A clean CV, good or at least adequate specialist knowledge, political skills: these are the criteria the EU Parliament uses to assess the team of the new EU Commission – at least on paper. At the end of a three-week political war of position, one thing is clear: this process was not about content and skills, but rather about a torturous tug of war between the camps in the EU Parliament.
At the end of the process, the team that the President of the Commission sent into the race remains unchanged – this was already revealed in Brussels on Wednesday. This also clears the way for the incumbent Finance Minister Magnus Brunner to become the new Commissioner for Migration. Formal confirmation by vote is now expected to follow next week before the plenary session of the EU Parliament in Strasbourg. This means that the new EU Commission can start as planned on December 1st. After the conclusion, the negotiators spoke of a “deal”.
barter
What was particularly damaged was the EU Parliament, which allowed a serious democratic process to degenerate into a political barter. While the 26 designated members of Ursula von der Leyen’s new team tried to avoid any meaningful answer in front of the EU Parliament committees, behind the scenes the conflict between the Christian Democrats of the EPP escalated. In order to give Italy, after all the third largest economic power in the EU, an important place in the EU Commission, Italy’s quasi-European Minister Raffaele Fitto was appointed Vice President of the Commission.
But he is a party colleague of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, i.e. a member of the right-wing populist Fratelli d’Italia. They belong to the right-wing conservative EKR group in the EU Parliament. Fitto was therefore intolerable as vice president for the Social Democrats. But the EPP stood behind him.
In return, the EPP, now the strongest group in the EU Parliament, mobilized against the front woman of the Social Democrats: the Spanish Teresa Ribera. Previously Minister for Ecology in Madrid, she will also be given the position of Vice President in the EU Commission – and will also be given important issues such as competitiveness and ecological restructuring of the economy. Driven by Spain’s conservatives, the EPP took a stand against Ribera. The focus was on the accusation that Ribera, as the responsible minister, acted too late after the flood disaster in Valencia in October. Ribera had to justify himself before parliament in Madrid on Wednesday. Reason enough for the EPP in Brussels to declare her unfit to hold office, at least for the time being. The new commission’s third problem candidate: the Hungarian Oliver Varhelyi. He is not only considered unsuitable for his future role as animal protection commissioner, but also politically difficult as a close confidant of Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
compromise
The tug of war behind the scenes has been going on for days. Finally, the conflicting parties seem to have agreed to leave all three controversial candidates in their planned positions – after weeks of dismissing them as intolerable. had. This compromise was finally reached on Wednesday evening. It was accompanied above all by accusations directed at the other faction. No one wants to be responsible for the tug-of-war, which many in parliament in the background describe as shabby.
ÖVP delegation leader Reinhold Lopatka welcomed the agreement. “Europe is in the midst of unprecedented economic and security challenges that we can only overcome if we are able to act and act together. It is therefore good news that the new EU Commission under President Ursula von der Leyen can quickly start its work .”