Table of Contents
NOS news•today, 06:00
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Ard Stemerding
European Union Correspondent
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Ard Stemerding
European Union Correspondent
It’s a lot like a movie in which three boys hold each other at gunpoint at the same time. Who pulls the trigger first? Or does he like to lower his gun first? Exchange the cowboys for the main political groups in the European Parliament and there is the problem of appointing the new European Commission. Today it must be clear whether we will be able to break that terror.
It revolves around the outcome of the hearings of the proposed European Commissioners, who will together form the executive board of the European Union. They all visited the European Parliament for hours of questioning. After such a hearing, the parliament decides whether the candidate is suitable for the job. In extreme cases, the EP sends the commissioner home, which has happened regularly in the past.
Fight over EU directives
The political groups are now refusing to support each other’s main candidates. The possible outcome is that committee chairwoman Von der Leyen will not be able to start her new team on December 1.
In principle, candidate assessment is substantive. Parliament must assess whether a prospective commissioner can handle the situation and whether there may be a conflict of interest.
But in this case it is mainly about power politics, and therefore about the course of the EU for the coming years. The main role in that struggle is for the European Christian Democrats, including the CDA, the BBB and the NSC on behalf of the Netherlands.
The Christian Democrats provide the majority of European Commissioners in the new European Commission: more than half. That is because they won the most seats in the European Parliament elections in June.
This means that they are necessary for any viable majority, including policy or European Commissioners to get through. And they can choose: do they seek that majority in the middle, as has always happened until now, or do they go ‘over the right’?
They threatened the other political groups: if you accept one of our candidates, we will accept one of yours. And they are also pushing for the approval of perhaps the most controversial new European Commissioner: the Italian Raffaele Fitto, a member of the radical right-wing Fratelli d’Italia party of Italian Prime Minister Meloni and one of the Vice-Presidents of ‘Commission. .
With their support for Fitto, the Christian Democrats invite the group of European Conservatives to work together in the future, for example in the field of agriculture or climate. Meloni’s party is the most important one within the conservative group. The SGP is participating in this for the Netherlands. The Conservatives are interested in working with the Christian Democrats.
There is no on-again, off-again relationship
But this is leading to uproar among European social democrats, including the Dutch PvdA. It is inconceivable to them that a radical right-wing politician will become one of the vice-presidents of the new Commission. And they warn that cooperation between the Christian Democrats and the right-wing parties will seriously weaken climate policy, for example.
Anyway, they are used to determining the course in the European Union with pro-EU parties in the middle. Now they want to support the European Commission again, but not if the Christian Democrats have it both ways, in their eyes. “We want a permanent relationship, not a relationship again, outside again,” said MEP Bas Eickhout (GroenLinks-PvdA). So far they have aimed their arrows at Fitto and the his application to block.
The Christian Democrats say the outcome of the European Parliament elections simply calls for a more right-wing course. The Social Democrats lost seats in the elections. “We cannot keep the same distribution as the last five years and pretend that nothing happened,” says MEP CDA Jeroen Lenaers.
Lots of intense problems
And then, the Christian Democrats are now blocking the main candidate of the Social Democrats: Tiresa Ribera, who should be number 2 in the Commission, just below Von der Leyen. Ribera is currently a minister in Spain.
Spain’s Christian Democrats in the European Parliament also accuse her of being partly responsible for the high number of deaths caused by the floods around Valencia. Today she has to answer for this in Spain.
In addition, today there are again consultations between all political groups in the European Parliament. The most logical outcome seems to be that they all downsize their guns. No one is interested in postponing the start of the European Commission. There are too many big problems that the EU has to deal with for that.
But there is still no certainty that this is how it will end. And if one of the parties pulls the trigger, the gate may be breached and the new European Commission’s house of cards may come crashing down.
2024-11-20 05:00:00
#tough #political #battle #European #Commission
1. How are the hearings of the proposed European Commissioners shaping up in the European Parliament, and what does the outcome of these hearings mean for the formation of the new European Commission?
2. What role do the Christian Democrats and other political groups play in the power struggle over the European Commission, and how might their decisions on Commissioners affect the course of the EU for the coming years?
3. How has the stance of the European Conservatives on working with the Christian Democrats influenced the negotiations over approval of the European Commissioners?
4. What are some of the specific concerns raised by Social Democrats in the European Parliament regarding the appointment of commissioners from more right-wing parties?
5. What factors led to the current impasse over the approval of certain European Commissioners, and how have political groups tried to resolve these issues?
6. How important is the balance of power among political groups in the European Parliament when it comes to the formation of the European Commission, and what measures could be taken to ensure a more collaborative process in the future?
