After much tension, reproaches and power games, finally, the plenary session of the European Parliament gave the green light this Wednesday to the next College of Commissioners. The composition of Ursula von der Leyen’s new Executive is barely beyond the final procedure for its approval with the approval of the European Parliament. This approval will allow the new European Commission to begin its work this Sunday, December 1, as initially planned, with Teresa Ribera as vice president heading the Competition portfolio.
The plenary session of the European Parliament was to vote on the complete configuration of the next Community Executive, that is to say that support should be for the whole of the new leadership, moving away from the personal struggle that took place last week. With 370 votes for, 282 against and 36 abstentions, MEPs supported the German project. The result was, however, close, exceeding by 44 votes the simple majority needed to support the new College of Commissioners and showing the deep division of the European Parliament.
The new community executive leans politically to the right, it will therefore have 14 commissioners from the European People’s Partyplus the president, four socialists, six liberals and three ultra-conservatives (the Italian, the Czech and the Hungarian).
The new European Commission has the simple majority necessary for its approval. The traditional coalition of center, popular, socialists and European liberals voted in favor.
The vote was not without controversy. The Spanish people rejected and voted against of the future Von der Leyen Commission. The refusal, orchestrated a few weeks ago against the third vice-president of the government, Teresa Ribera, ultimately did not have the support of the entire European popular bench, but it had the support of the Spanish delegation.
Even before the vote, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, spoke out against Ribera’s candidacy. He defended that “is well prepared to ensure we have a modern competition policy which supports our ambitions. She is an authentic and dedicated European. » Furthermore, the German assured that “together we will always work for the European interest”.
The Spaniard will assume one of the six vice-presidencies of the European Commission. He will be number two with the position of vice-president of the Just, Clean and Competitive Transition and in charge of the European Competition portfolio. It wasn’t easy to get there. This support came after the conclusion last week of a tense and complex agreement between popular, socialists and liberals. All this in the face of the refusal of the people, mainly Spanish, to support Ribera and after having accused him of being responsible for the poor management of the consequences of the Dana.
The tensions of recent weeks in the European Parliament to gain support for the College of Commissioners only demonstrate what will be difficult parliamentary arithmetic. The results of the European elections gave way to a scenario in which the traditional coalition of the center, made up of the Popular, Socialists and Liberals, lost space to the far right. Ultra-conservative groups have entered the European Parliament in force and are making it difficult to conclude pro-European agreements.
