As the largest political party in the European Union, the European People’s Party (EPP) renewed its Bureau on Tuesday 29 and Wednesday 30 April at its Congress in Valencia.
On Tuesday evening, out of 802 people eligible to vote, 502 delegates re-elected German Christian Democrat Manfred Weber, who was unopposed, for a three-year term, while 61 delegates rejected his candidacy.
During his inaugural speech, the Bavarian criticised the EPP’s partners within a ‘pro-European, pro-Ukraine and pro-Rule of law’ majority in the European Parliament. He described the climate policy pursued by Dutch socialist Frans Timmermans when he was European Commissioner for Climate Change in the ‘von der Leyen I’ Commission as “ideological”.
According to him, “the social democrats are abandoning the working class”, while “Greens and Liberals are escaping only to the nice city quarters of well-educated, privileged voters”. “Populists are strong because too many democrats are weak”, he stressed.
In Parliament, the EPP Group says it refuses to work with the far-right groups PfE and ESN, even though they support Christian Democrat resolutions to push forward a common agenda, in particular to make migration policy more restrictive and to delay or even weaken the ‘European Green Deal’. On the other hand, Mr Weber is prepared to work with certain conservatives in the ECR Group, such as members of the Fratelli d’Italia and Ods parties, which are in power in Italy and the Czech Republic respectively.
The Italian Nicola Procaccini, Co-President of the conservative ECR Group, congratulated Mr Weber in a statement. He hoped that the “fruitful dialogue” with the Christian Democrats would continue “in order to build the reforms that the EU needs”, in line with the wishes of citizens expressed at the European elections in June 2024.
In Brussels, the President of the Social Democrat Group, Iratxe García Pérez of Spain, once again warned the Christian Democrats against any alliance with the far right. “We will never support an agreement or alliance with the extreme right. And what we hope is that the EPP Group here in the Parliament does the same, always, and does not play political games”, she told a few journalists. “We want to be coherent and responsible” in “defending Europe”, as we are by participating in national government coalitions with Christian Democrat parties, in Poland and soon in Germany, “but we will not accept any lessons from others who are playing a different game”, she added.
The European Green Party also attacked the EPP’s efforts to unravel the European Green Deal. “The people of Valencia know better than anyone the devastating effects of the climate crisis. It is irresponsible and insensitive to see the EPP announce in that very city that they will hit the brakes on climate action”, denounced Ciarán Cuffe, Co-President of the European Green Party, in a statement.
Questioned on Wednesday, European Commission spokeswoman Paula Pinho assured that the President of the EU institution, Ursula von der Leyen, who embodied the EPP’s European election campaign, “fully supports the ‘Green Deal’”, despite the contradictory signals sent out by her political family.
Dolors Montserrat, new Secretary General of the EPP. On Wednesday, in Valencia, out of 558 votes, 518 EPP delegates also approved the candidacy of the Spaniard Dolors Montserrat, put forward by Mr Weber (see EUROPE 13627/21). This indicated that the Christian Democrat family was ready to get involved “in every corner of Europe”. “We are not extremists or populists. We are telling the truth and providing solutions for Europe’s citizens”, she said.
In the 2023 general elections in Spain, the Spanish Partido Popular was ready to join forces with the far-right Vox Party to wrest power from Pedro Sánchez’s Socialists.
Mrs Montserrat has indicated that she will combine her duties as Vice-President of the EPP Group in Parliament and Secretary General of the EPP Party, but she will no longer be leader of the elected members of the Partido Popular in Parliament.
In Valencia, the following people were also elected to the EPP Party Bureau: - 10 Vice-Presidents: Finland’s Petteri Orpo, Portugal’s Paulo Rangel, Croatia’s Dubravka Šuica, Italy’s Antonio Tajani, Austria’s Magnus Brunner, Poland’s Andrzej Halicki, Greece’s Kostis Hatzidakis, Germany’s David McAllister, Ireland’s Mairead McGuinness and Romania’s Siegfried Mureșan; - a treasurer: France’s François-Xavier Bellamy.
See the thematic resolutions adopted by the EPP: https://aeur.eu/f/gmd
10 European Commissioners, including Mrs von der Leyen, attended the Valencia Congress as leaders affiliated to national EPP member parties. They took part primarily in their capacity as “members of the College of the Commission”, as their schedule on site included other activities related to their duties, said Mrs Pinho.
According to the Commission, their ability to maintain political contacts, in accordance with the code of conduct for European Commissioners (Article 10), justifies the EU institution paying their travel expenses, as well as those of one of their staff members.
On the other hand, European officials affiliated to the EPP Party had to make their own way there.
Flooding. Finally, on Tuesday 13 May, Mrs von der Leyen will be meeting in Brussels with representatives of associations representing the victims of the floods that killed 224 people in the Valencia region in autumn 2024. According to Mrs Pinho, such a meeting could not be held in the margins of the EPP congress for scheduling reasons.
The regional authorities of the Valencian Community, led by the Partido Popular, and the Socialist government of Mr Sánchez are blaming each other for the shortcomings in the health management of this natural disaster. This political confrontation broke out during the confirmation hearing of the European Commissioner-designate, Teresa Ribera. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)