On Tuesday 5 September, the European Commissioner-designate, Iliana Ivanova, promised that she would “under no circumstances try to go beyond the mandate granted by the Treaties” and would scrupulously respect the competences of the Member States in the exercise of her future mandate within the ‘von der Leyen’ Commission.
During her hearing before the parliamentary committees responsible for education, culture, youth and sport (CULT) and research (ITRE) (see other news), she demonstrated a good knowledge of the issues within her remit if appointed, without however announcing any particularly noteworthy initiatives. Able to speak in English, German and French, she called for “rapid, efficient and targeted” action to make the most of the remaining fourteen months of the von der Leyen Commission’s mandate.
In particular, in response to a question from Diana Riba i Giner (Greens/EFA, Spain), who asked her about respect for women’s rights in sport in the light of the ‘Rubiales’ affair following the Women’s World Cup won by Spain this summer, Ms Ivanova felt that this issue, and gender mainstreaming more generally, could be promoted through “recommendations” and awareness-raising campaigns, such as the awarding of specific prizes.
These tools are “not binding”, but they do provide support for certain initiatives, she noted. Responding to Tomasz Frankowski (EPP, Poland), she also stressed the importance of sport and initiatives such as the ‘European Week of Sport’ (23-30 September) in combating obesity and improving mental health, particularly among young people.
Erasmus+. Several MEPs – including Milan Zver (EPP, Slovenian) and Petra Kammerevert (S&D, German) – questioned the current member of the European Court of Auditors about certain administrative difficulties in getting the flagship Erasmus+ youth mobility programme off the ground and, in the face of budgetary constraints, difficulties in finding synergies with other EU programmes or initiatives.
Ms Ivanova promised to do her utmost to ensure that the dedicated digital platform operates effectively, pointing to “a reputational risk”, and to ensure that the Erasmus+ programme is sufficiently flexible to be accessible to students from less privileged social backgrounds and/or minorities. She also wished to play a part in guaranteeing a stable budget for the programme, noting that the budget had been doubled compared to the previous Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).
Responding to Andrea Bocskor (NI, Hungarian), who questioned her on the restrictions imposed on Hungarian universities, the Commissioner-designate expressed regret that the available funds could no longer be used at this stage, advocating dialogue with Budapest. “But I cannot substitute myself for the measures that the Hungarian authorities must take”, because “the rules must be respected”, she emphasised.
Education. Other MEPs – Marcos Ros Sempere (S&D, Spanish), Asim Ademov (EPP, Bulgarian) and Izaskun Bilbao Barandica (Renew Europe, Spanish) – spoke about the project to create a European Education Area, the completion of which will be one of the main priorities of Ms Ivanova’s term of office.
In this area, the European Commissioner-designate considered it necessary to focus work on the following elements: - the acquisition of basic skills by pupils, at a time when, in the EU, 20% of pupils are believed to lack such skills; - combating the shortage of teachers and professors, with progress hoped for in the automatic recognition of qualifications (see EUROPE 13157/22), particularly digital skills; - the creation of ten new European University Alliances, in addition to the 50 existing Alliances.
Culture. With regard to the EU’s cultural action, the former MEP aligned herself with Mr Frankowski’s comments on the reduction in the budget for the Creative Europe programme, seeing no justification for a cut of €40 million for 2024, as the Council would like. Culture accounts for “0.15% of the MFF” while the cultural sector represents “4.4%” of the EU’s GDP, she pointed out, promising to do everything possible to ensure that the Creative Europe budget remains unchanged.
She also recommended using the mid-term review of the programme to find solutions to the problems raised by Chiara Maria Gemma (ECR, Italian), such as the difficulties young people have in obtaining financial support, particularly due to administrative obstacles. According to Ms Ivanova, the success of the ‘Culture moves Europe’ initiative, led by the Goethe Institut, which promotes the mobility of artists and people working in the arts sector, should be taken as a model.
Multilingualism. Finally, the Commissioner-designate stressed the importance of respecting diversity within the EU, particularly through multilingualism. However, unlike Ms Bilbao Barandica, who wondered why it was possible to submit applications to participate in certain projects in Turkish but not in Basque or Catalan, she referred to the budgetary constraints that prevent the sixty or so regional languages from being included in Community procedures.
As part of the ongoing negotiations to form a Spanish government, the outgoing ‘Sánchez’ government has called for Catalan, Basque and Galician to be granted official EU language status (see EUROPE 13234/4).
At the end of the public hearing, the chairs of ITRE, Cristian Bușoi of Romania (EPP), and CULT, Sabine Verheyen of Germany, praised Ms Ivanova’s convincing performance, making little effort to hide the likely positive outcome of the nomination procedure.
To see Ms Ivanova’s mission statement, go to https://aeur.eu/f/8fi
To see the answers to Ms Ivanova’s written questions, go to https://aeur.eu/f/8fq (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)