Cordon sanitaire against Orbán, Patriots to get no posts in the European Parliament

Brussels – All against the Patriots. The permanence in the European Parliament of the Sovereignist group that Viktor Orbán founded is all uphill: the other political families decided to exclude the 84 Euroskeptic MEPs from the division of posts in the bureaus of the parliamentary committees. “Those who are against the European project cannot represent the Parliament,” the leader of the People’s Party (EPP), Manfred Weber, said dryly.

Overnight, there was the agreement in principle to confirm the cordon sanitaire that already in the last legislature had prevented the Identity and Democracy group from gaining access to weighty positions in the European Parliament committees. The change of colors of Salvini, Le Pen, and the parties that joined the project launched by Orbán did not change the substance. According to the d’Hondt method, a kind of algorithm used to allocate seats, the far-right neo-group would have been due two chairmanships: those of the Transport (Tran) and Culture (Cult) committees. But, as confirmed by European Parliament sources, the chairmanships of the two committees — and the vice-chairmanships planned for Patriots for Europe (PfE) — “will be redistributed among the majority groups.”

According to the agreement – which the plenary session in Strasbourg next Wednesday has to confirm – the EPP would receive the chairmanship of the Industry and Energy (ITRE), Foreign Affairs (AFET), Agriculture (AGRI), Budgetary Control (CONT), CFSP (PECH), and Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) committees. The Socialists would receive the Environment (ENVI), Trade (INTA), Regional Development (REGI), Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON), and Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) portfolios. Renew Liberals would be awarded the Development (DEVE), Legal Affairs (JURI), and Defense (SEDE) committees, the Greens Internal Market (IMCO) and Human Rights (DROI), and the Left, the Labor (EMPL) committee.

The cordon sanitaire – already in place in the past legislature – will not be applied to the other large right-wing family in the European Parliament, the European Conservatives and Reformists party led by Giorgia Meloni. The ECR group, momentarily the fourth-largest force in the European Parliament after the EPP, S&D, and PfE, will retain the chairmanship of the Budgets Committee (BUDG). The Conservatives were also supposed to get the Civil Liberties and Justice (LIBE) committee. However, European Parliament sources confirm that some delegations “would have raised questions of political expediency” about the possibility of handing over the chairmanship of a committee as important as LIBE to the group led by Nicola Procaccini, a part of Meloni’s party. Hence the exchange: the head of LIBE will go to the EPP, leaving the Agriculture Committee to the ECR.

Upon his arrival at a meeting of the group, EPP leader Manfred Weber left no doubt about the exclusion of the Patriots from committee allocations. “It is clear anyone elected by the peoples of Europe must have the opportunity to work here in the European Parliament as an elected member,” Weber said. However, “another issue is who represents the institutions: and those who go against the European project and institutions, like Viktor Orban, who has said publicly that he wants to dismantle the European Parliament, cannot represent the European Parliament as an institution.”

 Also present at the meeting was Ursula von der Leyen, who is stepping up negotiation rounds with political groups ahead of the July 18 European Parliament vote that could give her a second term as head of the European Commission. With sharpshooters lurking where least expected, in the group that nominated her, now that parliamentary appointments seem to be a done deal, they are asking von der Leyen for assurances on the composition of the future College of Commissioners. There is “no alignments” between Commissioners’ portfolios and parliamentary committee chairs, explains a source inside the EPP. In short, if the S&D leads the Environment Committee, the EU Environment Commissioner cannot be a socialist.