Putting all the pieces of the puzzle of the new European Commission together is not an easy task and has forced the president, Ursula von der Leyen, to get involved herself, fearing that the political interests of the different families who support her majority will collapse. set up the new community government in the last stage of the process: the election of vice-presidents. Finally, the evaluation of these six candidates will be done jointly to minimize the damage of the exchange of stickers and give a chance to the agreement in the face of the refusal of the socialists and liberals to support the candidate of Giorgia Meloni, Raffaele Fitto, and facing the pressure exerted by the PP of Alberto Núñez Feijóo on his European family to make the election of Teresa Ribera difficult.
The evaluation of the six candidates who will pass this Tuesday by the European Parliament – the popular Finnish Henna Virkunnen; the liberals Stéphane Séjourné and Kaja Kallas; the socialists Ribera and Roxana Mînzatu; and the Italian far-right candidate, Raffaele Fitto – should have been executed individually as soon as he had finished his interrogations before the corresponding parliamentary committees. However, on Monday evening, spokespeople for the three families supporting the European coalition – EPP, S&D and Renew – reached an agreement that the decision would be taken jointly once all reviews were completed.
The EPP assures that this decision will only be taken next week and the PP of Feijóo attributes it to the fact that Ribera must first give explanations to Congress on the management of DANA, as published by El Mundo. Thus, he takes credit for delaying the evaluations of all the vice-presidential candidates, which should have been concluded this Tuesday, and which, in any case, does not mean that there will ultimately be a rejection of the candidate by Pedro Sanchez. that Von der Leyen placed in the juicy portfolio of Competition.
However, evaluating the vice-presidents from the start of the process or doing it with everyone at the same time is what socialists and liberals had defended to prevent their candidates from being taken “hostage” because of their refusal to support the appointment of Fitto, which will mean for the first time a promotion of the far right to the vice-presidency of the European Commission.
The EPP has endorsed Fitto and the threat he poses to the socialists and liberals is that if they oppose his nomination – which could take place with the People’s Party and the three far-right forces – it will would cost him dearly. on their candidates, in particular with the French Séjourné y Ribera, who is the centerpiece of the socialists in the future community executive.
With the new agreement to postpone the decision, what socialist sources argue is that there is more room to reach a political agreement on the vice presidents and for them to move forward together without shedding blood in the river. What these sources assure is that they remain “no” to the vice-presidency of the Italian candidate and that they will vote against the entire European Commission at the end of November if the popular – essential to the nomination of their candidates – torpedo his nomination. This is what Socialist spokesperson Iratxe García told EPP President Manfred Weber during a meeting on Monday evening.
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who canceled her presidency at COP 29 which is being held these days in Baku, will actively participate in the negotiations of the vice-presidents’ package. The sources consulted avoid setting a date for the final evaluation of the vice-presidents while the EPP points directly to next week. And this is where Feijóo’s delegation boasts of having obtained a deadline so that Ribera can give explanations before Congress, where he requested his appearance for next November 20.
However, the president of the Regional Development Commission, Romanian socialist Adrian-Dragoş Benea, stressed that the final evaluation will “probably” take place on Wednesday. In any case, the most popular ones can delay it. Von der Leyen has always defended that the process be as rapid as possible so that the new community government can be operational “as soon as possible”. The European Parliament is expected to vote on the final composition of the European Commission during the last week of November so that the cabinet can begin its work on December 1.
