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STRASBOURG — Members of the European Parliament lashed out Thursday at EU leaders for their handling of nominations for the bloc’s top jobs as the battle to confirm Ursula von der Leyen as the next Commission president heats up.
It is far from clear if MEPs — despite many of them being furious at the European Council for killing the Spitzenkandidat or “lead candidate” process — will reject von der Leyen, the German defense minister who is a close ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel. But a vote Wednesday that elected David-Maria Sassoli as president of the European Parliament indicates that von der Leyen could be short of the absolute majority needed for ratification.
At a plenary debate in Strasbourg, leading MEPs reacted angrily to the leadership package put forward by the European Council after 48 hours of marathon negotiations earlier this week. They criticized not only the surprise nomination of von der Leyen, and the rejection of the three lead candidates put forward by the EU’s biggest political families, but also the choice of Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel for Council president, IMF chief Christine Lagarde as head of the European Central Bank and Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell to be high representative for foreign affairs.
As MEPs complained about the nominations, von der Leyen held talks in Brussels with current Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council President Donald Tusk. She did not make any public comments or speak to reporters but tweeted: “My priorities will be to seek smart advice, listen to all parliamentary groups and together work out the best plan for the future of Europe.”
MEPs are set to vote on von der Leyen’s nomination in the week of July 15.
There were early indications that MEPs from the center-right European People’s Party (EPP), of which von der Leyen is a member, would fall in loyally behind her — despite the conservatives having championed the Spitzenkandidat process and repeatedly demanded the appointment of their nominee, German MEP Manfred Weber.
The liberal-centrist Renew Europe group, backed by French President Emmanuel Macron, also seemed likely to support her, largely because the leadership deal delivered them the Council presidency, in the hands of Michel, and also a senior Commission vice presidency post for Margrethe Vestager, the liberal lead candidate who currently serves as competition commissioner.
But the conservatives and liberals do not control enough votes to deliver the needed absolute majority, and support for von der Leyen among the center-left Social Democrats and the Greens is less certain.
As debate opened in the plenary, MEPs complained bitterly that the “top jobs” package was designed behind closed doors, and defied the Spitzenkandidat system that they had initiated and fought hard to maintain.
Last year, the Parliament even adopted a resolution declaring that it is ready to reject any nominee put forward by the Council who had not participated in the election campaign as a lead candidate — but that resolution was not binding on new MEPs and many of those who voted for it now seemed prepared to abandon the pledge.
Some MEPs also expressed anger at the Council for taking the liberty to suggest that a Social Democrat be elected as president of the Parliament, to ensure balance among political families in the overall leadership package.
The Council technically has no control over whom the Parliament chooses. However, MEPs acquiesced to the Council’s direction, and on Wednesday they elected Sassoli barely 12 hours after nominations were submitted.
The result showed a remarkable turnabout — from the Parliament insisting that it should effectively control the selection of Commission president through the Spitzenkandidat process, to the Council dictating not only who would get the EU’s top job, but also which political family should lead the Parliament.
However, Sassoli’s election also indicated possible trouble for von der Leyen. He clinched the Parliament presidency with 345 votes — but von der Leyen will need at least 375 votes to be confirmed as Commission president. Sassoli’s total was also about 100 votes short of the number of MEPs who belong to political parties that backed the leadership package in the European Council.
Conservatives critical
Even some conservatives who were likely to vote for the Council’s package voiced anger at how the process had played out.
“Council doesn’t have the right to ignore all of the candidates that have been voted for by European citizens,” said Esteban González Pons, a Spanish MEP and vice president of the EPP. “You are telling the European Parliament who they should nominate as president of our chamber. You are now at the point of deciding who is going to be at the European Central Bank, as if that was one more political nomination.”
“This is not democracy,” González Pons said. “I would urge you to think deeply: The future of Europe can no longer be decided behind closed doors and through secret plots.”
Despite these complaints, González Pons said his group would support von der Leyen because “we accept our responsibility, because we want to see a person leading the Commission who will be able to defend and fight for EU interests.”
Philippe Lamberts, the co-leader of the Greens in Parliament, was even more blunt. He argued that the Council had engaged in “five days of inglorious bargaining” where “partisan and national reasoning took precedence over the project and its incarnation.”
“All of this resulted in a distribution of roles that makes us doubt the ability to initiate the change which our societies need,” Lamberts added.
A Green official said the group would wait to meet von der Leyen, and hear her pitch, before making up its mind about whether it would approve her or not.
Iratxe García, the new leader of the center-left Socialists & Democrats (S&D) group, was less critical of the Council but she also defended the Spitzenkandidat process. Her group, she said, believes its candidate Frans Timmermans should have led the Commission and declared the Dutch politician was rejected “because he defended rule of law in the Union, and our values.”
García’s comment was a reference to the opposition Timmermans faced from Hungary and Poland. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, in particular, declared he had killed Timmermans’ chances.
Under a plan that the Council debated through Sunday night and into Monday morning, Timmermans would have been named Commission president. But in the end, Eastern Europeans, with help from others including Italy and Ireland, blocked that plan.
The S&D has not decided if it will support von der Leyen’s nomination. An S&D spokesperson said “we will continue our discussions in group next week and will also meet with her in our group.”
Tusk’s pitch
During the plenary, Council President Donald Tusk defended the leadership package, insisting that his own consultations with parliamentary leaders means the proposal was effectively a joint decision, and he urged MEPs to support it.
“Before the European Council proposed the new leadership of the Union, I met with your representatives many times,” Tusk said. “I did it not only out of respect for you, but above all, to make sure that the decisions are truly common.”
Tusk boasted that the Council’s decision was made far faster than five years ago, and he characterized the nomination of two women — von der Leyen and Lagarde — as a historic achievement.
“I believe they are good choices,” Tusk said, adding. “I feel happy and proud that we have achieved perfect gender balance in the top positions.”
Leaders are hoping that MEPs, even if angry over the process, will be reluctant to torpedo the package because they would be seen as rejecting the two women.
Tusk also made a special appeal to the Greens, an acknowledgement that their support could be crucial to clinching ratification of von der Leyen’s nomination.
He said he would appeal to EU leaders to involve Greens in nominations for other senior EU posts. “I am fully confident that cooperation with the Greens and their presence in the EU decision-making bodies will benefit not only the governing coalition, but Europe as a whole,” Tusk said.
Tusk can at least already count on the support of the Renew Europe group. The group said earlier this week that it is ready to approve von der Leyen’s nomination.
In a speech, Dacian Cioloș, the Romanian MEP who leads the group, didn’t criticize the Council directly, but insisted that the liberals would push for transnational lists as a way to resurrect the Spitzenkandidat process and create the possibility of what he said would be genuine pan-European campaigns.
“Now we can discuss names, we can discuss gender balance, we can discuss geographic balance for as long as we don’t have a transparent democratic process for selecting those who lead Europe, we will not achieve satisfaction,” Cioloș told MEPs.
After leading MEPs spoke, the euro-critical parties in the chamber targeted the entire nomination process as a reflection of the EU’s struggles.
Marco Zanni, the leader of the Euroskeptic Identity and Democracy group, ridiculed the ” internal institutional wrangling” after the nominations. But his group, he said, would “await the outlines of the program” before deciding whether to back von der Leyen.
“Early indications hardly augur a strong change as sought by EU citizens the 26th of May,” he added.
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