Ursula Von der Leyen, maintains her confidence in Therese Ribera become vice-president of Climate Transition and Competition of the future European Commission despite the maneuvers of the Spanish PP try to block your appointment using disaster DANA.
“The president placed her confidence in the group of candidates for the position of commissioner and the confirmation process is underway. Obviously nothing has changed compared to this initial position,” European Commission spokesperson Eric Mamer said on Wednesday when asked whether Von der Leyen maintained his confidence in Ribera.
The community spokesperson, however, avoided commenting on the hearings in the European Parliament to validate the commissioners appointed by Von der Leyen, after Ribera’s examination on Tuesday was muddled by the harsh criticism of the European People’s Party (PPE) and the far right towards his management during DANA, notably as head of the Hydrographic Confederation of Júcar.
Asked whether the President of the Community Executive shares the opinion of her European political family (the EPP) according to which Ribera is “responsible” for the crisis and should not be part of the next Commission, the door- speech was limited to emphasizing that Ribera was appointed by the Spanish authorities to the post of commissioner and Von der Leyen “gave him his trust” and offered him for the position. A confidence which, as he later added, has not changed.
A public embarrassed by the PP’s maneuver
Ribera’s parliamentary hearing was marked the day before by questions from the PP and the far right from Voxwho tried to blame the third vice-president of the government for the Valencia tragedy and were joined by “popular” deputies from France, Germany, Finland and Italy to question different aspects of crisis management.
Ribera responded that It was not the prediction alerts that failed, but “the population alerts”. and measures to protect the population”, which are the responsibility of the Valencian Generalitat, while criticizing those who “damage the credibility” of public institutions and advocating for greater climate prevention.
Ribera’s assessment and those of the five other candidates for vice-president of the new Commission They will only take place next weekafter the EPP forced the delay of meetings to evaluate their performance.
Von der Leyen’s meetings will try to unblock
In this context, von der Leyen will meet this Wednesday with the heads of the European parliamentary groups of the EPP, the Social Democrats and the Liberals to try to unlock the formation of the new Executive community, according to parliamentary sources cited by Efe.
The community spokesperson, however, avoided confirming this meeting and limited himself to emphasizing that the president “is constantly in contact with her interlocutors in the European Parliament, in the institutions, in the member states”. “The president hopes and wishes that the new college of commissioners can begin its work as quickly as possible,” he noted, however.
