MNI: Fight Over Jobs Delays Naming Of EU Commissioners-Sources

MNI (ROME/BRUSSELS) - Infighting between political groups prompted European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to delay a planned presentation of candidates to run her major portfolios this week, with Italy confident of securing a key vice presidency while European Parliament socialists target Competition, officials in Brussels and Rome told MNI.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is confident she will win a big job for her Europe Minister Raffaele Fitto, thanks to crucial backing from the European People’s Party (EPP), and is also trying to influence the selection of potential Commissioners from other parties, such as the Social Democrats and the Liberals, Italian government sources said. This would reassert Meloni’s standing in the EU institutions after voting unsuccessfully against Von der Leyen’s re-appointment in the summer, they said.

Centrist parties in the European Parliament have tried to block Fitto, prompting the EPP to threaten to veto other candidates and jeopardising a broader deal over the makeup of the new Commission, the Italian sources said, though a source close to Meloni said she would be open to compromise if necessary. (See MNI: Most EU States To Miss Debt Plan Deadline - Sources)

Rome is working to overcome opposition from the governments of Germany, France, and Spain, which have resisted the inclusion of members from Meloni’s European Conservative and Reformist party (ECR) in the Commission. Von der Leyen and the EPP are however reportedly open to accommodating Meloni, viewing it as a potential opportunity to shift the Commission’s political alignment further to the right, with one veteran source in the parliament telling MNI that Fitto was likely to get a key role.

"The EPP and ECR combined do not have a majority in the EP, but they are a massive force nevertheless, and Italy and other EPP and ECR governments in the European Council are also a significant voting bloc,” the parliamentarian said. 

DRAGHI IMPACT

This week’s major report on boosting European competitiveness by former ECB chief Mario Draghi had already changed the way that the political groups are viewing the race for key Commission portfolios, he added, with dossiers like competition, trade, industry and financial services now seeing the most intense competition.

"Competition has traditionally been the preserve of the Liberals, not the Socialists. Why would it be? Competition is something capitalists do. Draghi has changed all that. Competition is now also about industrial strategy and has opened the door for national champions again,” the source said. (See MNI: EU Already Looking At Flexibility For France- Officials)

Von der Leyen had been due to present the structure and nominees of the new Commission to EP group leaders on Wednesday but that has now been put off until next Tuesday or later in Strasbourg. The Commission cited as its official reason Slovenia's search for a female candidate after Brussels pressured it to withdraw its original male nominee Tomaz Vesel, but sources said that in reality the delay was caused by the broader fight over key roles.

The Socialist Group is pressuring for Teresa Ribera, nominated by Spain's Socialist government to be given the competition commission, instead of the job Von der Leyen has offered her - that of executive vice president for digital and climate transitions. 

A complicating factor is that Spain and Ribera are said to prefer the digital and climate role.