The announcement was all the more surprising since it had even been made before the Commission was “trilogue” with the negotiators of the European Parliament and the Polish Council Presidency (representing the Member States). Consequently, the meeting scheduled on Monday to bring the positions closer to the two schoolgers for the adoption of the text was canceled.
On Monday, the commission-chief spokesperson Paula Pinho said that the decision to withdraw the draft directive, on the pretext that a amendment brought to the text will “Clearly against the simplification agenda” administrative and legislative launched by the Von der Leyen II Commission to contribute to the revival of European competitiveness. He penalizes in particular “The 30 million microentreprises” active in the EU. If the amendment is maintained, she said, the commission will request its withdrawal. But how can we know whether or not the amendment would be maintained, since the negotiation between the Council and the Parliament did not take place?
Anger of the socialists and liberals of the European Parliament
The European Parliament negotiators did not take off. “The Commission must demonstrate impartiality and independence”scolded the Italian MEP Sandro Gozi (Renew, liberals and centrists), rapporteur for the Consumer Protection Commission on Monday. According to him, “Instructions have been clearly given by three political groups”.
The environment commissioner Jessika Roswall received letters asking him to remove the text. One emanated from the curators of the European People’s Party (PPE), the most important group in Parliament (and the Commission, where it has a dozen members of the college, including President Von Der Leyen and Jessika Roswall). The other two were sent by European conservatives and reformists (ECR, right and extreme right) and by the patriots for Europe (far right). Or three groups that do not hide their desire to reduce the environmental ambitions of the Green Deal, flagship strategy of Von der Leyen I. Or, in the chief of the extreme right, to empty it of its substance.
“The Berlaymont (headquarters of the commission, editor’s note) is increasingly transformed into HQ of the PPE”moved the German social democratic Euro-democratic Tiemo Wölken, rapporteur for the environment commission. And to underline, as well as Mr. Gozi, that the trilogue (canceled following the announcement of the commission) should be used to withdraw the controversial amendment.
The majority von der Leyen in danger
Problem, then? No, because in the meantime, Italy has withdrawn its support from the directive, dropping the majority that had approved the council negotiation position. The text is now in limbo. A sign of the dissatisfaction of socialists and democrats (S&D) and Renew, the Iraxte Garcia Perez and Valérie Hayer groups wrote to the president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metso. “Given the politically sensitive context”, they ask the Maltese to remind Ursula von der Leyen, which she will meet at the European summit on Thursday, the rules of the institutional game and the importance of “Protect the role of Parliament and Council “. The Spanish and the French also put, in a veiled way, the commission in keeping as it shows the intention of withdrawing a text on the protection of European forests, as wishes … the PPE.
Doctor Manfred and Mister Weber, the man who directs the PPE and wants to push the center of political gravity of Europe to the right
More broadly, the patience of the group of socialists and democrats (S&D), Renew and the Greens, who form with the PPE, the “majority von der Leyen”-that is to say that they approved the guidelines fixed by the president of the commission-is put to the test. Since the legislature, they have seen the conservatives snobbing their informal alliance several times to seek on its right (and to the far right) the support of an alternative majority to push its agenda. Recently, at the Conference of Group Presidents, the head of the PPE, Manfred Weber teams up with the extreme right to obtain the establishment of a European funding monitoring commission for NGOs – an obsession with conservatives. Last week in Strasbourg, in plenary of the European Parliament, the same right -handed team blocked a resolution on the financing of the development policy. Put end to end, these episodes take the look of a trend.
Will the one with the Greenwashing directive be the drop that overflows the vase? If it lost the support of S&D, Renew and Greens, the Commission would find itself in trouble to have other proposals adopted by a centrist majority in parliament, such as texts relating to legislative simplification, for example. Crisis in sight?
Discovery of Member States, including Belgium
The maneuver of the Coalition commission also aroused surprise, and even dissatisfaction in the ranks of the Member States. The subject was discussed this Wednesday at a meeting of the Ambassadors of the Twenty-seven to the Union. Among the dozen member states that spoke, some said they found “regrettable” The committee’s decision to withdraw the text.
On Monday, the Belgian federal minister responsible for the climate and the ecological transition, Jean-Luc Crucke (the committed), expressed his disapproval by press release: “This directive aimed to protect consumers from false ecological promises. By withdrawing it, the Commission abandons European citizens, while transparency and reliability are essential in a market in full expansion of so -called sustainable products.“
A good source, it is also slipped that several Member States are concerned about the trend of the Commission to withdraw from the texts which it has deposited. The Court of Justice of the European Union had recalled, in April 2015, that the Commission cannot use this power as a right of veto.
