Kallas takes the safe route
Road-test of Europe’s would-be transport commissioner reveals him to be a cautious driver.
Siim Kallas played it safe during his nomination hearing with members of the European Parliament, but by doing so the Estonian failed to grapple with the thorniest questions of the transport dossier.
After five and a half years looking after the European Commission’s internal laundry as commissioner for administrative affairs, Kallas wanted a bigger job. José Manuel Barroso, the Commission’s president, obliged by offering him transport, a medium-sized portfolio with lots of interest groups vying for attention. But at his nomination hearing with members of the European Parliament today, it was not evident that Kallas has big ideas.
“I really want to do something in five years,” he told the MEPs enthusiastically. But what? Beyond well-meaning generalities, it was not obvious. The Estonian candidate was clear about what he liked: more harmonisation, train travel, safer roads and simpler rules – and no doubt if he had been asked, complimentary apple pie for all passengers.
But he did not deak with issues such as how to reconcile rising transport demand with cutting pollution. Barroso has promised that a transport and climate package will be one of the priorities of the next Commission. Kallas signed up to the polluter-pays principle, when he said he was firmly committed to the Eurovignette directive, legislation currently stalled in the Council of Ministers that would make lorry drivers pay the environmental cost of using the roads. But he sounded uncertain about using prices to change behaviour. When asked about green taxes, he said: “I would consider a rational share of the burden and some eco-mechanism, but to raise costs to consumers, passengers, business, what to say, what is the right word… at least it is not popular at all.” Eurovignette and green taxation are not the same thing, but his answer did not inspire confidence that he could persuade recalcitrant national governments to support a directive that would increase costs for lorry drivers in the cause of the environment.
Neither did Kallas, a one-time president of the Estonian cyclists union, say whether he favoured one type of transport over another. Should the EU promote trains or planes, cars or buses? Or does the commissioner think that this kind of “modal shift” is just a pipedream? Either way, he did not say.
Kallas had clearly done his homework – indeed, he even referred to having read his briefing notes. The “seven areas of concrete action at European level” that he would pursue were reeled off confidently. Facts and figures were marshalled with the precision you would expect of an economist who once ran the Bank of Estonia.
He had also read the commissioners’ ‘green cross code’ on avoiding controversy. On whether the EU should draft laws on mega-trucks, the extra-large lorries that are 25 metres long, he hedged. As a driver, mega-trucks made him uncomfortable, he said, “but if you ask different experts, experts have different views”. Well, quite.
The commissioner had also learned the lesson that flattering MEPs is the way to proceed in these hearings and he did this with diligence. He got in two compliments within the first five minutes of his speaking time – “given the experience of this committee I cannot imagine my work without your knowledge”, a sentiment that he went on to repeat.
Fact File
SIIM KALLAS
Transport
Nationality: Estonian
Political Affiliation: ELDR
Previous job: European commissioner for administration, audit and anti-fraud
Age: 61
Most topical statement
“It is very bad that some countries already use body-scanners without any properly agreed standards. And it is even worse without any proper discussion. It is a huge question.”
Siim Kallas announces that he is in favour of a common EU approach on airport security scanners.
Most common refrain
“I totally share your view.”
Most pointless question
Jacqueline Foster, a British conservative, bemoaned the lack of a single computer reservation system for railway passengers – a fair point, but one which had already been made by another MEP. Kallas agreed it was ridiculous, as he had the first time this point was raised.
Giommaria Uggias, an Italian Liberal, also gets a mention in this category for deciding to ask a question, which as he said “has been decided that a colleague would ask…but I would like to put it anyway”.
Kallas will have no trouble winning MEPs’ approval, but, if he is to be a transport commissioner to remember, he will need to be bolder than he was today.