Faint hopes for a strengthened European centre-ground were short-lived on a night that added 'platform cooperation agreement’ to the Eurospeak lexicon, saw the EPP consolidate its power, and left the S&D licking their wounds. 

Late on Wednesday afternoon (20 November), much of the Brussels press stood cramped outside a meeting room in the European Parliament, where political chiefs were due to meet. Rumours of an agreement to unblock the stand-off over the next European Commission had filled the corridors in the hours prior. 

The elevator doors opened, and centre-right EPP leader Manfred Weber emerged, followed by the socialist S&D’s Iratxe García Pérez and the liberal Renew’s Valérie Hayer. The three centrist old-timers smiled from ear to ear as they breezed by reporters without taking questions. 

Left behind outside the meeting room was Hayer’s spokesperson – smiling just as much as her boss and equally reluctant to answer questions. But when one journalist confronted her with rumours that the EPP had confirmed a deal, her secrecy turned into gleeful admission. Yes, we did have a deal. 

The three leaders had agreed to approve the seven remaining commissioners and to formalise their future cooperation with a common paper – a ‘platform cooperation agreement’, as it turned out. 

A cursory glance at the two-page draft revealed it to be little more than a futile symbol of a reinforced pro-European centre-ground – nothing in it prohibited the EPP from lurching rightward, as it has already sought to do. 

And if the assembled press pack needed any convincing of the hollowness of the apparent truce, the hours that followed provided it. 

A socialist humiliation in two acts 

Tensions between the groups were already high going into this week. The S&D insisted that Italian right-wing nominee Raffaele Fitto (ECR) should be demoted from his executive vice-presidency, while the EPP was hellbent on giving Spain’s Teresa Ribera (S&D) as rough a ride towards confirmation as possible. 

“When you pull a rope too tight, it breaks,” an S&D source told Euractiv last week, insisting that no amount of political pressure would sway the socialists to back the Italian. 

But on Wednesday evening, the S&D gave the green light to Fitto taking a top job. Their red line disappeared. The rope did not break. 

Even then, the socialist ordeal was not over yet. 

The subsequent evaluation meetings – a formality required to get the back-room deal over the line – dominoed into deadlock thanks to last-minute demands by Weber’s group to add a line to Ribera’s evaluation letter, compelling her to resign if convicted of wrongdoing over last month’s floods in Valencia. 

In the end, the EPP wording was only included as a ‘minority opinion’, meaning Ribera faces no such obligation. But that they felt able to re-assert their dominance so soon after revealing a deal with the socialists “shows how weak this agreement is,” Carlo Fidanza, the Fratelli d’Italia (ECR) leader in Brussels, told journalists once the dust had settled. 

Progressives never found a hill to die on 

For more than a week, the three group leaders all felt pressure from above to come to an understanding. Conversations between Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez (S&D) and von der Leyen (EPP) during G20 seemingly paved way for an eventual thawing, as the Madrid government pushed García Pérez to scale down her demands. 

But as the S&D leader pitched the deal to her troops, cracks began to show, with many national delegations openly voicing their disagreement with the "working responsibly" line.

Of course, Parliament groups are broad churches, and splits are not exclusive to the Socialists. The EPP, even this week, is no exception. 

Their Spanish member, Partido Popular (PP), was pivotal in forcing the stalemate over Ribera, effectively making their European colleagues "hostage to domestic dynamics", leaving MEPs increasingly frustrated with the process, parliamentary sources told Euractiv.  

Weber, for his part, had no issues in entertaining the PP’s demands, with his re-election as group chair next year hinging on Spanish support.  

Iratxe on borrowed time 

The strategy adopted by the S&D leadership could ultimately undermine García Pérez’s position at the helm. “There are questions being asked in the group now,” one parliamentary source told Euractiv.  

Ribera will become a commissioner with tangible influence, overseeing EU competition policy and the clean transition. But the S&D still emerges from the hearings process defeated. 

With only the toothless ‘platform cooperation agreement’ as a consolation prize, the S&D will likely have to come to terms with being regularly sidelined by its former partner, the EPP. 

Shortly after the agreement was announced, Weber’s strongest praises were not for his co-signatories, but for the ECR and its Italian delegation, who he said are willing to “contribute to solving problems based on our [European] values.” 

The group's commitment to supporting all candidates shows the ECR is "ready to work constructively to get the next Commission into office," he added. 

The message that Weber’s door remains open to those on his right is clear – and those to his left might have little left to do but wave their two pages of false hope in despair.