Green MEPs sour on Von der Leyen

Two green MEPs on Tuesday questioned the approval of the new European Commission in November. Commission president Ursula von der Leyen is going backwards rather than forwards, they argue.

Von der Leyen, who must submit her new team to the European Parliament for approval later this year, "has given all the signals in recent weeks that she does not need us", said Belgian Green MEP Saskia Bricmont.

In July, Von der Leyen relied on a coalition of the centre-right European People's Party, the Socialists and the Liberals of Renew, supplemented by about two-thirds of the Greens, to secure her reappointment as commission president. This gave her a margin of 40 votes. 

Although the Greens won only 53 of the 70 seats in the European elections, they seemed on course to be part of the majority that would form the backbone of the second von der Leyen Commission for the next five years. But since the summer, the Greens have heard nothing from Von der Leyen, MEPs said in Strasbourg on Tuesday.

No vote of confidence

Not all Green MEPs have yet decided whether they will put their trust in the Commission after the hearings of the commissioners-designate, but for French MEP Marie Toussaint it will be a no. Like Bricmont, she voted against Von der Leyen in July and will do so again in November. Bricmont is still in doubt this time.

There are several reasons. One of them is the fact that Raffaele Fitto, a member of Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy party, has been proposed as vice-president of the Commission. 

'Empty promises'

The two MEPs also criticise Von der Leyen's support for an Italian asylum policy that would see applications for international protection processed outside the EU's borders, her "empty promises" on investment strategies and the postponement of the deforestation law, among other things.

All this shows that Von der Leyen is "more about continuity or even going backwards than about transformation and the desire to move forward", the MEPs said. "Ursula von der Leyen is also known for not consulting anyone, not even in her own college," Toussaint said.

 

Belgian MEP Saskia Bricmont © PHOTO ALEXIS HAULOT

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