Ribera breaks with von der Leyen

Brussels – The European Commission’s Vice-President Teresa Ribera yesterday (4 December) expressed her unease with the policy imposed by President Ursula von der Leyen on the Green Deal and simplification, daring to oppose the President publicly for the first time. 

Simplification through omnibuses? “A terrible political spectacle,” Ribera said in a speech at the Bruegel. “On too many occasions, we have this sense that it is not simplification but a messy combination of things that end in uncertainty,” she added. 

A Spanish socialist, Ribera, is the Commission’s number two. She was supposed to be a counterweight to the rightward shift in the internal balance of the College, chaired by von der Leyen. However, during her first year in office, Ribera remained a passive spectator, not daring to rebel against the President. Yesterday, Ribera criticised “deregulation” because “it is a kind of Trumpist approach against being stable, reliable, and predictable. It weakens our standards. It lowers the credibility of the internal market, it enlarges inequalities and distortions”. This article was entirely taken from the original published by “Il Mattinale Europeo.”