Following the announcement of the agreement between the EPP, S&D and Renew Europe groups on the formation of the ‘von der Leyen II’ Commission (see EUROPE 13528/1), the relevant parliamentary committees of the European Parliament validated the nominations of the six Executive Vice-Presidents-designate and the European Commissioner-designate, Hungarian Olivér Várhelyi, early in the evening of Wednesday 20 November.
With regard to the Vice-President-designate for Economic Transition, the Spaniard Teresa Ribera, the EPP and Patriots for Europe (PfE) groups have tried to include in the confirmation letter an obligation for the Spanish Minister to resign if she is called to account by the courts for the responsibility of the ‘Sánchez’ government in the tragic floods in the Valencia region.
But without success. Their position, which somewhat delayed the finalisation of the hearing procedure, was included as a minority opinion in the letter from the relevant parliamentary committees to the Conference of Presidents of the Parliament’s political groups (CoP).
This initiative by the EPP and PfE groups provoked an outcry from the S&D and Renew Europe groups within the European Parliament parliamentary committees responsible for the hearing of the Italian conservative, Raffaele Fitto. The Italian Minister’s letter of confirmation included the minority view that the Social Democrats and Liberals disapprove of Mr Fitto’s appointment as Executive Vice-President of the Commission and call on him to act, in complete independence from his home country, to strengthen the rules making the granting of European funds conditional on respect for the Rule of law in the Member States.
Olivér Várhelyi’s portfolio has been restricted. During his hearing in Parliament, Mr Várhelyi failed to ease MEPs’ fears about his reluctance to answer questions about women’s access to abortion or the rights of LGBT+ people. The relevant parliamentary committees are calling for his responsibilities to be “considerably reduced”, at the request of the Renew Europe Group.
Crisis preparedness and management, including supervision of the European Health Emergency Response and Preparedness Authority (HERA), will be transferred to Hadja Lahbib of Belgium. As future European Commissioner for Equality, she will also be responsible for safeguarding sexual and reproductive health rights.
The centre-right Renew Europe Group believes it has worked hard to ensure that women’s rights and fundamental European values are not entrusted to someone close to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. We have also “successfully negotiated a substantial weakening of the power of the Fidesz Party within the new Commission”, said its President, Valérie Hayer of France, with satisfaction.
The coordinators of the Parliament’s Employment and Social Affairs Committee (EMPL) also endorsed the convincing performance of Romania’s Roxana Mînzatu. Her Vice-Presidential portfolio should have the following amended title: ‘Quality Jobs and Social Rights, Education, Skills and Preparation’. The left-wing groups in Parliament had in fact asked Mrs von der Leyen for this concession. On the afternoon of Thursday 21 November, the EMPL Committee was still awaiting written confirmation of this new title.
The future High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, was approved by the coordinators of the EPP, S&D, Renew Europe, Greens/EFA and ECR Groups, but rejected by The Left and ENS (see EUROPE 13522/3). The PfE Group was not present.
Stéphane Séjourné, Executive Vice-President-designate for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy, was supported by the coordinators of all the political groups except The Left, ENS and PfE (see EUROPE 13522/2). The two candidates, from the Liberal family, were both approved without additional requests being made of them.
The 26 letters of assessment of the European Commissioners and Executive Vice-Presidents-designate will be examined by the Conference of Committee Chairs (CCC) of Parliament on Tuesday 26 November, in the margins of the Strasbourg plenary session. The CoP will meet the following morning to finalise the nominations process.
European environmentalists are furious. Supplemented by a written declaration, the agreement between the three political groups expected to form a ‘pro-European, pro-Ukraine and pro-Rule of law’ majority within Parliament paves the way for the election of the entire ‘von der Leyen II’ College on Wednesday 27 November.
This agreement, in which each political family has had to make concessions to secure the nomination of its own candidates, has been poorly received within certain delegations: the French, Italians, Germans in the S&D Group and Spaniards in the EPP Group.
The Greens/EFA Group made no secret of its frustration at having been left out of the negotiations, despite the fact that a large majority of its members – with the exception of the Belgian and French delegations – had approved the re-election of Mrs von der Leyen as President of the Commission in July (see EUROPE 13456/1).
Its Co-Chair, Dutchman Bas Eickhout, criticised the attitude of the EPP Group, which had used “every procedural gimmick to humiliate Ribera, and blow up trust between pro-democracy forces”. This attitude “sets a dangerous precedent” and plays into Mr Orbán’s hands, he added.
“For the first time, the Commission may now be voted through with the explicit support of far-right parties in the ECR Group, a situation created by the EPP Group”, explained Co-Chair Terry Reintke. In her view, this political “farce” could have been avoided if the three pro-European groups had established a clear common position against any cooperation with the far right, including the European Conservatives.
The Belgian Saskia Bricmont recalled that in recent weeks the Christian Democrats “had already broken the cordon sanitaire on issues such as the European budget and legislation against deforestation, dealing the first blow to the Green Deal”. “These developments, now supported by the European socialists, are extremely worrying”, she said.
France’s Mélissa Camara had the same to say about the position of the social democrats: “I knew that the EPP would dismiss the cordon sanitaire. But I am astonished that the Socialists are following in their footsteps (and) acting as a stepping-stone for the far right”. According to her, while the Socialists could have turned the formation of the College around by endorsing the appointment of Mr Fitto, they prefer to “act as a fuse for the Conservatives rather than as a barrier against the far right”.
Criticising the College’s formation process from the outset, The Left Group has called for a Parliament resolution to be drafted for adoption at next week’s plenary session. They condemned the fact that “manifestly unqualified candidates” had been approved without thorough examination, as well as the very short deadlines for convening meetings to assess the candidates, describing this situation as a “deliberate tactic” by the political groups, who had reached agreements behind the scenes to finalise the formation of the College quickly.
Parliament, whose job it is to hold the Commission to account, “has failed in its responsibility and undermined its credibility”, said the radical left-wing group.
S&D and Renew Europe Groups’ satisfaction
For the Chair of the S&D Group, Iratxe García Pérez from Spain, on the contrary, the political agreement and the written declaration make it possible to put an end to the deadlock, to lay the foundations for a political agenda inspired by progressive socialist positions, and even to “strengthen democracy and the values on which the European Union is based”. These were all results that seemed impossible a few days ago, she pointed out.
Speaking on behalf of the Renew Europe Group, France’s Valérie Hayer emphasised her political family’s ability to unite “the centre to defend Europe”. The centre-right group was the driving force behind the joint written declaration, which represents “a firm commitment by the three forces of the centre to return to a stable pro-European working method within Parliament”.
Speaking to Agence Europe, France’s Stéphanie Yon-Courtin underscored the “urgent need to move forward”, given the particularly tense international geopolitical context. “We have risked paralysing the system by jeopardising the governance of Europe with considerations of national policy that have nothing to do with it”, she argued, referring to the political tensions in Spain between the ‘Sánchez’ government and the Spanish right, exacerbated by the floods in Valencia.
The MEP noted “the politicisation of the European Commission through its instrumentalisation by national governments”, with several Heads of State or Government involved in facilitating the agreement at Parliament.
See the statement by the EPP, S&D and Renew Europe Groups: https://aeur.eu/f/ef5 (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion, with the editorial staff)