German Christian Democrat Markus Pieper has resigned from the post of European Union SME Envoy, to which the European Commission had appointed him, on the evening of Monday 15 April - just hours before he was due to take up the post (see EUROPE 13384/19).
Mr Pieper justified his decision by pointing to the fact that the European Commissioner for Internal Market, Thierry Breton, who is responsible for SMEs, had “boycotted in advance” his appointment, in a statement to the German daily newspaper Handelsblatt. On Tuesday, via the X platform, he accused Mr Breton of being “motivated solely by partisan politics”. “SMEs and cutting red tape were and are foreign words for the French Commissioner,” he accused.
On Tuesday, Mr Breton took note of Mr Pieper's withdrawal “following the vote in the European Parliament”. “Transparency and collegiality are, and should always remain, our cardinal values,” he said on X, expressing his desire for the position to be honoured “as soon as possible”.
The situation in this case, revealed by Il Mattinale Europeo, had become untenable for the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who was standing for re-election and accused of favouritism by having chosen a political ally who had been ranked lower than two other candidates at an intermediate level of the selection procedure.
Several European Commissioners from other political backgrounds - including Nicolas Schmit from Luxembourg, who himself is at the top of the list of socialist candidates in the European elections - had also criticised the lack of collegiality in decision-making.
Nevertheless, Mrs von der Leyen remains convinced that Mr Pieper was the right choice. Campaigning in Hildesheim on Friday 12 April as the EPP party’s Spitzenkandidat, she mentioned the arrival of an EU Special Envoy.
“The President both respects and regrets Markus Pieper's decision not to take up his post as SME Envoy on 16 April as planned. Markus Pieper is a proven expert on SMEs and has prevailed in a multi-stage selection process. The autonomy of each EU institution in appointing its senior officials must be respected,” said the Commission’s chief spokesman, Eric Mamer, on the evening of Monday 15 April.
He added that Mrs von der Leyen had “decided to suspend the reopening of the selection procedures for the position of SME Envoy until after the European elections”. On Tuesday, Mr Mamer justified the postponement as the best way of restoring some calm to the proceedings.
Last Thursday, the European Parliament officially asked the Commission to launch a new appointment procedure for the post of Special Envoy for SMEs, by adopting an amendment from the Greens/EFA Group (382 votes in favour, 144 against, 80 abstentions) (see EUROPE 13389/8).
Reacting to Mr Pieper's resignation, Transparency International said that, “in the face of serious suspicions of political cronyism, the President of the Commission should have intervened herself”. And “restoring the integrity of recruitment at the Commission should have been a priority”, she added in a press release. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)