“Anyone who does not see that there is a risk is blind.” The sentence comes from a senior European official on the blockage in which the renewal of the European Commission currently finds itself. On the one hand, the EPP keeps the election of Teresa Ribera as vice president frozen so that she can first go through Congress to report on DANA after the doubts about her management spread by Alberto’s PP Núñez Feijóo at the key moment of his mandate. on the other hand, the pressure from the European people for the socialists to cross the threshold of supporting Giorgia Meloni’s candidate, Raffaele Fitto, also for vice-president. The negotiations are currently on hold, no new meetings are planned for this Thursday and all parties assume that the resolution, if it arrives, will be there next week while the community government and the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola , raise the question. pressure so that the conflict does not spread further.
“The European Parliament will vote on the next Commission on November 27,” Metsola said in press statements. This is the date planned for the plenary session of the European Parliament which will give its approval to the entire community government. Before this step, the European Parliament must give its approval individually to each of the candidates and, for the moment, the evaluation of the other seven has been postponed – the six vice-presidents and the Hungarian candidate, who did not pass his exam . .
“We still have time. This Assembly is fully committed to the launch of the new Commission. This is our responsibility and we take it very seriously. Especially when we see what is happening in the world,” adds Metsola in his message, basically referring to the victory of Donald Trump in the United States, which is one of the issues that most worries the European Commission, where it is preparing for some It is time for change at the White House because of the possible economic and geopolitical consequences that his return could bring.
What the European Commission is assured is that Von der Leyen is in “permanent contact” with his interlocutors in the European Parliament, namely the leader of the EPP, Manfred Weber; S&D, Iratxe García; and Renew, Valérie Hayer, which are the groups that support their majority. After the tense hearing in Ribera on Tuesday, during which everything was turned upside down by the maneuver of the European PP to postpone the decision on the Spanish candidate until next week, contrary to what had previously been agreed with the socialists and liberals , Von der Leyen held a meeting on Wednesday with the three spokespeople to try to get the situation back on track; but he didn’t understand it. He left without a deal and all parties assume we will have to wait until next week.
Socialists resisted popular demand to support Fitto’s nomination, which would mean elevating the far right to the vice-presidency of the European Commission for the first time. “The S&D will not negotiate a set of six vice-presidents because six vice-presidents are not three political families. We will only respect this agreement between the three families and not engage in any other type of negotiation,” socialist sources emphasize about the conservatives’ intention to force them to support the candidate of Meloni, who is part of the Reformers group. and Conservatives (ECR), which is outside the coalition operating in Europe.
“The Popular Group must decide what it wants to do. If he has decided to form a coalition with the far right, let him explain in Germany that the cordon santé was passed through the triumphal arch, let him explain it in Poland,” these sources underline: “ Let him decide if he wants to be in the pro-European alliance. They have two possible majorities. We are not going to be used every now and then to whitewash their faces and then, on a daily basis, be part of another alliance.”
The other conflict concerns the nomination of Ribera, which the EPP blocked. While Feijóo demands the appointment of another Spanish candidate, the European group has set as a condition to support her that she undertakes to resign if she is prosecuted for the management of DANA. For the Socialists, at this stage, any conditionality to their candidates is unassailable given that last week they approved 14 candidates for “responsible” EPP commissioner positions, even if, as they acknowledge, some did not demonstrated their aptitude for this position.
For now, the evaluation will have to wait until at least next week. One of the scenarios is that more written explanations are requested from the candidates or that they undergo a new evaluation and, therefore, the margin for electing the new Commission on the scheduled date of November 27 is complicated. Another scenario is that everything is resolved and moved forward in a timely manner so that the Von der Leyen cabinet is in place on December 1st. And the third is that everything explodes and the EU enters uncharted territory.
