MNI: European Parliament To Oppose EU Joint Funds - EP Sources
MNI (BRUSSELS) - European Parliament vetting of nominees for the next European Commission from Nov 4 to 12 is likely to highlight opposition to any further joint EU funding or any fresh major initiatives to reduce carbon emissions, parliamentary sources told MNI.
Only a major crisis would galvanise support for additional funding, despite the call for this made by former ECB chief and Italian prime minister Mario Draghi in his recent report on European competitiveness, while the green regulatory tide seems to have reached its high-water mark even if there is no backsliding on Green Deal legislation, one senior source said.
Opposition to new joint funding will only intensify following the German general election of September 2025 when the centre-right is widely expected to return to power, with more fiscally conservative forces around the EU insisting that remaining funds from the EUR800 billion NextGenerationEU project be used instead, the source said.
“I rather think that after the German elections we will see the next EU long-term budget become a huge battle, linking in the increasingly negative debate in the EP and elsewhere around unused NextGen funds. NGEU is likely to get extended somehow because we haven’t spent all the money,” the source said.
While the parliament might consider demands for the next long-term budget to be reorganised and even increased slightly, there will be no serious discussion of the EUR800 billion-per-year additional EU funding mooted by Draghi. (See MNI: EU Commission To Decide On Rolling Over Some NGEU Debt)
APPOINTMENTS
Political fighting over the appointments though will be restrained, with the Socialist group and liberal Renew group wanting to hang on to plum jobs secured in the next Commission, with Spanish Socialist Teresa Ribera nominated as VP for competition and clean transition and France’s Stephane Sejourne as VP for industrial strategy.
“The Commission jobs proposal is such a precise political construct on the part of [Commission President Ursula] von der Leyen that it is almost impossible to pick apart,” one source following parliamentary discussions about the hearings said.
“The balance of political forces has changed since the election and the centre-right is now dominant so the Socialists and Renew will take a defensive position and will not want to start a shooting war by sniping at the opposition.”
But there could be a number of self-inflicted casualties, with the Belgian, Maltese, Romanian and Slovenian nominees said to be among those who may fail to win final approval, either due to weak political support, perceptions of a lack of experience or sheer failure to impress MEPs on the day.