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4 months ago
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The three influential European Parliament committees responsible for energy and industry, environment, and transport elected their leaders for the next two and a half years on Tuesday (23 July).
Chairs oversee the work of their Committee, and collectively coordinate the overall work of the Parliament.
Although the elections only took place on Tuesday morning, the winners were in practice decided in advance.
Two weeks ago, the European Parliament’s political groups divided the 20 Committee chairs positions between them, with the largest groups getting the first pick. Each group then decided who amongst their ranks would take chair positions.
An ITRE Chair wary of greenwashing
Polish centre-right lawmaker Borys Budka has been selected as chair of the European Parliament’s Industry, Energy & Research Committee (ITRE). His bid was unopposed.
Tsvetelina Penkova (socialist, Bulgaria) was elected first vice chair. The second, third and fourth vice chair positions went to Elena Donazzan (hard right, Italy), Giorgio Gori (socialist, Italy) and Yvan Verougstraete (liberal, Belgium) respectively.
A member of the European People’s Party (EPP), Budka has had two brief stints as a national minister – firstly for justice and then for state assets. Other than this, he combined work in academia with local politics.
His name is on three academic papers on ResearchGate, which focus on how government funding can help the energy transition, and consumer attitudes towards environmental protection.
A November 2021 paper focuses on greenwashing, and notes that “it can be argued that the failure to condemn natural gas as a source of electricity can be considered a form of greenwashing”.
The paper concludes that EU greenwashing actions have prompted the Polish government to do the same, in a dynamic the authors call “cascading greenwashing”.
A bicycle-friendly ENVI Chair
Antonio Decaro, 54, the rising star of the Italian Democratic Party, was chosen to lead the European Parliament’s environment committee (ENVI). As he was unopposed, there was no formal election.
Upon taking his seat, Decaro promised that “we will not go back on the previous legislation” – signalling that he will resist recent pushback against the Green Deal.
The first vice chair position was taken by María Esther Herranz García (centre-right, Spain).
The second, third and forth vice-chairs will be Pietro Fiocchi (hard right, Italy), Anja Hazekamp (far left, the Netherlands) and András Tivadar Kulja (centre right, Hungary) respectively.
A graduate in transport civil engineering, he advised the then-mayor of Bari on mobility and traffic. His efforts to free the city centre from cars won him the title of ‘Friend of the Bicycle’ from the Italian Federation of Friends of the Bicycle in 2008 and ‘Ecologist of the Year’ from the Italian environmental association Legambiente.
The promotion of cycling has been a constant theme of Decaro’s political work, both as a regional councillor in Puglia and during his time as a member of the Italian parliament.
He was elected mayor of his hometown Bari in January 2014 and remained in office until his election to the European Parliament.
According to some sources, he is tempted to stand in the 2025 regional elections for the Puglia region.
An equality-focused TRAN Chair
Returning Greek MEP Eliza Vozemberg (EPP) has been elected chair of the Transport and Tourism Committee (TRAN) with 33 votes in favour and 13 against. Vozemberg hails from the ruling centre-right New Democracy (ND), affiliated with the EPP.
The hard right ‘Patriots for Europe’ had nominated Austrian Roman Haider as chair, but the centrist parties had previously agreed to block him under the ‘cordon sanitaire’. Haider refused to congratulate the incoming chair, citing her “lousy shady behaviour.”
The first vice chair will be former Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius (greens, Lithuania).
Sophia Kircher (centre-right, Austria), Elena Kountoura (the far left, Greece) and Matteo Ricci (socialists, Italy) were elected second, third and forth vice chair respectively.
Before entering politics Vozemberg practised as a lawyer and was a member of the Greek parliament between October 2009 and May 2012.
Vozemberg has been a member of TRAN since she was elected to the European Parliament in 2014. On transport, she was the lead negotiator for the EPP on the EU Road Safety Policy Framework 2021-2030.
However, her focus has been primarily on equality and women’s rights, rather than transport. In the last parliamentary term, her name was associated with only three ‘motions for resolutions’ related to TRAN, and these motions concern tourism only.
During this time, Vozemberg served as a vice-president of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality.
[Edited by Donagh Cagney/Zoran Radosavljevic]
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