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In today’s edition
- What do Greens and ECR have in common? Waiting for von der Leyen.
- Bits of the week: Hard right ECR group close to implosion as PiS ponders jumping ship; Party of European Left abandoned by Portuguese members who call for an alternative European party; AfD’s far-right group loses momentum; France’s right-wing party Les Républicains get sweet treats; Socialists, Renew, Greens complete election of their leadership.
Despite big differences in policy priorities, the Greens and hard right European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) have one thing in common: waiting for von der Leyen to extend her hand.
Ahead of the European Council summit today, Thursday 27 June, EU leaders gather to discuss and approve a deal on who will take over the EU’s top jobs.
Yet, the key question remains whether the ECR heads of government, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Czechia’s Petr Fiala, will back Ursula von der Leyen’s nomination as Commission President.
She just needs a qualified majority among the leaders, but it is customary to have as much consensus as possible when it comes to the decision of who takes these roles. This time, however, it seems everyone is ready to sideline Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
According to several EU diplomats, Meloni and Fiala are betting on powerful portfolios within the next Commission college, in exchange for their support.
But to be able to claim their prize, they need to wait until von der Leyen is confirmed by the European Parliament in mid-July, when she will be able to start building her college.
Instead, today Meloni and Fiala will be waiting for a sign, a promise from the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) that they will get the portfolios they are seeking.
Once von der Leyen has the Council’s approval, she needs to woo the Parliament.
“We have to think about the Parliament because this package has to have [its] support and it is such a complex package. But we are close,” Finish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, of the EPP family, said on his arrival at the leaders’ summit.
In the Parliament, the balance of powers is different than in the Council. Instead of the ECR, it seems she will need to reach out to the Greens to find enough votes to secure her confirmation.
She needs to embrace the Greens because von der Leyen’s key coalition partners, the Liberals and Socialists, have made it very clear they would never support her if she got too close to the hard right.
Most importantly, the Greens can give her the number of votes she would not get from the many parties within ECR which despise her, such as Poland’s PiS.
In Parliament, the Greens have desperately made clear they are available to form a coalition and to compromise – seeking to retain some influence in the EU’s policymaking system – but they will have to wait for her.
Though no formal contact has been established to kickstart negotiations, EPP and Greens members have had unofficial talks for weeks, Euractiv understands.
Though von der Leyen has already met with the leader of the Liberals, Valérie Hayer, and the leader of the Socialists, Iratxe García, she has not yet met with the co-chairs of the Greens, Terry Reintke and Bas Eickhout.
Rumour has it she will be reaching out to them next week.
During their election campaign, the EPP seemed to have closed the door to the Greens. But important voices in the group seem now more open to the idea.
“Our first point of contact is now the Social Democrats and the Liberals. At the same time, we will not refuse to engage in talks with all democratic parties that want to shape Europe in the coming years together with Ursula von der Leyen as Commission President and us as the strongest force in the European Parliament,” Daniel Caspary, leader of CDU/CSU in the European Parliament, told Euractiv.
The Socialists also have an interest in bringing the Greens onboard: “I have a very, very special interest in showing the Greens must be part of a coalition (…) they also have projects that can lead to a stronger European economy,” Dutch Socialist party leader, Frans Timmermans, said arriving at the European Socialists’ pre-summit.
For now, though, we need to wait until the EU’s leaders start having dinner, when they are expected to seal von der Leyen’s nomination, along with António Costa for the European Council presidency, and Kaja Kallas for the EU’s top diplomat post.
