Juncker - Tilkannas Meeting
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Ah, the European Commission building... And the Premier Commissioner's offices, also known as Jean-Claude Juncker's third house. Juncker was working in his office, relaxed and following closely the developing events in the Svarnan War, that involved three major powers of the European Union (one of them with nuclear weapons) and two other nations that had only joined for humanitarian purposes. None of them were helping to get Europe back on track to where it should be: a peaceful, calm region where everyone could co-exist in a friendly way. But while he thought on proposing European scale sanctions targeted at the nations that had caused this spike on tensions, he had some other work to do.
Today, the Premier Commissioner would be meeting with the Speaker of the European Council, Iras Tilkannas, who usually got her gender misled during the Council sessions. Juncker did not understand why Tilkannas had had to clarify she was a woman a few times in the Council, but he would not inquire the Speaker about how she felt about that. Instead, the Spanish Commissioner had other plans for Tilkannas that afternoon: together, they would need to set a first draft on what the future European Council should look like. Juncker was not referring to buildings or that architeture stuff he loved, that could be discussed afterwards if needed, but about the composition, the rules... Everything that made the European Council "be" the European Council.
Jean-Claude awaited in his office for Tilkannas' arrival, with everything he needed over his desk. He was ready to talk about such an important matter.
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"No, I'm doing it as we speak. No, no one has paid me off. Don't even suggest that." Nuts, all nuts, thought Iras Tilkanas as she hung up on some Istkalenic functionary. They were all the same way, for whatever reason, inventing imaginary conspiracies in their heads, babbling through the days about nonexistent plots and nonexistent corruption. She was not worried; their nonsense never amounted to anything, no one with any power took them seriously.
Nevertheless, she had to get on with the task ahead of her. The Premier Commissioner had called her to a meeting. And in these times, when even a terrorist could come close to that position, it seemed fairly important to discuss things with him. Preparations had to be made, precautions taken; everyone recognized that.
She entered Juncker's office, sighing and putting her phone in her pocket. "My greetings, Premier Commissioner. Thank you for calling me here. Now, what was it you wanted to discuss?"
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"Ms. Tilkannas!" Juncker said, standing up and greeting the European Council Speaker with two kisses, one on each of her cheeks, as he usually did with everyone he met with: "Welcome to my office, thank you very much for coming. How are you feeling today? Is everything alright?", the Premier Commissioner wondered while he guided Iras into his office. "Please, take a seat. Would you like some coffee, tea, pastries... anything at all?" He asked, before sitting.
Jean-Claude then took a seat and took some papers out of a drawer of his desk. He put them over the table, took a pen and started to speak: "you might be wondering why I have called you. When I first ran for this position, I intended to at least begin a process to reform the European Council, or at least considering its reform. I have thought that it would be a good start if you gave me your views as Speaker about the Council functioning, if you think changes should be made or not and also what you think about other matters related with the Council, like its security".
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"Oh, I'm fine. A bit of coffee, I'm a little tired. And thank you very much for the offer."
"You've managed to guess exactly what my main concern is. The Council is very....well, very dangerous. We have seen quite a few...crazed people as Councillors, for lack of another word, and it is very worrying to me, prticularly as the current security systems seem unable to prevent them from, uh, harming people. There needs to be a way, in my opinion, to screen people before they enter the Council; to make sure that they are sane, to make sure that they do not have...criminal intentions. A sort of preapproval. But it is very controversial...."
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Juncker gave a cup of coffee to the Speaker of the European Council and he served the drink for both of them, while listening to what Iras had to say. He then answered to what the Istkalenian Councillor said:
"I do remember that the Council has had some... remarkable incidents that have compromised not only Councillors' security, but also the personnel security. While I believe some action should be taken, we need to be very cautious about how we approach this. Mandating countries how they should elect their Councillors or telling them what conditions they should have does not seem to be very popular indeed, just look at the now repealed EACA... Maybe the Code of Conduct of the chamber should include a mandate for Councillors to undergo security checks before entering the building? I do not know if that's in place yet, but it would be a good starting point".
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"Of course, we can't impose limits on who member-states elect," said Tilkanas, "apart perhaps some age restrictions. We already have security checks, but they are clearly not strong enough; I'd like to see whether we could increase the Council's security budget. There was also something that your counterpart, Commissioner Harland, mentioned, about prohibiting people with criminal records from assuming European office, which I am interested in supporting - what are your thoughts on this?"
The Kingdom of Spain