European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks before the European Parliament in Strasbourg on November 27, 2024 (AFP / FREDERICK FLORIN)
The European Parliament on Wednesday in Strasbourg dubbed the new team of the European Commission, which will take office at the beginning of December against a backdrop of severe economic and geopolitical turbulence.
The European executive obtained 370 votes (282 against, 36 abstentions). Ursula von der Leyen's second term will be able to begin, around fifty days before the inauguration of Donald Trump as president of the United States. A sense of urgency prevailed.
Europe has “no time to lose” warned the President of the Commission, prioritizing competitiveness to “bridge” the gap with the United States and China.
“Our freedom and our sovereignty depend more than ever on our economic power,” she insisted.
In terms of defense, Ursula von der Leyen then insisted on the need to do more to compete with Russian military spending, at a time when the return of Donald Trump raises fears of a disengagement of the United States in Ukraine.
“Our expenses must increase,” said the 66-year-old German. “Russia spends up to 9% of its GDP on defense. Europe spends on average 1.9%. There is something wrong with this equation.”
Preparing for Mr. Trump's return is “the most urgent challenge” for the EU, underlines Luigi Scazzieri, analyst at the Center for European Reform. On “two fronts”: trade, with the Republican president-elect's promise to increase customs duties on European products, and “security”, with the war in Ukraine.
Despite these challenges, the European Parliament will have struggled before approving the new Commission.
The groups clashed over the vice-presidency granted to the Italian Raffaele Fitto (Territorial Cohesion), member of Giorgia Meloni's far-right Fratelli d'Italia party, while the left demanded the maintenance of a “cordon health”.
Von der Leyen assumed this vice-presidency, which allows him to maintain his relations with Ms. Meloni. “It’s a choice that I made,” she stressed to MEPs.
– Kaja Kallas on diplomacy –
The Commissioner-designate for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy, Stéphane Sejourne, September 18, 2024 in Brussels (POOL / JOHN THYS)
After several days of standoff, the EPP (right), the centrists of Renew and the social democrats ended up sealing an agreement to approve all of the proposed commissioners, a first in twenty years.
Among the new faces: former Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas becomes the new head of EU diplomacy, French centrist Stéphane Séjourné gets a vice-presidency with a broad portfolio on industrial strategy, and Spanish socialist Teresa Ribera will be vice-president for ecological transition and competition.
This new Commission leans to the right with around fifteen portfolios, out of 27, allocated to the EPP (right), the main political force in Parliament.
Plenary session at the European Parliament in Brussels, April 10, 2024 (AFP / JOHN THYS)
EPP leader Manfred Weber did not hide his satisfaction. It is a “very balanced” Commission, he said, mentioning a possible parliamentary majority ranging from ECR (extreme right), where the Italian MEPs of Giorgia Meloni sit, to certain Greens.
– “Need for stability” –
In passing, the German official once again brushed off the left's accusations of its ambiguities with the far right.
“There are red lines” and no cooperation possible with those who are not “pro-Europe, pro-Ukraine and pro-rule of law”, he reaffirmed, distinguishing between the troops of Giorgia Meloni and the two other far-right groups.
Italian Raffaele Fitto in Brussels, September 18, 2024 (POOL / JOHN THYS)
At the head of the Social Democrats, the Spaniard Iratxe Garcia-Pérez highlighted the “need for stability” in Europe to explain her support for the new team. But it is “not a blank check”, she said, warning the EPP. “We will not accept double dealing” with the far right.
The granting of a vice-presidency to Raffaele Fitto divided his group. French socialists voted against the new Commission. “We are crossing a red line. We should have a combat commission, capable of defending the general European interest, and I do not believe that Fratelli d'Italia is on that line”, denounced Raphaël Glucksmann (Public Square) .
Among the Patriots, on the far right, the Frenchman Jordan Bardella rejected the new team outright, “commissioners unknown to the general public who dictate the daily lives of 450 million citizens”, he castigated.
