Insiders in the European People's Party speak of growing dissatisfaction with its leader Manfred Weber. The confirmation of EU Commissioner Teresa Ribera played a decisive role here.
The deadly floods in Valencia saw a months-long tug-of-war between political forces in the EU Parliament as the conservative European People's Party (EPP) threatened to reject Spanish Commissioner-designate Teresa Ribera (S&D). In return, the Social Democrats (S&D), Greens and Liberals (Renew) are threatening to reject the Italian candidate Raffaele Fitto because of his connections to Giorgia Meloni's right-wing conservative Fratelli d'Italia (EKR) party.
In the end, the new composition of the commission was approved without either side carrying out its threats.
However, Euractiv learned from EPP party circles that large parts of the group, with the exception of the Spanish delegation, were dissatisfied with the way things were going.
“Weber was more concerned about his re-election than the EPP group when he delayed the Commission's approval for a week,” said a source.
The political “hostage-taking” was extremely “unpleasant” and “ugly towards the members,” other sources added.
In April 2025, the party will hold its third congress in Valencia – including an election for chairman. Several sources tell Euractiv that they believe Weber is using his goodwill with the Spanish in exchange for their support in his bid for the presidency.
Critics say that the Spanish conservatives of the Partido Popular (PP/EPP) let the EPP dance to their tune in the EU Parliament and pursued national party politics.
The hearings and their pitfalls
After the EU elections in June, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed her new team of EU commissioners, followed by two rounds of hearings in which the designated commissioners had to answer questions from MEPs.
After the first During the week of hearings, the new commission encountered its first hurdle in mid-November.
The conservative Partido Popular opposed the confirmation of Ribera, the candidate from Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's Social Democratic Party, as the conservatives criticized the government for its handling of the floods in Valencia.
During the floods, Ribera was still minister for ecological transition, with the regional president of Valencia belonging to the Partido Popular (EPP).
The EPP only gave the green light after Ribera's questioning in the Spanish Parliament the following week, delaying the confirmation process in Brussels.
According to EPP circles, only a few MPs outside the imperial delegation had raised serious objections to Ribera's candidacy.
Although her performance during the hearing was largely seen as subpar even by political allies, the risk of failure to confirm the entire EU Commission was too much for the new majority of colleagues in the Conservative Group (EPP).
“As the question [während eines der EVP-Fraktionstreffen] “Nobody responded as to whether we should reject it,” another faction source told Euractiv.
The source said Ribera's approval was widely seen as part of a comprehensive package to confirm all commissioners, a strategy also described internally as “mutually assured destruction.”
During the confirmation meetings, “all delegations, with the exception of the Spanish one, already entered into discussions with this agreement,” the group source added.
Capitals intervene
A People's Party source familiar with the discussions tells Euractiv that everything seemed to be on track after the prime ministers of Poland, Greece, Spain and Germany agreed on the top EU positions.
However, the source continued that things changed after EU Social Democrats leader Iratxe Garcia came to “nag” about Fitto. This led to Weber's reaction to accept the national criticism of Ribera.
The source stressed that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his Greek counterpart put a lot of pressure on Weber to lift the blockade. Tusk is said to have contacted Weber directly and angrily urged him to renege on his demands on Ribera.
Similarly, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez (S&D) called on García Pérez to back down from her demand that Italy's Fitto be demoted to junior commissioner. Like Weber, Pérez eventually gave in, and the entire college of commissioners was confirmed in Strasbourg at the end of November.
“Shadow Rivals”
Asked for comment on the allegations, a spokesman for Weber told Euractiv: “This is the favorite comment of Weber's shadow rivals in the EPP.” The rivals “will remain in the shadows because they never have the courage to be quoted or their criticism to express in meetings,” he added.
“The truth is that in ten years Weber took part in many internal elections of the EPP group and the EPP party and only once had real competition. And he won,” the spokesman concluded. He was referring to Weber's election as the EPP's top candidate for the 2019 European elections against the former Finnish Prime Minister and current President Alexander Stubb.
*Nikolaus Kurmayer and Sarantis Michalopoulos contributed to this report
[Bearbeitet von Alice Taylor-Braçe/Kjeld Neubert]
