BRUSSELS (CN) — A political showdown between warring factions in the European Parliament has put the approval of the next leaders of the bloc’s executive branch in jeopardy, with the outcome unclear.
Initially, Europeans were adamant about having their leadership in place by the U.S. presidential elections on Nov. 5, but the process has been marred by delays and political games, especially between the Parliament’s center-right European People’s Party and the Socialists & Democrats group.
Over the past two weeks, relevant EU Parliament committees have grilled each of the 26 commissioners-designate — who, together with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, will make up the EU’s leadership team in the executive European Commission — to see if they are good choices to head up policy portfolios like agriculture, health, trade or economic affairs.
The commission is the only EU body that can draft laws which, once passed by the Parliament and the council of member states, apply in all 27 countries of the bloc. They cover everything from water quality to data protection to competition policy.
Candidates need the approval of at least two-thirds of the European Parliament committee conducting the hearing, meaning a majority of all political groups have to greenlight the commissioner-designate in question.
Normally, approval relates to the candidates’ suitability for the job, based on the substance of their answers, and is an individual process. Perhaps every five years, one or two candidates struggle.
But this time around, party politics has gotten in the way.
After committees finished 20 hearings and greenlighted the candidates, lawmakers paused Hungarian Health Commissioner-designate Olivér Várhelyi’s approval over concerns about his answers and his alignment with Hungary’s conservative ruling Fidesz party.
Some liberal members of Parliament are pushing for a potential revision of his portfolio, asking to reassign health and bioethics to a commissioner from their ranks.
Some of them have cited Hungary’s approval of Russian and Chinese Covid vaccines, which went against the commission’s advice.
The commission’s six designated executive vice presidents — Spain’s Teresa Ribera Rodríguez, Romania’s Roxana Mînzatu (both S&D), Finland’s Henna Virkkunen (EPP), France’s Stéphane Séjourné, Estonia’s Kaja Kallas (both liberal Renew Europe), and Italy’s Raffaele Fitto (far-right European Conservatives and Reformists) — were questioned by EU lawmakers on Tuesday.
But instead of approving them one by one, the centrist parliamentary majority of EPP, S&D and Renew turned the decision into a package deal that has escalated into a fight over the candidates.
Like Várhelyi, ECR’s Commissioner-designate Fitto is being blocked by the Socialists, with center-left forces questioning von der Leyen’s choice to grant such a high position to the far-right group. But the EPP has so far opposed downgrading his role.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who nominated Fitto in August, strongly criticized the push to strip Fitto of the vice presidential position.
“These are your representatives on the left,” Meloni said. “According to them, Italy does not deserve a vice presidency in the commission.”
The push against Várhelyi and Fitto comes amid opposition to giving powerful commissioner roles to two members of the far right, rather than one in the previous administration.
The EPP now has withheld approval for Ribera until she appears before the Spanish Parliament over her role in the deadly Valencia flooding. The Socialists have accused the center-right group of hijacking the confirmation process for party political games and using Ribera as a scapegoat.
“Under the irresponsible behavior of their group leader Manfred Weber, the conservative European People’s Party broke the historic pro-European, democratic agreement between conservative, social democrat and liberal groups in this house,” the Socialists said in a statement.
“The EPP will have to explain to the citizens of Europe why they broke the historic pro-European majority and whether they really want to side with far-right populists,” they added.
The Greens, who don’t have their own commissioner-designate but supported von der Leyen’s candidacy for commission president before the summer, warned the EPP to remove the deadlock.
“EPP’s leadership is gambling, taking the EU hostage, aligning with the far-right. This is irresponsible,” Greens co-chair Terry Reintke wrote on X.
Political party leaders EPP, S&D, and Renew groups met on Wednesday in Brussels, with Von der Leyen even stepping in, to renegotiate a deal to confirm the new European Commission, but no agreement was reached. There is still no timeline for the evaluation meeting of the six vice presidents.
Should the showdown result in the rejection of one or more commissioners-designate, European Parliament sources say there could be a worst-case “free-for-all” where the parties boot out several of the six as retaliation.
EU’s next top diplomat, Kallas was initially considered safe. Should she be targeted, it could add more uncertainty to the approval of the whole EU institutional balance.
Now, the delays threaten to affect the overall start of the whole new European Commission team, which was originally slated for approval the week of Nov. 25, to take office Dec. 1.
If no agreement is found until the November session, European Parliament sources speculate the commission start date could be pushed into 2025.