards this area. We can’t allow that a states-made fund is able to give money to projects while the European Union isn’t. And that takes me to the point that we were discussing before, not only contributions should go back to their previous level, something Mr. Biden’s friends in the Council gutted; but also we should raise the budget so the European Union can afford funding projects like the one proposed in Azrekko. The EDA will play a big, crucial role in the future of the EU and we must protect it at all costs, encourage its use and more importantly, convince every single country that investing in the EDA is investing in their citizen’s future.