Socialists vs von der Leyen: “The Green Deal was her and the EPP’s growth plan; no backtracking”

Brussels – “The Green Deal was our growth plan. Ursula von der Leyen presented it with Timmermans, and now she hides” behind the figure of the former Socialist commissioner. Mohammed Chahim, vice president of the Socialist Group (S&D) and a member of the Environment Committee, vents his anger and lashes out against the president of the European Commission along with the European People’s Party (EPP). There no longer seems to be the conditions for continued political coexistence, and the primary center-left group in the European Parliament is beginning to take stock.

Some calculations have already been made. The Competitiveness Agenda presented by von der Leyen not more than 10 days ago is itself a litmus test. The EPP is making an unwelcome backtrack, violating a pact that began five years ago. On July 16, 2019, the then-candidate for the leadership of the Commission, von der Leyen, announced the Green Deal — an innovative economic-industrial strategy that became the platform for a political alliance with the groups in Parliament, which, based on that program, gave her their trust and the mandate to work for five years. Five years later, a reversal is not well received.

“The Green Deal is and remains a priority for us,” said Alex Agius Saliba, vice president of the group responsible for communication and member of the Internal Market Committee. “We will not accept deregulation and limitation of our ambitions in the name of competitiveness,” he said, criticizing the simplification contained in the EU Commission’s competitiveness agenda, a simplification seen as excessive and dangerous. He especially dislikes the fact that “the far right is pushing the narrative that to be more competitive, we need deregulation and dismantle the Green Deal.”

Socialists do not like the backtracking on sustainability — nor even more so the flirtation with the ECR conservatives. “The EPP’s attempts to unite with the far right are not new but are becoming more apparent now,” Saliba continued. “The Compass for Competitiveness cannot undo what has been achieved in recent years,” he and his group argue. The new European legislature started poorly and is getting even worse. Europe’s resilience is at risk, with the Socialists grappling with an existential choice: stay with this EPP or exit the coalition and go to the opposition.

A ‘third way’ seems to be gaining traction — greater cooperation with other pro-European forces within the House to pressure the Populars, implying a socialist-liberal-greens alliance within the theoretical popular-socialist-liberal alliance. The point is that S&D (136 seats), Renew (77), and Greens (53) together do not reach the 361 seats needed for a majority (they stop at 266, falling 95 seats short of forming an alternative coalition). However, the goal is to exert pressure, primarily through an alliance between socialists and liberals, due to numerical considerations. Even if the EPP wanted to team up with the ECR conservatives, they would not have a majority in the House (266 seats out of the required 361).

The issue of cooperation between the EPP and the ECR has been present since the beginning of the legislature, and the Socialists have been raising it forcefully. The group called for and obtained a House debate, scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 12 at 1 p.m., precisely on cooperation between the Populars and the Conservatives and the risks to EU competitiveness. The European legislature is increasingly creaking, with the Green Deal being the object of discord.