The green agenda is not emerging as one of the great priorities of the next European Commission. The environmental issue, against which conservatives, farmers and businessmen have charged like a punching bag, is controversial for several powerful Member States. And Ursula von der Leyen, who aspires to lead the Community Executive for another five years, with the competitiveness of the EU as the first point on the agenda, will try to move to neutralize the briefcase green within the reorganization of the new teams. The new design could relegate the Spanish Teresa Ribera, with a notable green pedigree. But the socialist, who has positioned herself as the next Spanish commissioner, aware of the new balances, aspires to a powerful, broader community vice presidency that brings together Energy and Climate, in a model similar to the one she now heads as third vice president of the Government and minister for the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge. Von der Leyen is the favorite to continue leading the Commission, but she is not clear about everything.
Spain now has one of the great positions, that of high representative for Foreign Policy and Security, in the hands of Josep Borrell. And the European social democrats hope to take over the presidency of the European Council (now in the hands of a liberal, the Belgian Charles Michel), for which names such as the Portuguese António Costa are already being mentioned. President Pedro Sánchez, who was the negotiator of the Social Democrats in the 2019 distribution and who secured for his political family and for Spain the third most important position – after the Commission and the Council – will have to move very well to shore up a great vice presidency for Ribera and increase influence in the EU in the next legislature, indicate community sources. From a powerful vice presidency he could push a lot.
In the 2019 negotiation, France and Italy failed to do so. Thierry Breton, Commissioner for the Internal Market – with Technological Sovereignty and Defense Industry – and Paolo Gentiloni, for the Economy, are under the umbrella of the vice presidency held by the Latvian, Valdis Dombrovskis, of the European People’s Party (EPP). The Commissioner for the Interior, Ylva Johansson (Swedish socialist), under the vice presidency of the conservative Greek Margaritis Schinas. Von der Leyen, who is actually the one who manages the most presidential-oriented European Commission, is looking for a similar scheme for the green agenda, for which this legislature has had a powerful vice-presidency—Green Pact—in its hands (until it left to compete in the Dutch elections). of the social democrat Frans Timmermans, who, however, had aspired to lead the community Executive. Finally, it went to Von der Leyen, from the European People’s Party, who was not even competing.
But that organization is that of yesterday’s world. The new priorities will be the competitiveness of the Union, which will have to step up to the plate in the face of the great protectionism of the United States and the push of China, which floods the European market with its products, dopes its companies with state subsidies and places many restrictions on European companies; and which, furthermore, continues to be the main supplier – in some cases almost the only one – of essential elements for the European green transition.
The Economy and Budget portfolios will also be key – a major reorganization of the cohesion policy and the Common Agricultural Policy is expected, in how many funds each chapter has and how they are distributed. Furthermore, if he repeats, Von der Leyen wants to give more weight to Defense (now within the Single Market and Security) with a specific commissioner for whom names from Eastern European countries are already being heard.
European chamber tilted to the right
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Ribera, head of the PSOE list for the European elections, is a veteran of Brussels, so she knows the institutions, the balance of parties and organizations and the distribution of positions and powers. That is why it aspires to a broad umbrella that encompasses energy issues and those related to the climate crisis, a major challenge despite the voices that call for slowing down some measures that have been considered too much and too quickly and that have pushed Von der Leyen to lower expectations in this legislature. Being only Commissioner for the Environment (now in a portfolio with Oceans in the hands of the Lithuanian Virginijus Sinkevičius) would fall short of Ribera’s claims, say socialist sources.
Furthermore, in a European Parliament that according to the polls will turn to the right as a reflection of what is already happening in the Member States, focusing only on the green agenda, these sources continue, would take away Ribera’s ability to maneuver, who is also a person with a technical profile and very committed to environmental issues.
The presidency of the Commission – proposed by the European Council, that is, the Twenty-seven, and which must be confirmed by the European Parliament – is the one who selects the vice-presidents and commissioners according to the suggestions of the Member States, but then these positions must be approved in the European Council and by the parliamentary committee responsible for the proposed portfolio. And the European People’s Party could be activated to try to overthrow Ribera, European parliamentary sources warn.
The role of vice presidents and commissioners is not only to push through legislation and community initiatives. They are also an important key for the Member States in the European Commission. This legislature, Spanish businessmen and lobbies They have criticized that Borrell has not been that lever for Spain. The high representative has been the voice of the EU in Foreign and Security policy in a continent threatened by Russia’s war against Ukraine and marked by Israel’s offensive in Gaza. His role has risen a lot, but his agenda has been extreme and he has not pushed too many Spanish issues, sources in Brussels point out. A vice presidency, or a powerful portfolio, may be less showy, but it can allow Spain to be more attentive to the collegiate decisions of the Community Executive and the Brussels machinery, say community sources.
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