After weeks of often sluggish negotiations, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveiled her new team of commissioners on Tuesday. The team is focused on Europe’s competitiveness.
A flammable subject, the Italian Raffaele Fitto, member of the far-right government of Giorgia Meloni, obtained the title of vice-president within the new European executive.
Italy “is regaining its central role” in the Union, the Italian leader immediately reacted, referring to this nomination against which the left and the centre in the European Parliament had issued repeated warnings.
In the coming weeks, the potential commissioners will still have to pass the always delicate stage of hearings in Parliament and a vote by MEPs to be officially appointed.
In Strasbourg, on the sidelines of the Parliament’s plenary session, Ms von der Leyen presented her distribution of commissioners – one per member state.
40% of women: “still work”
The future European executive currently has 11 women for 16 men, or 40%, a figure below the promised parity. The Commission President stressed a rebalancing in the final stretch, but there “is still work to be done”, agreed the German leader, after several weeks of controversy on the subject.
In an attempt to respond to criticism, four of the six vice-presidencies of the Commission are being assigned to women, including the Spanish socialist Teresa Ribera. This climate specialist, a minister under Pedro Sanchez, inherits a large portfolio dedicated to the Ecological Transition. She could play one of the leading roles in the new Brussels team.
Lithuanian Andrius Kubilius was appointed Commissioner for Defence and Space, a new position created by Ursula von der Leyen to deal with the Russian threat and the war in Ukraine.
Painful negotiations
Behind the scenes, negotiations for the positions were painful, right up until the last minute.
On Monday, it was the influential outgoing French Commissioner Thierry Breton who resigned with a bang, a victim of his execrable relations with Ms von der Leyen. To replace him, Emmanuel Macron proposed a close friend, Stéphane Séjourné, the discreet resigning Minister of Foreign Affairs. He obtained an executive vice-presidency and an important portfolio dedicated to prosperity and industrial strategy.
“Competitive, circular and decarbonized” economy
The European Union intends to display its priorities in a crucial geopolitical period, with the war in Ukraine, the American presidential campaign and economic competition from China.
Mrs von der Leyen insisted on the “competitive, circular and decarbonised” economy, in the wake of Mario Draghi’s recent report on the economic difficulties of the Union. She mentioned three pillars for the next five years: “prosperity, security and democracy”,
Three months after European elections marked by the rise of the extreme right, the left and NGOs fear that the Commission’s reorientation towards economic issues will be to the detriment of the climate ambitions of the previous mandate.
Parliament different from 2019
“We must continue to take up this challenge of the fight against global warming”, but “always in the context of competitiveness”, replied Mrs von der Leyen.
“It’s not that the ambition is decreasing, it’s a phase of implementation,” also assures a Source within the commission. But with fewer elected greens and a larger far right, the “Parliament is very different from that of 2019”, it will be necessary to see “what influence it will have on the subject”.
Hearings before MEPs
After this presentation of Ursula von der Leyen’s team, the potential commissioners will have to pass hearings before MEPs and submit to a vote of approval, an institutional arm wrestling match with the Parliament which often wants to mark its territory by rejecting certain candidates.
“It’s like taking an exam,” to prepare, the commissioner must review the “briefing book”, a “bible” on the action of the previous commission and what the objectives are, says a close friend of an outgoing commissioner.
Several MEPs would like to bring down the Hungarian candidate, accused of not listening to the European Parliament and being too close to the positions of the nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
As part of Hungary’s EU presidency, Mr Orban was due to speak in Strasbourg on Wednesday, but cancelled his visit due to Storm Boris hitting central Europe.
Blurred calendar
While she expressed the hope that the new commission could be operational “as soon as possible”, Ursula von der Leyen remained evasive on the timetable. The organization of the hearings in Parliament and their twists and turns augur a possible establishment of the new team at the beginning of December.
ats, afp