Greens make ‘important step’ with von der Leyen, want ‘solid’ pro-EU coalition

4 months ago 18

The European Parliament’s Greens had a “constructive” meeting with Ursula von der Leyen about her candidacy for the European Commission presidency and her programme, the group’s co-presidents said on Wednesday, adding that a strong pro-EU coalition is needed in light of the upcoming US elections.

The Green officials said the main message they delivered to von der Leyen is that there should be “no backtracking” on the Green Deal.

“We are looking for a clear commitment on the not backtracking, but it’s also very clear that we need new discussions on implementation and that there will be new proposals”, co-president of the Greens/EFA group Bas Eickhout said, adding that today’s meeting was an “important step”.

For her part, fellow co-president Terry Reintke said, “We had a very constructive exchange about the priorities”.

Reintke added that there is a strong common interest to build a “strong” pro-EU coalition without far-right forces:

“We know who is currently holding the council presidency in the European Union, and how this has been dealt with already in this short period of time that Hungary has held it. We also know what is happening in autumn with the election in the US”.

“So having this stable majority, having a European Union that is stable, that is forward-looking, that is constructive and working together is of a very strong common interest. And this was something that very clearly came out of this meeting today”, she added.

“We don’t want far-right forces to influence the agenda of the EU over the next years”, she noted.

Asked by Euractiv if the entire EPP is on board with this, Reintke replied:

“I think that the EPP is a very disunited group, and I think that there are different delegations that have very different positions on this, and we obviously have a preference to which side should prevail in this internal struggle in the EPP […] But when you talk to different parts of EPP in the last days, you get very different answers to this question”.

For his part, Dutch MEP Bas Eickhout noted that the aim is to vote “as a group” when it comes to von der Leyen.

“We prefer to vote as a group […] the Greens have been the most coherent group in the EU Parliament”, he said.

Eickhout explained that the Greens will be waiting for von der Leyen’s speech and her final priorities next week in the parliament to make their final decision “because now she can talk to all the different groups and adjust her message”.

“I do think that it is also very clear from the order of the visits von der Leyen held this week to the four political groups […] I think already that order tells you something about what her intention is”, Eickhout said, as von der Leyen will see the ECR last, next week.

According to the latest numbers, the so-called pro-EU coalition (centre-right EPP, socialist S&D and liberal Renew) altogether gather 400 votes, enough to ensure a governing majority in the 720-seat EU Parliament.

However, considering that the vote is secret, the EPP has set a “15%” red line, meaning it could potentially lose up to 15% of votes from individual members of the pro-EU coalition groups.

The EPP is not certain that all socialists will vote for von der Leyen, nor every individual lawmaker from within their own ranks, especially in the French and the Austrian delegations.

With the support of the Greens, von der Leyen could rely on another 53 votes.

[Edited by Chris Powers]