Brussels, 04/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - In the view of José Bové (Greens/EFA, France), it is a “scandal”. For others, it is a warning to the European Parliament not to allow itself to be sidelined. It was with mixed reactions that the leaders of the European Parliament's groups commented on Herman Van Rompuy's announcement to call an informal meeting of heads of state and government immediately after the European elections in order to assess the initial indications.
On Friday 31 January, Van Rompuy called an informal summit on 27 May - the objective of which is to prepare for the appointment of the future heads of the EU, and especially that of the president of the European Commission.
It is rather a rather swift move which “aims to pull the rug from under our feet”, Bové said angrily on Tuesday morning. Under the terms of the Lisbon Treaty, the European Parliament will appoint the president of the Commission on the basis of a proposal from the Council and this candidacy will have to reflect the result of the elections. This is the first time that this arrangement will be applied.
In Bové's opinion, in the evening of 25 May, “we will have a European landscape and the Parliament will have to present the Council with a candidate”. A European summit scarcely two days after the elections will not leave the Parliament time, says Bové, who is also running as the European Greens' candidate to succeed European Commission President José Manuel Barroso. This is a timescale that is all the more unwelcome as the official date for the appointment of the EU heads is set for the end of June at a regular summit.
Hannes Swoboda (S&D, Austria) said that a conference of presidents of the European Parliament's groups had been called for 27 May “because it's us who must take the initiative”. This meeting will enable the Parliament to have a proposal to make to the Council, said Swoboda, noting a fresh difference of interpretation of the Treaty. “Our interpretation (…) is that the European Parliament has the duty of proposing a candidate to the Council and after the discussion at the Council, this proposal can be returned to the Parliament”.
Rebecca Harms (Greens/EFA, Germany) summarised the Parliament's problem. The Parliament and all the political groups are preparing for “critical elections by presenting candidates” and “with our politicised programmes we want to make it understood that the Parliament is the institution that will propose the president of the European Commission”.
Council control just two days after the elections would make the whole exercise null and void - an exercise on which the European political parties have been working for months, to determine their heads of list.
Van Rompuy has never hidden his lack of enthusiasm for the “personalisation” of the campaign - and neither has Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has said on several occasions that she does not want anything automatic between the results of the elections and the choice of the president of the Commission.
In the view of Guy Verhofstadt (ALDE, Belgium) - who is also running to succeed Barroso - the Council nevertheless has the right to call this meeting and to organise its work as it wants. And while Verhofstadt believes that “it's a little soon - 48 hours after the elections”, it is up to the Parliament to organise itself, he said.
Joseph Daul (EPP, France) is just as serene. “As far as I know, this meeting on 27 May is only an informal dinner. We will not be making any proposals”, he said. “Everyone is free to hold discussions”, Daul stated, adding that the Parliament remains “free to vote”. (SP/CG/transl.fl)