Power, votes and influence: political colour shapes the EU
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In this edition:
Beyond the top jobs: Political appointments in Brussels
EU leaders late last week reached an agreement over three EU top jobs: Ursula von der Leyen will take on a second mandate as Commission President, Portugal’s António Costa will lead the European Council and Kaja Kallas of Estonia is set to become the EU’s foreign policy chief.
The trio represents the three traditional power blocs in the European Parliament – the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), the Social Democrats and the liberals, respectively – but the appointments still need to be confirmed by that Parliament in a secret vote. The three parties hold around 400 of 720 seats, but not all of those MEPs are expected to support von der Leyen. With an expected defection rate of around 10 percent, “queen Ursula” will be forced to seek external support.
But that’s where it gets tricky: any rapprochement to the green or conservative groups will cost von der Leyen seats from her existing support base. Lobbyists, journalists and academics would like to be flies on the wall in the ongoing political negotiations as this is where the course of the EU for the next 5 years will be determined. Those who want something from Ursula better use their vote as a bargaining chip and demand rock-solid guarantees.
Apart from the tightrope von der Leyen needs to walk in the Parliament, she had quite an easy run for her second mandate. The question many in Brussels start to ask, however, is: to what extent will she further strengthen her and the EPP’s grip on EU institutions and policy?
In our latest investigation, we zoomed in on the system of political appointments in Brussels. The conclusion: the EPP is most skilled at this exercise and over the past decade has managed to place its pawns on key positions inside the EU Commission and Parliament, from where it can influence a lot of political appointments.
We found several people with (past) EPP affiliation at key positions in the European Court of Auditors, the European Commission’s Secretary General and its anti-fraud office OLAF and in the coordinators of the trans-European network for transport.
Simon van Dorpe
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Other stories on our radar
A quiet revolving door
Last week we saw former climate czar Frans Timmermans’ former cabinet chief Diederk Samsom join Dutch gas company Gasunie. Outgoing EU civil servants are required to ask the Commission permission so that a conflict of interest can be prevented. But we discovered that Samsom’s new job was announced before the Commission had given its permission – and even before Samsom had requested this approval. Confronted with the findings, Samsom declared to ‘regret’ the ‘mistake’. It’s now up to the Commission to come with a verdict. For the Dutch speakers, here you can find a detailed account of the case.
The European march of Viktor Orbán
‘We will march on Brussels, and we will make the change in the European Union ourselves’, the Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán declared last March. And now that his country holds the European Council’s presidency until the end of 2024, Orbán can show what his words are worth. The presidency is the ultimate moment for an EU member state to put its priorities on the top of the agenda, and Orbán is already setting a clear tone for his upcoming period. Earlier this spring we wrote about the man planning to “Make Europe Great Again”. You can read it here.
A (predicted) populist wave hits France
Preliminary results of the elections in France show that Marine Le Pen’s party, National Rally, could secure a comfortable majority in the National Assembly. The party received nearly a third of the total votes, and trade-offs and negotiations between the contesting parties have already begun. While all of Europe eagerly awaits the results next Sunday, supporters of nationalist and populist politics are celebrating the growth of their movements. Prior to the EU elections, we revealed that National Rally was one of the three populist and extremist parties in France with a dramatic increase in financial support.
Just in: update from SBTi
Just as we were closing this edition, we learned that the CEO of the influential climate label SBTi is resigning. Although citing ‘personal reasons’, this decision comes after months of controversy over announcements from the label that would seriously compromise other companies’ climate targets. Some months ago, the board at SBTi announced that it would loosen its own well known strict standards and allow more carbon offsetting practices by companies, even against scientific advice. You can read more about the controversy here.