EU Parliament to decide on second term for Commission chief von der Leyen
Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Well, the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is facing a vote today to confirm
00:04her bid for a second five-year term.
00:07She made her final pitch this morning in a speech to the EU Parliament in Strasbourg
00:10where she called for a strong Europe in what she dubbed a period of anxiety.
00:16Europe editor Armin Georgian joins me now in Strasbourg for more on this.
00:19Armin, Ursula von der Leyen seemed more concerned with social issues in the speech that she
00:24gave this morning.
00:25Tell us a bit more about that.
00:26Well, there was a fair amount on social issues.
00:34There were a couple of things which slightly surprised me in the sense that in previous
00:38speeches she's made some quite sort of cookie-cutter comments about helping the disadvantaged or
00:45giving young people a chance.
00:47This time there were some interesting concrete things.
00:49She said she was going to create a housing commissioner in the European Commission and
00:54unveil a European affordable housing plan.
00:58She also mentioned a new action plan for good working conditions.
01:02I think she also talked about social issues in a broader sense, not just in a way that
01:07would appeal to the left of the political spectrum, for example, when she talked about
01:11the mental health crisis, excessive screen time, bullying online and even teenage suicide.
01:19So these are things that I'm not used to hearing from her, so I found that quite interesting.
01:24But of course there were a lot of classic pushing of the buttons that were essentially
01:30pitching things to the left and to the right when we talk about things that were broadly
01:37speaking right-wing.
01:39She talked about cutting bureaucracy and making it easier for businesses to function and she
01:47said that she would instruct one of the vice presidency positions at the European Commission
01:52to have a renewed focus on that.
01:54Interestingly also she announced a new European Commission portfolio to deal with the Mediterranean
01:59and that was clearly a nod to criticism from countries like Italy and Greece that they've
02:04been left alone in what they say is a rolling migrant crisis affecting Europe.
02:12So definitely some things that would have been music to the ears of the right of the
02:15spectrum including increasing greatly the Coast Guard abilities of the EU, Frontex and
02:26of course making Europol into a fully-fledged European police agency.
02:30Where I thought she was treading a tightrope the most, obviously between left and right,
02:34was on the Green Deal or what had been called the Green Deal.
02:37It has now been repackaged as the Clean Industrial Deal.
02:42This is what Ursula von der Leyen said she would unveil in the first hundred days if
02:46she is re-elected.
02:48And you can see just in that title, Clean Industrial Deal, the compromise between left
02:53and right in the sense that industry is obviously where the right is at, clean is more aimed
02:58at the Greens and the more progressive political forces.
03:02So Armin, now she's heading into this secret ballot vote, 720 seat voters there.
03:07What are the chances she might not get re-elected?
03:13She needs 361 seats, 361 votes to be re-elected.
03:20It's anybody's guess because there are a couple of things that make this unpredictable.
03:24One is that blocs in the parliament are not obliged to all vote the same way.
03:30You can have rebels within a specific bloc and we know that even within her own European
03:35People's Party, not everybody is going to back her.
03:39The other thing that's a bit unpredictable is that it's a secret ballot.
03:42So people have that privacy, they can do what they like when they actually go into that
03:49vote.
03:50All right, Armin, thanks so much for that.
03:51That's our Europe editor, Armin Georgian.