Last week, the European Parliament became a focus of national reproaches that the popular leveled against the third vice-president, Teresa Ribera, for her responsibility in the management of the Dana which affected the Levant and the south of the Spain. But the PP’s maneuver aimed at delaying, firstly, the vote for the Spanish candidate and, then, subjecting him to a series of conditions, could compromise the start of the next European Commission of Ursula von der Leyen scheduled for December 1st.
What happened with Ribera last week in the European Parliament was the transfer of tensions from national politics to Brussels. It helps that none of the remaining candidates to sit in the next college of commissioners have been exposed to such a tense fight with MEPs. The situation that Ribera is going through during her career as Vice-President of the Clean, Fair and Competitive Transition and responsible for the Competition portfolio could compromise the planned start of the work of the Community Executive and, to a certain extent, the possibility of certain aspiring community vice-presidents to take over.
The standoff began on Tuesday, a few hours before Ribera’s oral assessment before several committees of the European Parliament. The formation led by Manfred Weber proposed a fight to postpone indefinitely the Spanish vote, scheduled for the same evening. Although the result was an agreement between socialists, liberals and popular to postpone Ribera’s vote, ultimately the decision is configured as a package in which the six vice-presidencies of the Community Executive will be at stake.
The chances of the deadlines set by the Germans being met are slim. However, neither the European Commission nor the European Parliament are stopping their efforts. At the end of last week, the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, signed her intention that the vote on future commissioners during the plenary session of the European Parliament will take place on November 27, as planned.
Brussels, for its part, has endorsed this perspective. “We hope that the new College of Commissioners will be operational on December 1,” reaffirmed European Commission spokesperson Eric Mamer. He also sent a message to calm the waters: Von der Leyen’s trust in Ribera remained intact. “Obviously, nothing has changed from this initial position,” said the community spokesperson. It is precisely for this reason that the meetings of the Germans with the political groups took place in Brussels. The unfortunate result, no agreement.
The popular MEP Esteban González Pons rejected, during a debate on Dana’s situation in Valencia, the attribution of such a position to Ribera. His political group then increased its candidacy, not to support the socialist party, but for the PP to have a seat at this decision-making table. In exchange, the Minister of Ecological Transition had to undertake to resign if she was indicted for her management of Dana and, in addition, to appear before the Congress of Deputies to give explanations. A meeting planned for this Wednesday at the request of the third vice-president herself.
All these tensions originate from the responsibilities linked to the management of Dana. But at the European level, they resulted in a sort of negotiation between political groups in which the socialists used as a weapon the possibility of overturning the candidacy of Raffaele Fitto. Italian has been adopted by the popular, although it actually belongs to Giogia Meloni’s Fratteli d’Italia group, part of the ultra-conservative ECR group. This would be the bargaining chip to save Ribera’s nomination and allow her to access the position for which Von der Leyen herself had nominated her.
The maneuver of the European PP is certainly risky and jeopardizes the complex alignment designed by the future president of the European Commission for her next mandate. But in the corridors of Brussels, it is no secret that the leader of the conservative party, Manfred Weber, and the head of the Community Executive have at least some differences. The first of them tries to establish a certain agenda in a complex geopolitical scenario that pushes the EU to complete its executive as quickly as possible, with the return of Donald Trump.
