Brussels, 27/11/2014 (Agence Europe) - The defeat was resounding. MEPs in Strasbourg voted by 461 to 101, with 88 abstentions, on Thursday 27 November to throw out the motion of no confidence in Jean-Claude Juncker's Commission. The motion was put down on 18 November by Nigel Farage's EFDD and the MEPs belonging to Beppe Grillo's Five Star Movement, assisted by their Europhobic sallies among the non-attached.
Was it because he saw defeat coming that Farage did not vote for the motion that he had initiated? Forty EFDD MEPs did, however, take part in the vote, along with 37 non-attached members. The vote, nonetheless, highlighted tensions within some groups. The ECR and the GUE/NGL Groups faced a significant dilemma: 16 ECR MEPs voted for the resignation of Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, as did six members of the radical European Left. The GUE/NGL, most of whose members abstained, also lodged a request for a motion of no confidence but failed to gather the required number of signatures. In a press release, the group says that it was “united” in its opposition to Juncker, who, it says, is responsible for the system of tax avoidance highlighted in the LuxLeaks affair and the austerity measures imposed on a number of countries. The GUE/NGL Group will focus on its call for a Parliamentary commission of enquiry to be set up and on Commission investigations into tax rulings.
The Greens/EFA Group, which has also called for a commission of enquiry, was divided between those who wanted to thwart the far-Right initiative and Eurosceptics and a handful of MEPs who wanted to send a message to Juncker “not to give in to extremism” as Pascal Durand said. Ten of the group's members chose to abstain.
“Damp squib”
Within the other political families - the EPP, S&D and ALDE Groups - there was less need for soul-searching before voting against the motion. One EPP member, however, abstained and one S&D MEP voted for the no confidence motion. According to Philippe Juvin (EPP, France), the motion “put down by the populists” was nothing but a “damp squib”. Parliament “must not allow its conduct to be dictated by populist parties which, yet again, have called the European Commission into question purely for political grandstanding”, he said.
Marc Tarabella (S&D, Belgium) said that this motion showed that “Eurosceptics are useless”. “Flagging up issues is one of the tasks of MEPs but when the solution they propose, to the disregard of the people, is the destruction of Europe, they serve no purpose or serve only their own interests”, he stated. (SP with MD)