mobanmarketSTRASBOURG — Ursula von der Leyen delivered her final pitch to members of the European Parliament on Tuesday, offering socialists and liberals a constellation of policy promises as she sought to win approval to become president of the European Commission.
The German nominee for the EU’s top job delivered an address that was carefully scripted to appeal to pro-EU parties beyond her own center-right political family, with particular emphasis on social democrats, who are divided over whether to back her.
Von der Leyen sought to ease the doubts of the center left with an array of policy morsels, including an EU-wide minimum wage framework, a European Unemployment Benefit Reinsurance Scheme, and a “youth guarantee” to reduce unemployment.
Whether von der Leyen would be able to implement many of her pledges is open to question. Some of the most significant would need support from the EU’s member governments. Members of her own conservative party said they hoped she would not be able to meet her pledges once she is confirmed as Commission president.
But the primary objective for von der Leyen on Tuesday was to secure the 374-vote absolute majority in Parliament required to confirm her nomination. And the outgoing German defense minister appeared to have decided to focus on gathering votes from social democrats, liberals and even a few Greens — despite the Green group as a whole deciding not to back her — rather than send signals that might appeal to nationalists and Euroskeptics.
Among the proposals that she would not be able to implement alone was a “New Pact on Migration and Asylum” that von der Leyen said would rewrite the EU’s asylum rules, known as the Dublin regulation, and end years of intractable disagreement among member countries.
“We need to address the legitimate concerns of many and look at how we can overcome our differences,” von der Leyen said. “I will propose a New Pact on Migration and Asylum, including the relaunch of the Dublin reform.”
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She also declared support for “an EU-wide Rule of Law Mechanism” — a proposal that will likely face stiff opposition from some EU capitals. “To be clear: the new instrument is not an alternative to the existing instruments, but an additional one,” von der Leyen said.
Her prepared remarks were followed by nearly four hours of debate among MEPs, that reflected a decidedly mixed verdict on her candidacy with some complaining bitterly about the process by which von der Leyen was nominated by the European Council.
Still, Parliament officials cautiously predicted that von der Leyen appeared to have the votes needed for confirmation, though they said the margin would likely be tight and the outcome was far from guaranteed. The vote, by secret ballot, is set for 6 p.m. Central European Time, with the result expected between 7:30 and 8 p.m.
Notably, by the end of the debate, the socialist group, the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats for Europe (S&D) — which is crucial to von der Leyen winning ratification with a majority of votes from mainstream, pro-EU parties — had still not reached a collective decision on her nomination.
“You are moving in the right direction,” the S&D leader, Spanish MEP Iratxe García, said in her response to von der Leyen’s remarks. “But now we want to see ambition in our legislation,” García said, adding that her group had yet to reach a consensus.
Still, García hinted that there was reluctance to vote against von der Leyen. “We don’t want any kind of institutional crisis, which will just further delay the changes that Europe needs to see,” she said. “But we want guarantees that in the coming years Europe will be able to take the measures it needs to.”
Among those who appear to back her candidacy were 182 MEPs from the EPP and at least the vast majority of the 108 MEPs from the centrist-liberal Renew Europe group.
“My Group will support Ms Von der Leyen today. We are looking forward to work intensively with her to move Europe forward,” tweeted group leader Dacian Cioloş, a Romanian MEP. “There is a lot of work ahead of us. Let’s renew Europe together!”
It was unclear if the Euro-critical European Conservatives and Reformists would vote for von der Leyen.
If the Parliament rejects von der Leyen’s nomination, the EU treaties call for the leaders of the bloc’s member countries on the European Council to put forward a new nominee within 30 days.
Because other parts of the EU’s future leadership are already locked in, including Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel as the next president of the European Council, and Italian socialist MEP David Sassoli as president of the Parliament, it’s likely that the Council would feel compelled to put forward another candidate from the European People’s Party.
In 2014, Jean-Claude Juncker, a former prime minister of Luxembourg, won confirmation as Commission president with 422 votes, and it is conventional wisdom in Parliament that anything less than 400 votes would deprive von der Leyen of crucial political legitimacy and make it hard to govern in partnership with an increasingly diverse and divided Parliament.
During debate, the leader of the EPP group, Manfred Weber, who had been the EPP’s Spitzkandidat, or lead candidate, for Commission president, pledged support to von der Leyen. It was a poignant moment, given that Weber had intended to be the one delivering the nominee’s speech not responding to it.
“The time has come now to elect the president of the European Commission,” Weber said, noting that the EPP had come first in the Parliament election, winning the most seats. “The promises we made must be delivered on,” he said.
“She is convinced European,” Weber said of the nominee, adding, “We will be extending our full support to Ursula von der Leyen.”
But critics of von der Leyen lashed out, complaining not only about the process by which she was chosen — having not campaigned as the nominee of a political family — and also that her policy proposals were too vague, or insufficient.
Her declared opponents include the 74 Green MEPs as well as the 41 MEPs from the far-left alliance, the European United Left/Nordic Green Left. Some member parties of far-right Identity and Democracy group, which has 73 MEPs, also said they would vote against von der Leyen.
Philippe Lamberts, a Belgian MEP and co-leader of the Greens said von der Leyen had made “real progress” compared to her initial appearances in Parliament a week ago, but not enough. “Your ideas remain well under our expectations,’ Lamberts said. “Where a change of direction is needed, you offer here and there, a bowing, incremental changes, and a lot of vagueness.”
Others were even more direct. “You represent everything that is wrong with the European Union,” Ivan Vilibor Sinčić, an unaffiliated Croatian MEP, said before lambasting von der Leyen’s proposals for a more integrated, federalist EU.
“Be honest,” he said, “or you can’t get my vote.”
Nico Semsrott, a Green MEP and satirist, stood up wearing a hoody adorned with a racing bib plastered with names and slogans including those of the consulting firms Accenture and McKinsey, which are the center of an investigation into allegations of misspending and mismanagement at the German defense ministry under von der Leyen.
Sassoli, the Parliament president, interrupted Semsrott and demanded a return to regular debate.
Von der Leyen, who wore a pink blouse and blazer, stressed the historic nature of her nomination to be the first woman president of the Commission. And she sprinkled her prepared speech with some personal references, including that she was born in Brussels because her father worked for the forerunner of today’s EU. She also spoke about her family taking in a teenage Syrian refugee.
While EPP officials expressed confidence that von der Leyen would be confirmed, it was clear that the EU establishment was taking no risks. Late Monday, the Commission secretary general, Martin Selmayr, announced that he would step down as of next week — in a gesture intended to ease concerns about Germans holding too much power in the upper echelon of the Commission.
Selmayr is Juncker’s closest confidante and widely regarded as a highly-effective if ruthless manager. But his rapid two-step promotion to the Commission’s top civil service post last year angered many in Parliament, which adopted a resolution calling for him to step down, even though investigations found that his promotion was legal.