But he is , together with Ursuala von der Leyen (also known as “Zensursula”), the hate figure of the German blogosphere and known for his law and order approach. So what is the problem?

He is quite fond of  “preventive security” and critics accuse him of undermining the rule of law. He initiated several controversial counter terrorism laws in Germany. He once declared that the presumption of innocence should not be applied to terrorist suspects and that preventive assassinations should be made legal. Controversially, he also suggested that it should be possible for the German army to operate inside Germany.  Schäuble also proposed that people that sympathize with terrorists should not be allowed to use internet and mobile phones. He also proposed to use statements that were made using torture in courts. In that context he also proposed that terrorists should not have the protection of the German Basic Law. Nor surprisingly, he defended the prison camp in Guantanamo Bay as a necessary tool in the fight against terrorism.

I don’t want someone with that kind of thinking in the College of Commissioners.

Schäuble is known to support everything that involves the use of biometric data including fingerprints, eye scanners, DNA tests – you name it!

As German Minister of the Interior he initiated a couple of very controversial data retention laws that allow the German government to store personal  data for six months (everything from telephone and mobile calls to text messages and online behavior). Hence the civil rights campaign called Stasi 2.0. There is already too much support for these kind of measures in different member states, no need to “europeanise” that approach..

And a couple of things that I personally find quite worrying: (1) He actively supported a campaign against double citizenship in Germany in the late 1990s. (2) During the Iraq war he was one of the few German politicians that supported the US approach. (3) And he was heavily involved in the CDU party funding scandal a couple of years ago… A neo-con with a preference for backroom deals, the opposite of what we need in the European Commission.

So, I am rather skeptical about Wolgang Schäuble as the new German EU Commissioner especially if he wants to continue with his security policy, a policy field that is becoming more and more important at a EU level.   The EU debate could turn rather nasty as he is likely to propose (but not necessarily implement!) controversial EU policies…

Of course he perfectly fits the traditional job description of a typical EU Commissioner:  experienced national male politician (= old), end of the career posting to Brussels (= Merkel wants to get rid of him).  Wolfgang Schäuble is unfortunately not a candidate to get excited about…

So, we are interested in two things:

1) Who are the likely candidates that are tipped to become European Commissioner? What are the rumours in your country?

2) Who would YOU like to nominate if you had a say? Who would you support as a candidate?

Use the comments on this blog or head over to Jon’s post that already attracted several comments!

Here is my contribution

Answer to 1) In the case of Germany we have seen rumours that Peter Hintze or Peter Altmeier might be the nominee. But also political figures like Wolfgang Schäuble , Roland Koch and Friedrich Merz were mentioned in the press. I think the race will be between Hintze and Almeier who both belong to the inner circle around chancellor Angela Merkel.

Answer to 2) Germany should nominate  Joschka Fischer to become External Relations  Commissioner and eventually the new High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy . (I am aware that this scenario is very unlikely!) The position will be created after the  successful ratification process of the Lisbon Treaty and will replace both, the High Rep for CFSP and the Commissioner for External Relations (another uncertain scenario..).